Current trends in drilling require a proven and comprehensive approach to assessing and managing the risks of wellbore collisions. This paper outlines the scope and nature of the challenges in collision risk management, and provides an overview of a systematic, field-tested approach to identifying, evaluating, eliminating and/or mitigating those risks. Key aspects of the process are explained in detail and a recent field application on a large platform offshore Indonesia is discussed to illustrate the key values of the risk management process. These include maximizing resource recovery by permitting the safe, precise placement of wellbores, and minimizing the financial and human cost of losses from incidents avoided or mitigated.

Keywords:
Upstream Oil & Gas, deviation, prevention, trajectory design, Well Design, risk management, drilling operation, calculation, assessment, application
Subjects:
Well Planning, Drilling Operations, Risk Management and Decision-Making, Trajectory design
Copyright 2009, Society of Petroleum Engineers
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