| The Department of Energy earlier this
year awarded funding for projects that
are designed to push microhole
technology closer to commerciality and
widespread adoption by the U.S. oil and
gas industry.
The initiative involves developing
technologies associated with drilling
wells smaller than 4.75 inches in
diameter and related downhole micro-instrumentation.
The total value of the projects is nearly
$14.5 million, with DOE providing $7.7
million and industry partners contributing
$6.8 million.
DOE officials say that the industry cost
share of about 47 percent demonstrates
the petroleum industry's strong
commitment to these advanced
technologies and suggests strong future
support for their commercialization and
adoption.
Funded projects in addition to
Geoprober Drilling [ RELATED STORY ] are:
-
Gas Technology Institute (Des
Plaines, Ill.) -- A proposal to field test a
next-generation microhole coiled tubing
rig -- the MOXIE experimental rig,
fabricated by Coiled Tubing Solutions
(Dallas).
-
Confluent Filtration Systems (Houston) -- Development of a new
elastic-phase, self-expanding tubular
technology called CFEX, intended to
develop self-expanding well casings to
any diameter.
-
Tempress Technologies (Kent,
Wash.) -- Development of a small,
mechanically assisted, high-pressure
waterjet drilling tool to help overcome the
limited reliability, power and torque of
small-diameter drill motors.
-
CTES (Conroe, Texas) -- Improving
the performance and reliability of
microhole coiled tubing drilling
bottomhole assemblies while reducing
the cost and complexity associated with
drilling inclined/horizontal well sections
greater than 2,000 feet.
-
Technology International Inc. (Kingwood, Texas) -- Development and
testing of a high-power turbodrill to
deliver efficient power at relatively high
revolutions per minute and low bit
weight.
-
Ultima Labs Inc. (Houston) --
Combining existing technologies for
measurement-while-drilling (MWD)
and logging-while-drilling (LWD) into
an integrated, inexpensive
measurement system to facilitate lowcost
coiled tubing drilling of smalldiameter
(3.5 inches) wells at depths
shallower than 5,000 feet.
-
Baker Hughes Oilfield Operations (Houston) -- Creating a wireless system
to help steer drilling in a microbore by a
downhole bidirectional communication
and power module and a surface coiled
tubing communication link.
Gas Technology Institute (Des
Plaines, Ill.) -- Designing, developing and
evaluating a counter-rotating motor
drilling system for reducing costs
associated with drilling wells targeting
unconventional gas.
-
Confluent Filtration Systems (Houston) -- To prove and develop a
concept for a self-expanding, high-flow
sand screen that could be constructed
from a wide range of materials. Plans call
for ultimately deploying the technology in
a demonstration well.
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