American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2012 - 148

FIGURE 6A

Z= 0 at 30 ft above MSL

rates, eliminating the need to run motors
with high angle bend/adjustable kickoff
subsettings. It also has eliminated time spent
in slide drilling in the curve to significantly
improve penetration rates, and has overcome
the limitations of drill string rotations per
minute determined by conventional motor
assemblies with high bend/adjustable kickoff
subsettings, thereby further improving ROP.
In addition, HBUR RSS have reduced
well bore tortuosity, torque and drag, improved transfer of weight to the bit, minimized drag while running casing through
the curve interval (thereby reducing completion costs), reduced days to drill and
complete wells (resulting in significant
drilling and completion cost savings), and
switched seamlessly from drilling the curve
section to drilling the lateral with limited
tortuosity.

Local DLS
(Well Drilled with Motors and Slide-Rotate Intervals)

22
DLS [deg/100 ft]

FIGURE 6B

Local DLS
(Well Drilled with RSS)

22
DLS [deg/100 ft]

Z= 0 at 30 ft above MSL

While the achievements in this article
are focused on the curve sections, the
system can be used to drill the entire hole
size section with a single BHA, without a
trip to adjust parameter settings. Combining
the HBUR RSS with a mud motor provides
the ability to drill lateral sections with
further improved ROP, and also allows
more flexibility in managing drill string
RPM to optimize drilling dynamics while
providing sufficient bit speed for optimized
cutting action.
While bit trips are unavoidable in
Granite Wash applications, it is anticipated
that bit life will be improved with formation-specific enhancements to further reduce nondrilling time. In softer shale formations, HBUR RSS have been used to
drill vertical, curve and lateral sections
to TD in single runs at high penetration

rates throughout all phases. The technology's capability to perform oriented
kickoff from vertical or from any other
direction is extremely valuable to tightly
control direction in the presence of nearby
well bores, as is the case in pad drilling
applications.
r

STEVE CHESHER is vice president,
drilling, at Devon Energy Corporation
in Oklahoma City. With 27 years of
drilling experience, Chesher has held
assignments in Oklahoma City, Houston,
Tulsa, Denver, West Texas, Indonesia,
Alaska, and the Middle East. He earned
a B.S. in petroleum engineering from
the University of Oklahoma.

engineering from the University of Oklahoma.

WES PAUGH is a drilling engineering
adviser at Devon Energy. He began his
career as a production engineer at
Texaco Exploration & Production Inc.
in 1992. From 1998 to 2002, Paugh
was a drilling engineer with Texaco
Global Drilling in Kuwait. He then
served at Mack Energy Co. as a
drilling/operations engineer until 2005,
when he joined Devon as a drilling engineer. Paugh holds a B.S. in petroleum

OLOF HUMMES is global product
manager for rotary steerable drilling
systems with Baker Hughes. He has
been with Baker Hughes since 2002,
and has held various roles in design
engineering, field testing and marketing.
Hummes holds an M.S. in mechanical
engineering from Leibniz University.

and northeastern regions of the United
States for Baker Hughes and specializes
in performance drilling with an emphasis
on BHA and drill string design. Janwadkar
has 25 years of experience in drilling oil,
gas and geothermal wells in seven countries. For the past 10 years, he has been
involved in drilling directional and lateral
wells in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico,
Arkansas and Pennsylvania. Janwadkar
holds an M.S. in petroleum engineering
from the University of Oklahoma.

148 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

CHRIS WIGGERS is a senior geologist at Devon Energy Corporation. He
has been employed at Devon since 2003.
Wiggers holds a B.S. in geology from
Lake Superior State University and an
M.S. from Oklahoma State University.

SANDEEP JANWADKAR is director
of engineering for the central, Permian

Editors Note: The authors acknowledge
the contributions and assistance of G.
Roberts, S. Schmidt and J. Hildebrand at
Devon Energy Corporation, and M. Anderson at Baker Hughes. The authors also
thank Chris Wiggers of Devon Energy for
his assistance in illustrating the geological
background of the applications, as well as
Baker Hughes' Chris Abla and Pascal
Luxey for their work on the well plots, and
Mark Anderson and John Prejean for their
contributions to the drill bit design.

PAUL BOND is the marketing director
for drilling systems in the U.S. land
region at Baker Hughes in Houston. He
has worked for Baker Hughes for 23
years in various technical and commercial positions relating to directional
drilling and measurement-while-drilling
technology and services.

American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2012