Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Bent-housing turbodrills improve hard-formation directional drilling

Journal Article · · Oil and Gas Journal; (United States)
OSTI ID:5938504
;  [1];  [2]
  1. Shell U.K. Exploration and Production, Lowestoft (United Kingdom)
  2. Neyrfor-Weir Ltd., Aberdeen (United Kingdom)

Improvements in the design of turbine-powered downhole motors allowed steerable drilling in a hard formation at a high rate of penetration (ROP). Drilling in this dolomite formation with the rotary or with positive-displacement motors (PDMs) was slow during steering operations. Shell's solution to the steering penetration rate problems was to change the well plans if suitable directional drilling tools weren't available. Where possible, the wells were designed with the Zechstein interval drilled as a tangent section with non-steerable turbodrills. However, a better solution was the use of a steerable turbodrill-a tool unavailable on the market at that time. The paper describes motor development, a field test, and the design and operation of the motor.

OSTI ID:
5938504
Journal Information:
Oil and Gas Journal; (United States), Journal Name: Oil and Gas Journal; (United States) Vol. 91:7; ISSN OIGJAV; ISSN 0030-1388
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

Turbodrilling in the hot-hole environment
Journal Article · Fri Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 1982 · J. Pet. Technol.; (United States) · OSTI ID:6106308

Extended-length power sections improve PDM drilling
Journal Article · Thu Nov 30 23:00:00 EST 1995 · World Oil · OSTI ID:175990

New turbodrill for geothermal drilling
Conference · Fri Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1976 · OSTI ID:7096235