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HALLIBURTON ENERGY SERVICES INTRODUCES A NEW SUITE OF DRILLING SERVICES TO HELP OPERATORS ACHIEVE A SMOOTH, SPIRAL-FREE HOLE
DALLAS, Texas - Halliburton Energy Services, a business unit of Halliburton (NYSE: HAL), announced today the introduction of its FullDrift™ drilling suite, which includes the SlickBore™ matched drilling system, the Geo-Pilot™ rotary steerable system, and the new SlickBore Plus™ drilling and reaming system. A smooth hole can influence every parameter of the well construction process – from downhole vibration and torque and drag, to hole cleaning, trip time, logging tool response, and ease of running both logging tools and casing. The new suite of tools can help deliver a quality hole, free from spiraling and tortuosity – a hole that is truly "full drift."
"Through Halliburton Energy Services' Sperry-Sun Drilling Services and Security DBS product service lines, the FullDrift drilling suite can provide our customers with the benefits of a quality hole in both sliding and rotary drilling," said Jody Powers, president, Halliburton Energy Services. "The industry has consistently expressed a need for reduced well costs, improved reservoir deliverability, wellbore quality and placement, increased drillstring life, and higher rates of penetration to optimize on-bottom drilling. The FullDrift drilling suite also has the ability to deliver all of these benefits and provide solutions for difficult drilling problems, such as subsalt plays."
The patented SlickBore™ matched drilling system, which includes a matched mud motor and bit system, combines a specially designed pin-down, positive displacement motor (PDM) with a box-up, extended-gauge polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) bit. This combination can improve directional control, hole quality, and drilling efficiency.
Through extensive use of the SlickBore system in the North Sea, operators have seen an increase in drilling efficiency, with consistent reductions in the number of AFE days by 25 to 50 percent compared with conventional mud motor drilling. By reducing bit bounce, whirl, and excessive lateral shock, the system can improve bit life and the reliability of both motor and LWD tools. Improvements in steerability and weight transfer from the surface to the bit have also been observed, but the most startling improvement has been seen in hole-cleaning efficiency. Compared with conventional motor drilling, on average, the SlickBore system has cut the time required to ensure a clean wellbore by two thirds, substantially reducing post-drilling circulation and back-reaming hours. Typically run with a standard LWD system, the SlickBore system may be run with drilling optimization services, such as the PWD® service, DDS™ vibration sensor, and AcoustiCaliper™ MWD tool.
The actual "below-rotary-time" (BRT) breakdown for the SlickBore system, in comparison with conventional motors and averaged over several hundred runs, is as follows:
| |
SlickBore System |
Conventional |
Drilling
(pumps on, on-bottom) |
62% |
41% |
Hole cleaning
(pumps on, off-bottom) |
9% |
29% |
Tripping/other
(pumps off, off-bottom) |
29% |
30% |
A recent example of the system's performance involves a 12 ¼-in. tangent section drilled for an operator in Holland. Initially, this challenging task was only considered to be drillable by a rotary steerable tool. Hole cleaning in unstable, tectonically stressed Jurassic shales was seen as the major problem. The hole section was more than 9,700 ft. long (TD) and had an average angle inclination of 78°. The section was drilled in two runs, using the same 9 5/8-in. SlickBore system motor, AGS™ adjustable gauge stabilizer tool, and FM 2743 extended-gauge bit. The stabilizer was used to control inclination and minimize sliding footage, which was confined to 5 to 6 percent of the total, principally to maintain azimuth. A single trip was made to change bit nozzles and pump liners after drilling 4,700 ft. The FM 2743 bit was graded 1-2-ER-A-X-I-PN-TD after drilling to TD.
The 298 hours BRT (excluding time to nipple up BOPs) broke down as follows. Drilling: 172 hours or 58 percent; hole cleaning: 40 hours or 13 percent; tripping: 63 hours or 21 percent; other non-drilling: 11 hours or 4 percent; survey and other directional activities: 6 hours or 2 percent; and running casing: 6 hours or 2 percent.
