I didn't know where else to post this question.
(STAFF we need an oil and gas board!).

So my question for all knowing Texags is what are gyros in relation to onshore horizontal drilling? I see them in relation to budgets and expenses but no clue what they are.

I looked in my handy dandy Nontechnical guide to Petroleum Geology, Exploration, Drilling and Production and I didn't find anything. I also failed at Google. Is it an abbreviation? Am I just a clueless accountant?

Serious and non-serious responses welcomed.

Any other recommended books for nontechnical oil and gas people? I worked mostly on offshore for 7 years and the last two years have been a mixture of onshore and offshore now leaning heavily onshore.

Duncan Idaho said:

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I prefer Shawarma over gyros

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Me too! I like chicken the best.

I've heard of gyroscopic surveying. Would assume that is what it refers to, but don't know with certainty.

I like the book you referenced. Would be interested in others too.

Duncan Idaho said:

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I prefer Shawarma over gyros

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As long as the chicken isn't too dry. Hard to beat a good gyro with tzatziki.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=gyro+survey+definition

I tried googling, but didn't know they were surveys. Literally I just see $X gyros for Y wells on some reports and since Onshore hasn't been where I spent the majority of my time it wasn't something I knew.

Makes a lot more sense now.

If these are workover wells they are spending the money on its likely to get a more accurate survey on existing wells so they can plan for in-field drilling. With any well there is an accuracy to the survey(during or after drilling), and the longer the well the more the inaccuracy (represented by a cone of uncertainty) there is. This makes it problematic to drill wells between existing wells if the uncertainty of an old well overlaps with your new drilled well plan. If you can get a new and more accurate survey this may allow you to safely drill a well where you couldn't do to risk of wellbore collision (drilling into an existing wellbore). Since tools now are better than even a few years ago, a new survey may help significantly reduce the wellbore uncertainty.

If it's for a new well they are just breaking out part of the drilling cost.

Most decent picture I could easily find to somewhat represent what I was describing:

There are gyro while drilling tools that are of most use in places with high magnetic interference. Once interference is passed, they may still be used to provide a confirmation of the MWD measurements, especially in highly critical wells. Gyro surveys are also being used to pinpoint the most efficient placement of pumps, which is supposed to improve their lifespan.

In the water well world, we use them to determine effective diameter of the casing for lineshaft pump sets.

Wow thank you guys! Definitely learned something new today.

Always good to know what I'm seeing money spent on.

If you're ever on a rig, ask where the key to the V-door is located. That's where you'll find the gyros.

In 9 years they haven't ever sent me to visit a platform or rig.

Some companies also run gyros on vertical wells in areas of horizontal development to get more accurate knowledge of where vertical wellbores are so they can steer around them.

Edit: What aggiebq03 said. Guessing that's the most common use of gyros nowadays.