Depth in a well

In the oil and gas industry, depth in a well is the measurement, for any point in that well, of the distance between a reference point or elevation, and that point. It is the most common method of reference for locations in the well, and therefore, in oil industry speech, "depth" also refers to the location itself.

By extension, depth can refer to locations below, or distances from, a reference point or elevation, even when there is no well. In that sense, depth is a concept related to elevation, albeit in the opposite direction. Depth in a well is not necessarily measured vertically or along a straight line.

Because wells are not always drilled vertically, there may be two "depths" for every given point in a wellbore: the measured depth (MD) measured along the path of the borehole, and the true vertical depth (TVD), the absolute vertical distance between the datum and the point in the wellbore. In perfectly vertical wells, the TVD equals the MD; otherwise, the TVD is less than the MD measured from the same datum. Common datums used are ground level (GL), drilling rig floor (DF), rotary table (RT), kelly bushing (KB) and mean sea level (MSL).

Although it is an intuitive concept, depth in a well is the source of much confusion because it is frequently not specified correctly. Absolute depth should always be specified with three components:

and none of these 3 components should ever be left implicit. Example: the top of a reservoir may be found at 1,500 mMDRT in a particular well (1,500 m measured depth below the rotary table), which may be equal to 1,492 mTVDMSL (1,492  m true-vertical-depth below mean sea level) after correction for deviations from vertical.

Any combination of unit, path, and reference can be used, as long as they result in fully specified, unambiguous depths. A well may reach to many kilometers.

Specification of an absolute depth: in Figure 1 above, point P1 might be at 3207 mMDRT and 2370 mTVDMSL, while point P2 might be at 2530 mMDRT and 2502 mTVDLAT.
Specification of a differential depth or a thickness: in Figure 2 above, the thickness of the reservoir penetrated by the well might be 57 mMD or 42 mTVD, even though the reservoir true stratigraphic thickness in that area (or isopach) might be only 10 m, and its true vertical thickness (isochore), 14 m.

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