Churchill Drilling Tools, the provider of reliable and easy to use drilling systems, is celebrating a successful first year for its dedicated service base in Houston, with a number of key milestones achieved.
Through its Houston base, the company has:
· Completed successful projects for a number of super-majors in the region
· Developed a range of excellent high performance case histories both on the Gulf of Mexico shelf and in deepwater
· Generated a high demand for advanced drifting and circulating technologies in the Gulf
Churchill Drilling Tools recently announced the successful deployment of its dart activated DAV MX™ circulating valve at a record measured depth of 26,012ft in a development well off Louisiana. Enabling rapid and assured reamer bypass in a sidetrack operation, the application exploited the deepwater capability of the company’s Smart Dart™http://www.circsub.com/august20011/ to withstand both rapid delivery speeds and high temperature and pressure variations.
Using its multi-cycle capability, bypass deactivation was equally simple and assured as the assembly was pulled from hole. This proved the capability of the system to give the operator total control over both the fluid path directions and the drilling equipment whilst maintaining the well control flow-rate objectives set out in the program.
The DAV MX™ is used globally across a range of drilling environments including deepwater, high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) and high-angle extended reach drilling. The Mechanical Extrusion system is significantly more reliable, faster and more cost effective than polymer extrusion, the process used for traditional ball-activated systems. The system’s previous record deployment exceeded 16,000ft in a well offshore UK.
The establishment of the Churchill Drilling Tools’ advanced technologies in the Gulf of Mexico has attracted significant interest from experts in the drilling field.
In April, Churchill Drilling Tools was delighted to announce the appointment Mark Elliott, one of the most experienced advisors on circulating tools in the region, as business development manager.
Mark, who has more than seven years’ experience in the sector, said: “Dart activation is a step forward in valve technology that will enable this product category to keep up with operator expectations for performance and reliability. I am excited to be involved with the roll-out of this technology, which is so clearly needed”.
Looking forward in 2014 and 2015, Churchill Drilling Tools is planning to roll-out some of its more recent new products in the region and there are also a number of exciting research and development projects nearing completion.
“Although present in the region for a number of years, the establishment of our own service base in Houston has given our business a real boost. All the operators In the Gulf of Mexico are pushing into new performance areas which makes it an exciting place for Churchill to be focused,” said Churchill Drilling Tools’ managing director Andy Churchill. “It gives us a great opportunity to track what the leading operators are doing and to come up with innovative drilling tools that will assist them.”
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