Multi-faceted Scottish energy services group Senergy is regarded as being a lead player in the application of advanced drilling techniques in UK waters and elsewhere.
The firm engages in the full gamut: underbalanced drilling (UBD), managed pressure drilling, coiled tubing drilling, through tubing rotary drilling, subsea through tubing rotary drilling, high pressure – high temperature (HP/HT) and extended reach.
This is underpinned by in-house capabilities in disciplines such as geomechanics, reservoir engineering, formation damage, performance drilling and production engineering.
The company has also developed an innovative technology known as Wellscope that “revolutionises” the oil & gas industry’s approach to inflow performance, by addressing drilling wells from what it says is an entirely new perspective by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
In a nutshell, CFD is a computational technology that enables the study of the dynamics of factors that flow, and Senergy has brought Wellscope into play with its ADT offering.
According to Senergy’s global advanced drilling techniques manager, Ian Retalic, the firm’s ADT capabilities harnessed with the Wellscope tool provide an “exciting new integrated solution” for extending field life and increasing productivity, while mitigating risk.
This approach focuses on intervention and does not rely solely on results through drilling. Moreover, according to Retalic and colleague, Mike Byrne, who is a formation damage consultant, the packaging of integrated ADT solutions and Wellscope should persuade operators that are otherwise reluctant to invest in drilling techniques, because they feel they can’t predict what the value is going to be.
Retalic told Energy that potential opportunities for integrating ADT and Wellscope were very significant, particularly in the context of UBD, a technique that is widely used onshore North America but relatively infrequently used in the North Sea, except, as Energy understands, by Shell in the Southern Gas Basin.
While it is widely believed that UBD is key to formation damage, Retalic and Byrne suggest this “is not entirely accurate”, and that by applying Wellscope to such wells would “greatly enhance” the technique and clarify/prove productivity benefits, so helping to reduce the associated risk element.
Byrne and Retalic say too that depleted fields where accurately placed in-fill wells are critical to extracting the last viable barrels, will benefit from ADT with Wellscope.
Retalic: ” For example, the Brent field has remaining oil but recovery is a complex process because of the high gas-oil ratio. However, high resolution, near wellbore modelling using Wellscope, can contribute significantly to how the recovery is best approached and mitigate risks.”
The company says its track record is clear, including 100% improvement in productivity for one of the world’s largest fields, by combining UBD with ADT, specifically “overbalanced” as opposed to underbalanced drilling.
“Using ADT to access stranded reserves and improve productivity has delivered significant results,” said Retalic.
“One of our clients saw a seven-fold increase in production rate, with a five-fold increase in production and an increase in recoverable reserves.
“Wellscope addresses one of the greatest challenges that the oil & gas industry has faced for more than 40 years: accurate prediction of well in-flow. This contributes significantly to the industry’s ultimate goal: to maximise production and minimise costs.
“For example, assessments of muds can highlight that mud X is better than mud Y because mud Y will lead to a productivity reduction of 1,000bpd (barrels per day), or underbalanced drilling will lead to an increase in productivity of 110% by minimising formation damage.”
But Retalic and Byrne warn of the age-old reticence within the upstream sector to embrace fresh thinking, innovative technologies and approaches to solution solving.
“We need to encourage them to embrace change and follow the lead of companies such as Statoil,” said Retalic.
“The world needs 70% more energy just to stand still and meet current energy requirements, so we need to look at every opportunity to increase/enhance production.
“The oil & gas industry is traditionally very conventional and conservative. This, combined with the high oil price and rising costs, means that operators are risk averse and are shying away from new technology and continuing to operate with existing technology.
“It’s easier to stick with the status quo, rather than take the risks associated with pushing technical boundaries.
However, there will be a turning point and it is important that we work towards this by focusing on our evolving capabilities such as new technology. The oil & gas industry has evolved and so must technology to meet its changing needs.”
Retalic and Byrne say industry bodies, the UK Government too, have a fundamental role to play in driving the increase in industry uptake of new technology.
They believe incentives similar to those applied by Norway could be usefully adopted.