Advancements in Drilling Technologies – Part II
Continuing from the first part of the blog on drilling technological advancements, this blog will discuss a couple of newer drilling technologies. Industry adoption of these technologies is an indicator of success and, while these methodologies are doubtless expensive, they have shown to offer savings in resources and materials utilized to extract energy from oil wells and hence, they are being gradually adopted by the major oil and gas players. So, what are the other two drilling technologies to be discussed and what’s their point of difference compared to horizontal and multilateral drilling? Let’s find out in this blog.
Extended Reach Drilling
An extended-reach well is one in which the ratio of the measured depth (MD) vs. the true vertical depth (TVD) is at least 2:1. Extended-reach wells are expensive and technically challenging as they require the involvement of heavy steel fabrication companies, however, they can add value to drilling operations by making it possible to reduce costly subsea equipment and pipelines, by using satellite field development, by developing near-shore fields from onshore, and by reducing the environmental impact by developing fields from pads.
Extended Reach Drilling allows producers to reach deposits that are great distances away from the drilling rig and this help producers tap oil and natural gas deposits under surface areas where a vertical well cannot be drilled, such as under developed or environmentally sensitive areas. Offshore, the use of extended reach drilling allows producers to reach accumulations far from offshore platforms, minimizing the number of platforms needed to produce all the oil and gas. Similar to horizontal drilling, Extended Reach Drilling uses the technology of the “RSS: Rotary Steerable System” that permit to steer a hole continuing the rotation of the drilling string with an improvement of the safety and the drilling efficiency.
Automated Drilling
Automated drilling is one of the oil industry’s most important innovation targets. The sources now being tapped, such as shale gas and coal-bed methane, require a very large number of wells and usage of pipe fabrication, and automating the drilling process would be an obvious way to keep the costs under control, and also gets around a problem which many sectors of engineering are experiencing. Automated drilling would be faster, more efficient, and safer, as it reduces the number of workers on site. In this R&D sector, Shell has developed an automated drilling system called SCADAdrill (SCADA being the acronym for supervisory control and data acquisition, a type of software used for automated factory and process control), and is a component of a new well manufacturing system that it is currently trialing in Europe and North America. The SCADAdrill system is used on the horizontal dewatering bores. Through sensors mounted on the drill bit, the system monitors the trajectory of the drill and its performance as it travels through the site geology and controls its path to ensure that it meets the top hole precisely. Automating drilling takes in three stages of autonomy: firstly, to mechanize the drilling equipment; secondly to monitor torque and weight on the drill bit and thirdly, to automate the entire process.
Conclusion
It can be seen that Extended Reach drilling and Automated drilling both bring in their unique flavors to the world of oil drilling technologies. A degree of technical expertise is required to ensure proper implementation of these methodologies and people and software have to be trained accordingly so as to maximize the benefits. It’s an exciting time to be in the midst of the oil and gas sector and these advancements are poised to take the industry forward!