Two innovations from AGR are in the running for a prestigious industry award. Both the Managed Pressure Cementing system (MPC®) and (EC-Drill®) Managed Pressure Drilling system from AGR’s Enhanced Drilling Solutions division have been nominated in the ONS 2012 Innovation Awards.
The ONS show will be held in Stavanger from 28-31 August attracting around 50,000 visitors with more than 1,000 companies exhibiting on the tradeshow floor.
David Hine, EVP at Enhanced Drilling Solutions , said: “To have two of our solutions nominated is testament to the hard work and vision of the team here at EDS. We pride ourselves on the constant development of benefit-adding technology – an AGR win would be well deserved and hopefully the Innovation Committee will feel the same!”
In short, EC-Drill® enables operators to ‘drill the undrillable well’. It resolves the challenge encountered in many deep-water wells of having to drill within a narrow pressure window. The technology offers a simple means of achieving fine degrees of control over BHP manipulation. It is possible cost-effectively to negotiate narrow pressure windows and reach deep targets that would otherwise be impractical. Other benefits include improved safety due to faster kick/loss detection, rig-time savings, drilling capabilities with near-constant BHP, reduced casing strings and the ability to change riser mud levels within minutes, rather than mud weights within hours.
MPC®, meanwhile, uses conventional cement to facilitate the safe isolation of challenging pressure zones (shallow gas or water) in narrow pressure window scenarios. The system resolves two major challenges; effective cement slurry placement, and the problem of gas flow after cementing. The technology provides operators with precise control over the pressure and flow parameters of returning cement. Constant pressure is achieved at weak zones, preventing losses to the formation. The system is safety enhancing in that any influx or loss is quickly detected, enabling a rapid operator response to prevent the situation from escalating.
The ONS Innovation Awards were created to recognize the fact that ‘the future of the international oil, gas and energy industry depends increasingly on its ability to develop new technologies’. There are 55 other entries for the awards in addition to the two submissions from AGR.
[mappress]
Subsea World News Staff , July 24, 2012; Image: AGR