The Geo-Pilot™ rotary steerable system, developed in collaboration with Japan National Oil Corporation (JNOC), is capable of steering the wellbore in any desired direction while continuously rotating the drillstring. The industry's first, and only, point-the-bit rotary steerable system, available for 8 ½-in. and 12 ¼-in. hole sizes, can provide real-time continuous steering information for an accurate assessment of wellbore position. In addition, it is fully integrated with Sperry-Sun’s LWD sensors and INSITE® rig information system to provide a complete drilling and formation evaluation package.
Because the Geo-Pilot system has the ability to place the wellbore through multiple targets, it can greatly improve recovery from a single well. The system, using its unique ability to perform "flat-turn" openhole sidetracks, drilled six laterals from two mainbores for a North Sea operator. The openhole sidetracks in the second four-branch lateral were performed while keeping the entire reservoir section within +/-1 ft. of the TVD horizon. Minimizing the vibration caused by aggressive sidecutting bits, the system can be used for extended-reach and designer well applications in which excessive torque and drag could inhibit drilling operations. It helps eliminate hole spiraling, minimize wellbore tortuosity, and improve directional control, drilling efficiency, hole cleaning, and downhole tool reliability while reducing drill time to TD and yielding more efficient casing running operations.
The design concept points the bit by deflecting the central drive shaft. The high-side reference housing contains a compact and rugged bias unit, which uses eccentric rings to impart a controlled deflection to this shaft element, allowing for a continuously variable tool face and bend angle. With the Geo-Pilot system, two modes of rotary steering are possible. In addition to a back-up "manual" mode, the Geo-Span™ downlink system allows automatic steering along a fixed or pre-programmed trajectory without having to interrupt the drilling process. This real-time downlink system confirms acceptance of the commands within 15 seconds.
The industry's increased awareness of the spiral-free hole concept and drilling efficiency improvements experienced with the SlickBore and Geo-Pilot systems led to the development of the new SlickBore Plus™ drilling and reaming system. The new system features a SlickBore matched drilling system combined with Security DBS' near bit reamer (NBR™) technology, showing impressive drilling capability in hole-enlarging drilling operations, which can provide a more reliable alternative to any eccentric enlargement concept.
The NBR tool is a specially designed reamer used to simultaneously enlarge a hole up to 20 percent over the pilot-hole diameter. Designed for any flow rate, the reamer does not introduce additional pressure drop to the system and has very few moving parts. The tool can be fitted with shear pins, which allows an operator to drill cement and float with the same drill-ahead BHA and can perform the drillout and section drill with one BHA. The NBR technology can be used just above the drill bit, as in the SlickBore Plus drilling and reaming system, or further up in the BHA, i.e., above a rotary steerable system, as in the Geo-Pilot system.
Performing extremely well in complex directional applications, the tool has the ability to reduce tripping and back-reaming times, as well as show significant savings from reduced casing running problems. Three cutter pistons extend radially out from the body of the tool, naturally centralizing the reamer, thus reducing BHA vibration and fatigue, and thus, MWD/LWD damage and failures. In terms of steerability, the NBR tool requires a lower bend to achieve high dogleg severity, reducing slide times in some applications from 90 percent to just more than 20 percent. Since this technology has little effect on rotary ROP, the net result can be a significant increase in overall section drilling.
Halliburton Energy Services provides products, services, and integrated solutions for oil and gas exploration, development, and production. Capabilities range from initial evaluation of producing formations to drilling, completion, stimulation, and well maintenance – for a single well or an entire field. With more than 300 service centers in more than 90 countries, Halliburton possesses the global perspective that is increasingly important for energy exploration and production.
Halliburton, founded in 1919, is the world's largest provider of products and services to the petroleum and energy industries. The company serves its customers with a broad range of products and services through its Energy Services Group and Engineering and Construction Group business segments.
Contact
Wendy Hagan
wendy.hagan@halliburton.com
Halliburton
Public Relations
(p) 713.676.5619
Employment Contact
jobs@halliburton.com
(p) 800.888.7668
ext. 8005
Supplier/Procurement Contact
Dave Ireland
dave.ireland@halliburton.com
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