Planning a directional borehole can involve several different types of calculation; for example, we may want to know how to intersect a specific target from a given borehole position or we may want to know where we would land up if we drilled in a certain direction at a certain inclination for a certain distance. These calculations are very easily done using one of many different borehole planning programs. Essentially all these programs are survey calculation programs that have been rearranged to calculate certain information from given certain data. Before computer based directional programs were available, all planning was done from first principles using basic trigonometry and common circle formulae. Obviously all of these calculations are based on the assumption that when a borehole deviates the path that it follows will be an arc of a smooth circle. This allows us to use the properties of a circle to determine certain dimensions and displacements along the curved path. It is important that you have at least a basic idea of how to plan the path of a borehole from first principles and so I will do some examples of different types of borehole trajectories to illustrate the principles used.
This course consists of 2 modules:
Module 1: Mathematics of a circle
Module 2: Planning the trajectory of a borehole
