Scientific Drilling launches tool to help drill with more certainty

At a press conference at this year’s GRC Annual Meeting and GEA Geothermal Energy Expo, GEA held a press conference that included a number of experts of the U.S. geothermal energy industry.

Among the panelists were Lou Capuano, a well regarded drilling expert and former CEO of ThermaSource, a U.S. geothermal drilling company, and Patrick Hanson, Global Marketing Manager at Scientific Drilling International (SDI), the largest independent directional drilling and wellbore placement service company.

At the press conference was also Craig Mataczynski, the CEO of Gradient Resources, a development company in the U.S.

The discussion turned towards technology issues and what could help the industry to move ahead. Drilling was particularly mentioned. When asked about what could really help geothermal, the discussion quickly turned towards directional drilling and general improvements in drilling, both cost and technology wise.

So today’s press release by Scientific Drilling is quite interesting as it highlights its unique services that addresses the industry’s toughest wellbore placement and risk mitigation challenges, a tool called MagTraC MWD Ranging. (MWD = Measurement while drillling)

Since its inception in 1998, MagTraC has enabled SDI as the pioneer in MWD Ranging, targeting challenging applications where uncertainty and risk play a major factor in well construction. MagTraC isolates the earth’s naturally occurring magnetic field from the magnetic interference signature of a casing string allowing the distance and direction to the target to be determined. Simply put, MagTraC utilizes the raw MWD data to calculate the relative position between wellbores.

MagTraC delivers the ultimate value by targeting what’s important to you, as it:

• Enables operation efficiency – supports pairing with SDI’s survey, steering, and MWD systems, or even 3rd party MWD systems that can obtain raw data
• Allows remote ranging where data can be sent without operational shutdown
• Combines with SDI’s Continuous BTotal™ real-time magnetic monitoring for early detection
• Delivers significant cost and time savings compared to active ranging solutions
• Provides increased safety assurance by eliminating additional survey runs or on-site personnel

SDI’s extensive portfolio of proven performance includes challenging jobs such as Production Recovery, Fish Bypass, Relief Well, Plug & Abandon, Close Proximity Drilling, Collision Avoidance, Ghost Well Detection, and Kick-off Assurance. To date, they have successfully completed over 450 jobs, with nearly 60% being completed in just the past 5 years.

In an uncertain downhole environment, MagTraC allows you to successfully continue drilling with confidence.

Below here is a video highlighting the company’s MagTraC MWD Ranging: