Other stories: World’s 10 largest petrochemicals companies | Oil industry giants: ADNOC | Oil industry giants: Saudi Aramco | Top 10 MENA Region mega projects | Top 10 billion dollar oil deals of the summer | 2009’s winners and losers in the oil industry | 10 events in oil’s history that shook the world | Top 10 Gulf mega projects | Top 10 largest publicly traded oil companies | World’s 10 largest oilfield services companies | World’s 10 largest oil and gas contractors
The Reelwell drilling method may unlock key depleted fields throughout the Middle East
A significant part of the Middle East’s remaining reserves are difficult to reach by conventional drilling technology. The Reelwell Drilling Method (RDM) offers a new solution to explore and produce these challenging fields.
“We have been marketing the RDM in the ME area since our first presence in Abu Dhabi at the MPD conference in February 2008,” says Ove Hole, sales and marketing manager at Reelwell.
“Saudi Aramco has shown great interest in the technology. Saudi Aramco’s division for new technology visited Reelwell in Stavanger in October 2008, which has lead to discussion related to perform a qualification program with Aramco in Saudi Arabia In addition we are working with an Abu Dhabi registered drilling/well service company. This company perform work in the whole ME region, which gives us a good opportunity to introduce our technology to a wide audience.”
In the Middle East, as well as in other parts of the world, several of the hydrocarbon reservoirs are starting to get depleted, causing problems with loss and problematic to drill the conventional way. The RDM solution has special applications for drilling mature fields with high/low pressure zones. A special advantage of the technology is the physical barrier that prevents the annular well fluid from being lost.
Thus the safety aspects of the “lost circulation” problem is significantly reduced by RDM.
“The unique hole cleaning capability and hydraulic Weight on Bit makes the system independent of gravity allowing for extreme horizontal reach.”
Today the world record in horizontal drilled distance is 10.9 km, drilled in the Al Shaheen field by Maersk Oil Qatar, 2008.
“Hydraulic calculations indicates that using the technology of Reelwell this distance could be doubled, quadrupling potential drainage area from the facility” says Hole.
“The RDM is suited for drilling mature fields and depleted zones due to the unique hole cleaning solution,” he adds.
