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TRUEVERTICALDEPTH

TRUEVERTICALDEPTH
Thepreviouscalculationspresentedsofaronlyrequiredvaluesforhole
deviationandholedirection,butdidnotrequiretrueverticaldepth.Thisis
fortunatebecausecalculatingtrueverticaldepthisatrickybusiness.
However,tocorrectlypositionadippinghorizonorreservoironageological
section,itstrueverticaldepthisessential.Sixmethodshavebeenused,and
theyarepresentedbelowinascendingorderofpreferenceandalso
complexity.ThismaterialwaspresentedinPetroleumEngineer,March1976,
byJ.T.CraigandB.V.Randallin"DirectionalSurveyCalculations".

CAUTION:Ifyouwriteyourownspreadsheetstorunthesecalculations,note
thatthedefaultunitsforanglesisRADIANSandnotdegrees.Themath
belowassumesanglesareindegreesexceptwherenotedinMethod6. TrainingMaterialsTopicIndex
THIS PAGE
TANGENTIALMETHOD
TrueVerticalDepth
Thetangentialmethodusesonlytheinclinationanddirectionangles
TangentialMethod
measuredatthelowerendofthesurveycourselength.Thewellborepathis
AverageTangentialMethod
assumedtobeastraightlinethroughoutthecourse.Thismethodhas
BalancedTangentialMethod
probablybeenusedmorethananyotherandistheleastaccurate.Itmakes
MercuryMethod
thewellappeartooshallowandthelateraldisplacementtoolarge.Ina
RadiusofCurvatureMethod
typicaldeviatedwell,thetrueverticaldepthcanbewrongbymorethan50
MinimumCurvatureMethod
feet.
"META/TVD"Spreadsheet

Ithasbeenusedandperpetuatedbecauseofitsinherentsimplicityofhand SEE ALSO

calculation.Calculatingthesurveybythetangentialmethod,however,isno
longerjustifiablebecauseprogrammablecalculatorsandfieldportable DipmeterLogs
computersmakethebettermethodsjustaseasyasthisone.Thismethodis ResistivityImageLogs
notrecommendedanytimeinanywell.However,manysuchsurveysarein AcousticImageLogs
thewellfilesandmanytrueverticaldepthshavebeenused,andmaystillbe 3ArmDipCalculations
accepted,basedonthiserroneousdata.Allthatisneededforare 4and6ArmDipCalculations
computationusingbettermethodsistherawinclinationanddirectiondata, Clustering/PoolingMethods
andthisisusuallyavailable.Recomputationisstronglyrecommended. PatternRecognitionMethods
MSD,CSB,LOCDips
ImageProcessingFMIFMS
Ifsurveysweretakenatapproximately1ft.intervals,theerrorwouldbe
tolerable,butthisfrequencycannotbeeconomicallyjustifiedwithtypical DipmeterAdvisor
singleshotsurveys.However,thisfrequencyofmeasurementisachieved AuxiliaryPresentations
AdvancedDipmeterPlots
withcontinuousdirectionalsurveysrunwiththedipmeter.Ifcomputations
ManualDipCalculation
aremadeatshortintervals,thenthetangentialmethodworksfine.Most
DipSubtraction,ApparentDip
stationbystationsurveysaretakenatmuchlargerintervals,suchasafewto
TrueThicknessTST,TVT
severalhundredfeetapart,andthereforetheresultsareinaccurate.Ifthe
dipmeterprogramcalculatesverticaldepthatsimilarintervals,itisalso TrueVerticalDepthTVD
inadequate.

Theformulaare:
1:North=SUM((MD2MD1)*SinWD2*CosHAZ2)
2:East=SUM((MD2MD1)*SinWD2*SinHAZ2)
3:TVD=SUM((MD2MD1)*CosWD2)

NOTE:Thisisthehightangentialmethod.IfWD1andHAZ1replaceWD2andHAZ2,itisthelowtangentialmethod.

Where:
East=easterlydisplacement(feetormeters)negative=West
HAZ1=holeazimuthattopofcourse(degrees)
HAZ2=holeazimuthatbottomofcourse(degrees)
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MD1=measureddepthattopofcourse(feetormeters)
MD2=measureddepthatbottomofcourse(feetormeters)
North=northerlydisplacement(feetormeters)negative=South
TVD=trueverticaldepth(feetormeters)
WD1=welldeviationattopofcourse(degrees)
WD2=welldeviationatbottomofcourse(degrees)

AVERAGETANGENTIALMETHOD
Theangleaveragingmethodusestheanglesmeasuredatboththetopandbottomofthecourselengthinsucha
fashionthatthesimpleaverageofthetwosetsofmeasuredanglesisassumedtobetheinclinationandthe
direction.Thewellboretheniscalculatedtangentiallyusingthesetwoaverageanglesoverthecourselength.This
methodisaverysimple,andmoreaccurate,meansofcalculatingawellboresurvey.
1:North=SUM((MD2MD1)*Sin((WD2+WD1)/2)*Cos((HAZ2+HAZ1)/2))
2:East=SUM((MD2MD1)*Sin((WD2+WD1)/2)*Sin((HAZ2+HAZ1)/2))
3:TVD=SUM((MD2MD1)*Cos((WD2+WD1)/2))

BALANCEDTANGENTIALMETHOD
Thebalancedtangentialmethodusestheinclinationanddirectionanglesatthetopandbottomofthecourselength
totangentiallybalancethetwosetsofmeasuredangles.Thismethodcombinesthetrigonometricfunctionsto
providetheaverageinclinationanddirectionangleswhichareusedinstandardcomputationalprocedures.The
valuesoftheinclinationatWD2andWD1arecombinedinthepropersinecosinefunctionsandaveraged.This
methoddidnotlenditselftohandcalculationsintheearlydays,butmodernprogrammablescientificcalculators
makethejobeasy.

