Drilling & Wells

Making a safe hole. Exploration drilling, in-situ stresses around wellbores, and drilling engineering with mud, casing and well control.

• Exploration & Drilling — Finding and defining ore: geological mapping, geochemistry, geophysics (magnetics, gravity, IP, EM), drilling methods (RC, diamond core, air-core), core recovery, sampling and length-weighted compositing, and QA/QC with standards, blanks and duplicates.
• In-situ Stress & Openings — Rock deep underground is squeezed by the weight above and tectonic forces. Learn vertical and horizontal in-situ stresses, the stress ratio k, stress measurement, the Kirsch solution for stresses around a circular opening, stress concentration, spalling and rockbursts.
• Drilling Engineering & Well Control — Making a hole several kilometres deep safely. Learn the rotary drilling rig and its systems (hoisting, rotating, circulating, power, well control), drill bits and ROP, drilling fluids and mud weight, pore and fracture pressure and the mud-weight window, hydrostatic pressure and ECD, casing design and cementing, directional and horizontal drilling, kicks, blowouts, BOPs and kill methods, and well integrity — with Python for hydrostatic pressure, ECD and kill mud weight.