Risk Reduction and Continuous Improvement in the Deployment of Motorized Intelligent RSS in Unconventional Plays
Authors: Garda I. 
Published: February 2024

Introduction of new technology to drill faster, high-quality wellbores is always at demand for service companies. Many vendors fail to deliver consistent results by applying a fit-for-all strategy to every unconventional project with distinct challenges. This paper describes the successful introduction of a motorized rotary steerable system in the Montney shale play in Canada, after its successful introduction in the Vaca Muerta shale play in Argentina, under a completely different set of drilling challenges.

A directional drilling vendor has developed a robust and intelligent RSS that can address modern unconventional drilling requirements. By utilizing state-of-the-art sensor capabilities, a bidirectional communication system that can receive and confirm commands near instantaneously, and a flexible aggressiveness controller, this system is able to immediately correct trajectory without the need to wait for tool response, and to sustain steering capability even in presence of severe vibration.

Subsequently, with the application of a management system and global support, which includes drilling advisors, materials, control systems and sensor physics experts, an analytical approach is applied to every different project. With this enhanced engineering support, and customer collaboration to address new challenges, the directional drilling service company can improve SQ metrics for RSS services, while evaluating the effect of increased stress cycles from MARSS (Motor Assisted RSS) applications in actuation systems and modify the design accordingly in less than two months.

The Vaca Muerta shale play in Argentina and the Montney shale play in Canada are compared. The former is developed with lateral extensions between 1.5 to 2 miles where mud weights of up to 15.5 ppg are usually prone to generate erosion in downhole tools. This factor, combined with the requirement for Managed Pressure Operations and extensive wellbore conditioning before trips, can lead up to 48 hours of downtime after a downhole tool failure. The Montney, on the other hand, is currently extending the drilling envelope to over 3-mile laterals in shale and siltstone formations. It is prone to generate damage due the presence of high axial and torsional vibrations in a very high ROP environment.

This intelligent rotary steerable system assisted with mud motor was successfully introduced in these completely different unconventional basins with very distinct drilling challenges, delivering the first 5 wells of each project to total depth with zero trips for failures. Furthermore, it allowed a major North American operator to set a length and ROP record in the Canadian Montney Basin. Additionally, the management system and global support interaction allowed for a drastic reduction in tool wear from first to last run, maximizing asset value and tool turnaround.

The combination of new drilling technology and the described methodology for its introduction into challenging unconventional basins is proven to reduce the risk of failure, increasing SQ metrics and on-bottom time while achieving new performance benchmarks, challenging the status-quo of fit-for-all solutions in RSS market.