This is a four credit hour course concerning drilling engineering. There is a three credit hour lecture section and a one credit hour laboratory. This is a required course for graduation with a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines.
This course will cover the basic ideas and procedures for the drilling of a well. This
course will not enable you to become an instant drilling engineer. Instead, it is designed
to familiarize you with some of the drilling equipment and procedures and some of the
engineering methodology used in today's drilling operations. Most importantly, this class
will try to show you the “why” of drilling.
In this class, we will cover the basics of rig equipment and operations, pore pressure and fracture gradient determination, casing setting depths, bits, bottom hole assemblies, drill pipe, directional drilling, drilling fluids, hydraulics, cuttings transport, and well control. Casing design and cementing are covered in the following course PEGN 361, Completions Engineering.
In addition to the drilling objectives listed above, other class objectives include
continuing to improve your oral communication skills.
In order to produce hydrocarbons, water, or geothermal energy or to analyze
environmental damage or to dispose of hazardous waste or even for underground science, it
is necessary to drill a hole. For the most part, this is not a trivial task to
accomplish. Literally millions of dollars can be spent on a hole in the ground.
In addition, there are hidden dangers to threaten to unwary. For these and
other reasons, it is critical to apply engineering knowledge to the challenge of drilling
operations.
Comments to aeustes@mines.edu
This page last updated on 27 October, 2006.