By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Dec. 15 -- Statoil ASA recently completed a test of steerable drilling liner (SDL) technology from the Brage platform and expects that after a planned test from one of the Statfjord platforms in January, the technology will be ready for use in other fields. It previously had tested extensively the technology on land.
The technology involves drilling with an attached liner directly on the steerable drillstring to simplify operations in unstable formations and thereby save time and cost, Statoil said.
The technology eliminates the need to stop drilling while pulling a drillstring from a well to allow for the running and setting of a liner to prevent borehole collapse.
Statoil said it developed the technology in-house in collaboration with equipment supplier Baker Hughes Inc. to overcome challenges in drilling zones with lower pressure and difficult shale-coal layers, as well as formations with varying flow and pressure regimes.
The Brage platform is an integrated accommodation, processing, and drilling facility on a steel jacket set in 140 m of water. Production to the platform started in 1993 from wells drilled in Blocks 30/6, 31/4, and 31/7 off Norway.
Statfjord field, on Norway's Blocks 33/12 and 33/9 and on the UK's Block 211/25, produces to three integrated facilities on concrete gravity base structures. Water depth in the area is 150 m. First production from Statfjord started in 1979.
Photo from Odfjell Drilling.
Photo from bp.
