This technique has become increasingly common and productive in recent years.
Operators use it to retrieve oil and natural gas in situations in which the shape of the reservoir is abnormal or difficult to access.
Horizontal wells took a more prominent role in fossil fuel extraction during the 2010s.
As technology has developed, horizontal drilling has lowered costs and improved the efficiency of oil and natural gas extraction.
During the construction of a horizontal well, a long wellbore section is placed in the reservoir.
The well is characterized into 3 categories known as:
- build rate
- short radius
- medium radius
Horizontal Wells gained more popularity than vertical wells because they provide access to unconventional resources of the reserves.
Horizontal Wells became popular with computer aided mapping and directional wellbores.
A Horizontal Well allows a single well to reach multiple points, thus it is considered to be more productive and expensive than any other well.
It plays an essential role during oil exploration as it minimizes the risk of introducing gas intrusion.
The following are the advantages of a Horizontal Well:
- reduces the pressure drop of the wellbore
- minimizes the velocities of lower fluid
- increases the overall recovery of the reserves
- enhances the production rate of oil and gas