PREFACE
My goal for this book was to prepare a document that could serve as a guide for most drilling and well planning applications. I believe it contains a good blend of theory and commonly accepted practices. In addition, most concepts have been presented both narratively and with example problems so the drilling engineer using this book can make good, logical decisions when special situations arise.
Drilling topics must be presented in some logical format. I chose to discuss each item in this book in the order in which it would be encountered during well planning and drilling. For example, since historical drilling data must be gathered before selecting a casing string, the chapter on drilling data acquisition precedes casing design.
For the most part, I oriented the book toward planning and drilling abnormal pressure wells. The obvious reason is that they generally pose the most difficult problems and have higher drilling costs. Subnormal pressure wells are considered in this book since they have unique problems.
This book does not specifically address drilling problems in a separate chapter. Instead, I elected to discuss drilling problems in the context in which they affect casing design, drilling fluids, etc. In addition, my first book, Well Control Problems and Solutions, covered many major drilling problems extensively. Future editions of this current book may contain separate chapters to address this issue.
I have included examples and homework problems in this text. A solution set may be available from the publisher in the future for the homework problems and the case study in the Appendix.
Approximately three years of my time has gone into writing this book. I have attempted to develop the best piece of work that I could while observing the constraints of time, scope of the text and length of topic discussion. I sincerely welcome comments from any industry member concerning improvement or expansion of any topic within the text.
I have made significant use of the wealth of petroleum literature available in the public domain. I apologize to a particular author(s) if I failed to acknowledge the appropriate reference at the end of each chapter. This matter will be corrected in future editions if notified by the appropriate author.
Well cost estimating, Chapter 19, was written in 1982. The prices used as illustration in this chapter are no longer current. Ironically at the time of preparing this Preface, the drilling costs in 1984 are much lower than those in 1982.
Undoubtedly, this book contains slight errors that our countless hours of review and proofreading did not uncover. This chore is one of the most difficult in writing a book. I will appreciate notification by any industry member of errors in the text.
Above all else, I hope that this book proves beneficial to the drilling engineers that use it in their everyday work.
Neal Adams
