The effect of space weather on drilling accuracy in the North Sea

Directional drilling is now a firmly established technique in use within the oil industry. Using magnetic survey instruments to make measurements while drilling (MWD) instead of accurate, but expensive, gyroscopic instruments, can significantly reduce the drilling time and thus the operational costs. Information on the Earth's magnetic field needed to attain the required levels of accuracy is for MWD magnetic surveys. In general, the oil industry requires accuracies of 0.1° in declination(D), 0.05° in inclination (I) and 50nT in total field strength(F).