Thistechniqueprovidesasmoothercurvewhichshouldmorecloselyapproximatetheactualwellborebetween
surveys.Thelongerthedistancebetweensurveystations,thegreaterthepossibilityoferror.Theformulaare:
1:North=SUM(MD2MD1)*((SinWD1*CosHAZ1+SinWD2*CosHAZ2)/2)
2:East=SUM(MD2MD1)*((SinWD1*SinHAZ1+SinWD2*SinHAZ2)/2)
3:TVD=SUM((MD2MD1)*(CosWD2+CosWD1)/2)

MERCURYMETHOD
Themercurymethodisacombinationofthetangentialandthebalancedtangentialmethodthattreatsthatportionof
themeasuredcoursedefinedbythelengthofthemeasuringtoolinastraightline(tangentially)andtheremainderof
themeasuredcourseinabalancedtangentialmanner.Thenameofthemercurymethodoriginatedfromitscommon
usageattheMercury,NevadatestsitebytheUSGovernment.
1:North=SUM((MD2MD1STL)*((SinWD1*CosHAZ1+SinWD2*CosHAZ2)/2)
+STL*SinWD2*CosHAZ2)
2:East=SUM((MD2MD1STL)*((SinWD1*SinHAZ1+SinWD2*SinHAZ2)/2)
+STL*SinWD2*SinHAZ2)
3:TVD=SUM(((MD2MD1STL)*(CosWD2+CosWD1)/2)+STL*CosHAZ2)

Where:
STListhelengthofthesurveytool

RADIUSOFCURVATUREMETHOD
Theradiusofcurvaturemethodusessetsofanglesmeasuredatthetopandbottomofthecourselengthtogenerate
aspacecurve(representingthewellborepath)thathastheshapeofasphericalarcpassingthroughthemeasured
anglesatboththeupperandlowerendsofthemeasuredcourse.Thismethodisoneofthemoreaccuratemeansof
determiningthepositionofawellborewhensurveyspacingissparse.Theassumptionthatthewellboreisasmooth
curvebetweensurveysmakesthismethodlesssensitivetoplacementanddistancesbetweenthesurveypointsthan
othermethods.

CAUTION:Itisaterriblemethodwhendataiscloselyspaced,asthesubtractionsintheequationcreateeither
"dividebyzeroerrors"oranincorrectTVDwhentheboreholeisastraightlinebutdeviated.
1:North=SUM(MD2MD1)*(CosWD1CosWD2)*(SinHAZ2SinHAZ1)
/((WD2WD1)*(HAZ2HAZ1))
2:East=SUM(MD2MD1)*(CosWD1CosWD2)*(CosHAZ1CosHAZ2)
/((WD2WD1)*(HAZ2HAZ1)}
3:TVD=SUM(MD2MD1)*(SinWD2SinWD1)/(WD2WD1)

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MINIMUMCURVATUREMETHOD
Theminimumcurvaturemethod,liketheradiusofcurvaturemethod,takesthespacevectorsdefinedbyinclination
anddirectionmeasurementsandsmoothestheseontothewellborecurvebytheuseofaratiofactorwhichis
definedbythecurvature(dogleg)ofthewellboresection.Themethodproducesacirculararcasdoestheradiusof
thecurvature.Thisisnot,however,anassumptionofthemethod,butaresultofminimizingthetotalcurvature
withinthephysicalconstraintsonasectionofwellbore.
1:DL=Arccos(Cos(WD2WD1)SinWD1*SinWD2*(1Cos(HAZ2HAZ1)))
2:CF=2/DL*(Tan(DL/2))*0.017453
3:North=SUM((MD2MD1)*((SinWD1*CosHAZ1+SinWD2*CosHAZ2)/2)*CF)
4:East=SUM((MD2MD1)*((SinWD1*SinHAZ1+SinWD2*SinHAZ2)/2)*CF)
5:TVD=SUM(((MD2MD1)*(CosWD2+CosWD1)/2)*CF)

Where:
DL=doglegseverity(degrees)
CF=curvaturefactor(radians)

Theterm0.017453convertsdegreestoradians.

"META/TVD"SPREADSHEETTrueVerticalDepth
ThisspreadsheetcalculatesTrueVerticalDepthfromsevencommonmethods.Themoreexoticmethodsaremore
accurateandthereisnoexcusefornotusingthem,sincethespreadsheetdoesallthehardwork.

TrueVerticalDepthAnalysis,includessevencommonmethods.EnglishandMetricUnits.

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1/29/2016 Crain'sPetrophysicalHandbookTRUEVERTICALDEPTH

Sampleoutputfrom"META/TVD"Spreadsheetseveralmoresetsofresultsareoffscreentotheright.

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