New world record for extended-reach drilling set at Wytch Farm

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

A new extended-reach drilling record has been set at BP Amoco’s Wytch Farm project in the south of England. Schlumberger, which provided directional drilling, measurements while drilling and logging for drilling, said July 27 that the world’s longest step out has been drilled in the M-16SPZ well.

The 35,196-foot (6.67 mile, 10,728-meter) step out exceeded the previous record by 469 feet (143 meters). Schlumberger said the M-16SPZ well took 123 days to drill and case, and reached a total measured depth of 37,001 feet (slightly more than 7 miles; 11,278 meters) — itself a world record for the oil and gas industry. True vertical depth at total depth was 5,371 feet (1,637 meters). Extended reach is the horizontal distance from the surface location to the bottomhole of a well; measured depth is length measured along the well bore.