A Hole-In-One Solution

Suki Gill, Enteq Technologies, USA, details how the latest MWD technology is helping advance the directional drilling industry.

Watching a rig crew on a mission to drill a borehole, plant a bomb and save the world in Armageddon was a moment of inspiration for many petroleum engineers working in the industry today. In the 1998 Michael Bay spectacular, the crew is on a mission to excavate and destroy an asteroid that threatens the planet. The plan succeeds, and the crew are global heroes.

Needless to say, the technology and drilling process depicted in the movie is not an accurate representation of drilling today. The economics of drilling have shifted; it is known that the

pandemic has hit the oil and gas sector particularly hard. It was always a tough job, but it has become a whole lot tougher.

Many of these trends are irreversible. But the oil and gas sector has always adapted, survived, and ultimately thrived in the face of change. If we can think smarter – and fairer – about the technology drilling companies (specifically directional drilling companies) rely on to do their job, the industry will flourish again. Enteq Technologies is therefore is taking a new approach to the measurement- and logging-while drilling (MWD/LWD) market.

Different days for directional drilling – what has changed?

In 2014, in British Columbia, Canada, drilling a well could take 24 – 27 days. Today, a similar well could be drilled in just 7 – 10 days. That is beneficial for the operator but not good news for the directional drilling company. Since directional drilling companies are paid a day rate, not a lump sum when the work is completed, drilling a well in less time decreases company revenue. For example, if one assumes a CAN$6000 day rate, the 2014 British Columbia job would be CAN$144 000. Compared to today’s drilling outlook, the job would only be CAN$42 000.

This is just one example, but the problem is widespread. The oil and gas market has always been cyclical, but a number of trends plus the pandemic have eroded the sector’s economic stability over time. Today, WTI stands at a reasonable US$104.41/bbl, but last year in 2021, it went negative for the first time in history and was predicted to tip US$100/bbl in the near future. Rig counts were slashed, as were day rates. This trickles down to hiring, and putting pressure on companies to rely on fewer employees. Now the numbers look healthier again – but for how long? At the same time, the jobs themselves have become more demanding. Operators want to go deeper and faster, and demand that even small and mid-sized directional drilling companies have the latest MWD/LWD tech, such as resistivity-at-bit solutions. There is also increasing demand for hot tools capable of operating in high-temperature environments. Though this is still a relatively small proportion of the total market, it may well increase further as sectors such as geothermal energy expand. The geography of the industry is changing too. The Middle East remains a juggernaut and US shale strength continues, but around the world operators are looking again at previously unattractive or uneconomic plays and re-evaluating their feasibility. To make these plays economic means keeping an iron grip on the cost per barrel. There is a degree of geographic disparity to contend with. While North American directional drilling service providers may have to pay top dollar for the latest at-bit solutions, it is at least available to them. This is not always the case for those drilling in China, for example. Often, it takes years for tech to become widely available to independent service companies in the rest of the world, and even then, still at

Figure 1. Enteq Technologies' in-house engineering team.

Figure 2. Final equipment checks.

High time for high tech

So, what can we do about it? We may not be able to do much about the underlying trends changing the economics of directional drilling, but we can offer technology to drilling companies to meet these challenges head-on.

For example, automation and IoT can be critical to assuaging cost and labour pressures. With day rates depressed, it can be painfully expensive to deploy fully qualified MWD engineers to every job. If COVID has taught us anything though, it is how effective remote working can be. So, by automating the operation of MWD/LWD tools and adding remote telemetry, highly-educated workforces can work from a central office (or a virtual one even, working from home) and from there they can look after a portfolio of five or six rigs rather than having to be deployed, on-site, to one. As a bonus, this also fits neatly with operators’ drive to reduce overall personnel footprint on rigs.

For example, leading technologies today have built-in artificial intelligence (AI) to simplify decoding, meaning minimal input from the MWD tech on location. If and when there are decoding issues, that MWD tech can pick up a phone to a team of dozens of software engineers working around the clock to help them fix the problem. For the drilling company, it means a smarter, leaner operation with less need to deploy top-rate talent to every job and the ability to manage operations remotely, allowing them to take on more work and reassign money to CAPEX to invest in getting top tech into the fleet.

An expanding range of data types also works to the benefit of drilling companies. Better downhole batteries enable real-time transmission of metrics such as collar RPM and BHA health. Real-time measurements then allow for drilling optimisation, pushing the equipment as hard as possible without exceeding risk thresholds – the sweet-spot, so to speak. These are enhanced further by advances in electromagnetic (EM) telemetry systems boosting the rate and reliability of data transmission versus older EM or mud-pulse systems.

Newer sensor types such as micro electrical mechanical system sensors (MEMS) are also pushing the envelope on MWD design. If traditional sensors are hard disk drives, these are solid state – a genuine leap forward in technology with greater resilience to shock and vibration, but at a higher price point. They enable real-time measurements such as stick-slip to further optimise drilling and get the most out of equipment, though it is important not to over-specify where cheaper legacy systems are fit for purpose.

Upgrading downhole measurement

The tech is there to help directional drilling companies face their challenges head-on, but for companies in North America and beyond it can be difficult to cost-effectively access the best equipment for the task at hand. This needs to change.

We likely cannot expect another box-office blockbuster where drilling companies save the day anytime soon. Too much has changed since 1998. Although hero-status is too much to ask, directional drilling service providers worldwide deserve support. Enteq Technologies aims to offer that support by providing access to effective MWD and LWD tools, integrated into bespoke solutions based on real-world, downhole directional drilling expertise.