149 RESULTS The drilling and geomechanic studies conclude that the construction of horizontal wells for lithium production and injection in the Salar is mechanically feasible. Feasibility is achieved through the integration of technologies and practices from the lithium brine industry, oil and gas extended-reach drilling (ERD), and the horizontal directional drilling (HDD) sector. While the application is novel and differs from typical use cases in each industry, the combined approach provides a viable and robust solution for shallow-TVD, long-reach horizontal wells. The major challenge of limited doglegs is overcome by the use of horizontal directional drilling (HDD) rig, commonly used in the commodity industry (for example to run fiber optic cable under a river). The HDD rigs are what is called a slantered rig, with a derrick that is inclined to a maximum inclination of 70 deg from the vertical, allowing a hole inclination to be 20-30 deg at surface. The medium range HDD rig, 600-class widely used, have the drilling torque, hydraulic, hole cleaning, and screen deployment forces, required. This class of rig provides sufficient push capacity, high-speed torque, and circulation rates to drill the production hole and install long horizontal screen assemblies. The study presented here demonstrates that horizontal sections of 2,000 m MD can be achieved . This lateral reach is primarily limited by drilling torque required in the 13½" production hole. The well architecture is based on a twostring design. The configuration, consisting of a 20" surface hole, 16" surface casing set at geology-dependent depths, a 13½" production hole, and 8" blank casing transitioning to 8" × 10" pre-packed screens to total depth, provides a mechanically sound and operationally robust solution. This design addresses formation isolation, cementing risk, screen deployability, and
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