Ensuring accurate wellbore placement and safe construction is crucial in all subsurface borehole applications. To this end, the American Petroleum Institute (API) has developed a new technical standard titles API Recommended Practice 78, Wellbore Surveying and Positioning (RP 78) which covers a wide range of industries including oil and gas, geothermal, carbon sequestration, coalbed methane, horizontal directional drilling, mineral ventilation, and scientific coring. The standard was created by independent consultants, industry experts, academia, and public and private energy operators with the goal of providing modern energy practices for subsurface boring industries.
The Operator's Wellbore Survey Group (OWSG), a sub-committee of the Industry Steering Committee on Wellbore Survey Accuracy (ISCWSA), initiated the development of the API RP 78 to address the lack of minimum industry-wide standards for safe wellbore positioning and separation from subsurface hazards. The ISCWSA is equivalent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Wellbore Positioning Technical Section.
API RP 78 is available through the API's standards development process and aims to improve confidence in wellbore subsurface position and reduce uncertainty and will hopefully be embraced by all wellbore construction participants with industry-wide adoption.
Jonathan Lightfoot is a Principal and Senior Drilling Engineer Consultant at Oxy. His primary role at OXY is to support global drilling operations as a Directional Drilling Specialist. He has 26 years of oil and gas industry experience specializing in wellbore positioning and directional drilling. Lightfoot chairs the Operator's Wellbore Survey Group (OWSG{), a subcommittee of the SPE Wellbore Positioning Technical Section (WPTS), and is the vice-chair of the API RP 78 Task Group developing its recommended practice for Surveying and Wellbore Positioning. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
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