HALLIBURTON has apparently successfully completed field tests of novel fluid sampling-while-drilling technology for BG in Norway.
The GeoTap IDS fluid identification and sampling sensor system is said to be a world first. Halliburton said at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston that the test was performed from the Bredford Dolphin semi-submersible rig while working on the 34/5-1S Blabaer exploration well in the Norwegian North Sea.
The company says that application of the technology lessens operator rig costs and significantly reduces the industry’s requirement for time-consuming post-well wireline sampling.
Halliburton says the GeoTap IDS sensor revolutionises subsurface hydrocarbon fluid sampling by, for the first time, making it possible to sample reservoir formation fluids during short stops in the drilling process with a tool placed in the logging-while-drilling (LWD) assembly.
This would appear to make it particularly suitable for deployment in high-cost drilling environments, such as deepwater exploration wells, where conventional wireline-based sampling programmes often cost several million dollars more in rig time and increase well risk.
Halliburton says, too, that GeoTap IDS allows operators to acquire multiple fluid samples within hours of drilling the formation, not days, reducing the likelihood of borehole damage and producing a less contaminated sample.
By allowing several samples to be collected through a productive hydrocarbon zone during pauses in drilling, the tool improves operators’ ability to quickly characterise fluid variability, often an indicator of reservoir compartmentalisation. The tool also has the potential to optimise wellbore placement and achieve maximum production over the life of the reservoir.