Drilling developments

Apr. 2002 Vol. 223 No. 4  Drilling Developments

Robert E. Snyder,  Contributing Engineering Editor

2002 IADC/SPE Drilling Conference. This important annual event moved to its every-other-year presence in the U.S. – following last year’s program in Amsterdam – with a gathering of 1,400 attendees. Held in the impressive Hyatt Regency Hotel complex in Dallas, February 26 – 28, the event included more than 90 technical paper presentations, and exhibits featuring 92 companies.

The paper presentations were timely and worthwhile, featuring 26 sessions on key drilling topics, such as: underbalanced drilling, well control and deep water, plus specific engineering / design topics like directional drilling, coiled tubing, bit technology and zonal isolation. Management/HSE and case history reviews presented a lot of "lessons learned."

The 2002 SPE Drilling Engineering Award, the Society’s most prestigious drilling honor, was awarded to Robert N. Worrall, Sr. Drilling Engineer for Shell E&P Technology. Some of the "breakthroughs" he has been involved in include: slimhole drilling; pressurized, mud cap drilling; downhole magnetic steel forming; big hole drilling mud control valve; and multilateral well junctions.

Three plenary sessions covered: 1) Health, Safety and Environment in drilling; 2) Riding the roller coaster of business cycles; and 3) Managing relationships beyond "win-win." The "roller coaster" session was particularly enlightening, with lots of hard data on the ups and downs of our crazy upstream industry.

One of the plenary session panelists familiar to Houston viewers was Gallery Furniture’s Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale. Besides being known for his many TV ads in which he typically ends up saying – in his unique high-pitched voice – "Gallery Furniture saves you money," Mack has always been a strong proponent of advertising, even when times are tough.

Our service / supply-side companies have gotten that wrong – spending big when they are backlogged for months, then shutting down when they need to be better known and more competitive. That’s sort of like our oil company and contractor hiring and firing mentality that is destroying the industry’s critical experience factor. All in all, the mood among the drilling crowd was upbeat, aided by a strong international representation. The show returns to Amsterdam in February 2003 – be there, this is one of the good ones!

$8.5-million drill cutting accumulation research. Conclusions of an $8.5-million (£6-million) research program funded by the UK offshore oil and gas industry to find solutions for dealing with historic accumulations of drill cuttings on the seabed have been released by the UK Offshore Operators Association (UKOOA).

The program was launched in June 1998 by a consortium of oil/gas companies with cuttings beneath their offshore installations – the legacy of nearly 30 years’ drilling activity. More than 20 research organizations from around Europe were enlisted in the extensive three-year study which included cuttings-pile surveys, development of a model to predict the fate of accumulations over time, assessment of different management options for technical feasibility, and a 20-day lifting trial at BP’s NW Hutton platform.

The study was carried out in accordance with principles set out by the OSPAR Convention for "Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic," and aimed to identify the best environmental practices for dealing with cuttings, using best available technologies. Industry met annually with stakeholders to review progress and shape work direction, while the overall program was being monitored by an international group of scientists.

Some of the report’s conclusions are:

1. a comprehensive program of surveying, sampling, analysis and long-term fate modeling is required to select sound management options;
2. management options include covering, retrieval and leaving accumulations in place to degrade naturally; and
3. selection / implementation of the best environmental strategy should be part of the decommissioning program.

The determination of the best environmental strategy will require consideration of both the science of environmental impact and the impact of the accumulation on other users of the sea. It will also require "value" judgements around what is and is not acceptable in terms of the various environmental impacts each option would have.

The study shows that hydrocarbon materials are the prime contaminants in cuttings accumulations, and that the long-term fate of piles is determined by the physics of ocean currents and wave movement. UKOOA therefore suggests assessing the significance of an accumulation’s environmental impact by considering loss of hydrocarbons to the water column, the area of the seabed where the biological impact can be measured, and the rate at which this area changes over time. Local issues such as spawning grounds should be considered. For further information, contact: Trisha O’Reilly, email: toreilly@ukooa.co.uk.

Conoco / Tesco Casing Drilling rigs. Conoco and Tesco Corp. have jointly announced plans to construct three revolutionary drilling rigs using Tesco’s proprietary Casing Drilling technology. The rigs will operate under an exclusive contract to Conoco for a two-year period.

Pilot testing shows the technology drastically reduces drilling costs and speeds well completion by using the conventional casing instead of drill pipe. It is safer, and eliminates time-consuming trips to change bits and set casing.

Tesco will operate the rigs for Conoco to conduct a two-year development-drilling program in Conoco’s South Texas Lobo gas trend. The first rig is expected to be operational no later than September 1, 2002 – the other two will be ready to work in the Lobo Trend by December 31.

Typically, casing-drilled wells can be drilled up to 30% faster than conventional wells and represent a major advance in technology, the contractor says. "Tesco’s Casing Drilling technology will be valuable in our continued development of the gas reserves in the Lobo Trend," said Conoco President of Exploration, Production Americas Gary A. Merriman. "At the end of the day, this will enable Conoco to complete development wells faster and safer, and with a lot less capital investment."

The three land rigs with proprietary Tesco technologies will be manufactured at the company’s facilities in Calgary, Canada. After investing more than US$16 million and five years of R&D, Tesco is pleased to join forces with Conoco in the first commercial application of this innovative technology.