How Drilling Works
From rigging up to reaching total depth, a well is drilled in a methodical sequence. Each phase must be completed safely before the next begins.
Drilling topics
Mud Weight & Pressure
Hydrostatic pressure, pore pressure, fracture gradient, and the mud weight window explained with real formulas.
Read More →Well Control
Kick recognition, shut-in procedures, and the driller's method vs wait-and-weight kill methods.
Read More →Directional Drilling
How MWD/LWD tools and downhole motors steer a wellbore to a precise target thousands of feet away.
Read More →Casing Design
Why wells are drilled in stages, how casing points are chosen, and what each casing string protects.
Read More →Formulas Cheat Sheet
Every calculation a shift actually uses — pressure, kill sheet, capacities, annular velocity, buoyancy and survey — with units and constants written out.
Drilling Formulas Cheat Sheet →Drilling a Well, Step by Step
Location Preparation
Pad construction, cellar digging, conductor casing set. Offshore: rig towed to location, legs jacked down or anchors set.
Spud & Surface Hole
Drilling begins with a large-diameter bit. Conductor and surface casing set and cemented to protect freshwater zones.
BOP Installation & Test
The blowout preventer stack is installed and function-tested to its rated pressure before drilling resumes.
Intermediate Sections
Drilling continues in stages, each with a smaller bit. At casing points, casing is run, cemented, and drilling continues. See casing design.
Drilling the Reservoir Section
Mud weight is carefully managed within the mud weight window — above pore pressure, below fracture pressure.
Completion or Abandonment
Productive wells are completed for production. Dry wells are plugged and abandoned per regulatory standards.
Drilling In Practice
Longer pieces that go past the outline above, into how the work is actually run, monitored and controlled.