Students will learn a technical and analytic approach to cost-effective well planning from site selection to casing landing and cementing with an emphasis on trajectory analysis based on borehole stability, torque and drag of tubulars, and hole cleaning. This course binds together key concepts from mud design, cementing and casing design, and directional and ERD well design. Students will learn how to use these concepts to plan and optimize well trajectories in a systematic and practical manner. The course objectives are reinforced by practical examples and a case study.

Course covers: Data acquisition, pore pressure prediction, fracture gradient prediction, in-situ stress determination, stress analysis, trajectory analysis and optimization, wellbore stability analysis, mud weight selection and optimization, casing program design, BHA selection and design, torque and drag analysis, determination of cuttings transport efficiency.