Progress and Development Strategies of Sliding and Rotary Steerable Drilling Technologies

The rotary steerable drilling technology is the core technology to realize the development of oil and gas drilling towards digitalization and intelligence. It has been widely used in foreign directional well/horizontal well drilling, and its core equipment, rotary steerable drilling system, has become one of the most important cutting-edge equipment in the field of oil and gas drilling engineering. The principles and characteristics of sliding and rotary steerable drilling technologies were introduced, and the progress of rotary steerable drilling technology in China and abroad was analyzed. The development direction and implementation path of rotary steerable drilling technology in China were pointed out. It is suggested that with the development of oil and gas exploration and development towards deeper and more complex environments, the space for potential exploration and improvement of sliding steerable drilling technology is limited, and the application of rotary steerable drilling. Will be more widespread. There is a big gap between Chinese rotary steerable drilling systems and foreign ones. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen basic research on downhole closed-loop control and measurement data transmission while drilling of rotary steerable drilling and optimize the bias method, measurement control method, and downhole power source-driven method of rotary steering system. Moreover, it is important to build and improve the software system involving intelligent downhole closed-loop control, underground and ground two-way communication, and remote monitoring of the well site headquarters, which are interconnected and complementary, accelerate the iterative upgrading and widespread application of rotary steerable drilling technology, and achieve the transformation of China’s directional well/horizontal well drilling method from sliding steerable drilling technology to rotary steerable drilling technology, so as to help China achieve leapfrog development in deep, deep-sea, and unconventional oil and gas exploration and development.