Advances in Logging While Drilling (LWD) Technology

Samir Zarrad, Schlumberger

The Directional drilling and Logging while drilling business is today one of the fastest growing and changing business in the oil industry. This is obviously driven by the exploding number of Directional and Horizontal wells drilled. The number of Horizontal wells drilled in the US Land tripled in the last 3 years while the total number of wells is far from that rate.

Then the questions are why people are switching to horizontal drilling? What makes a Horizontal well successful from a reservoir and Formation evaluation perspective? What kind of techniques and technologies are put in place? Where is the industry heading?