ReedHycalog : Diamonds are forever
Published : September 2006
Gavin Rowlands, area manager of the UK operations of ReedHycalog talked to Jayne Flannery about the importance of a local presence to support drilling operations in the southern gas basin
The oil and gas industry is a tight community. ReedHycalog is acknowledged as one of the principal providers of drill bits in the world. Its product portfolio extends across the drilling spectrum, encompassing rollercone and new generation fixed cutter bits. Additionally ReedHycalog provides a complete range of hole opening products – as a result of the acquisition of DPI in 2004 as well as coring services – following the acquisition of Corion Diamond Products in 2005.
Gavin Rowlands is area manager of ReedHycalog’s UK operations, based in Aberdeen. He has responsibility for a small technical and logistics team based in Great Yarmouth, supporting drilling operations, mainly in the offshore southern gas basin. “We have a long standing base here dating back to the 1980s and it is something that very much sets us apart from our competitors. This is a highly cyclical industry, however, we think it is very important to maintain a presence close to where we are needed,” he said.
Design and manufacture of drill bits in the UK is carried out at Stonehouse in Gloucestershire, with a field support team located at Aberdeen. There are also other production facilities in Houston, Texas and Singapore. However, Rowlands is quite clear about the competitive advantage derived from a local presence in eastern England. “Drill bits are required very much on demand because rig downtime is so expensive. It is also a very tough operating environment where things can easily go wrong, so it is vital to have a contingency plan. Even 24 hours is usually far too long to wait for critical equipment,” he stated.
The Great Yarmouth base also supports smaller land drilling operations across the UK. “We are working with a number of operators who drill for oil and gas onshore, for example: BP at the Wytch Farm site in Dorset, Star Energy in Hampshire, Edgon Resources in Dorset and north of England and with Viking Oil and Gas in Yorkshire.” The presence of the base in Yarmouth enables us to supply drill bits very rapidly to these land operations,” he said.
Physical proximity to the extensive offshore rigs of the east coast has become even more important over the past 18 months against the backdrop of rising costs. Rising energy prices have made prospects that were not previously viable become economic to drill. The net result is growing demand on rig services, and escalating operational costs.
Each hydrocarbon reserve has its own unique geological characteristics. The Stonehouse engineering team has designed a wide range of drill bits, specifically tailored to the needs of the southern gas basin. “We are not just drilling vertically. It can involve demanding high angle and horizontal wells with very complex profiles. Also, here in the southern offshore area, very complex, mixed lithology sequences exist. It is not just about cutting a thick sandstone interval efficiently, for example, but equally importantly, you must maintain bit stability when moving from one formation to another,” he said.
ReedHycalog’s position in the market place is at the cutting edge in more ways than one. Diamonds are the hardest substance known on earth and diamond cutting technology is at the forefront of the drilling industry. This is the market segment that ReedHycalog has set out to dominate.
“As a company we are focusing our cutter development on what we term thermally stable PDC (polycrystalline diamond compact) cutters, which means the cutters are extremely wear resistant. Drilling at high speeds in highly abrasive conditions generates a great deal of heat and this is one of the constraints, as PDC cutters must be kept cool. The key challenge for us is to maximise the cutters’ thermostable properties and to make the bit as durable as possible. The longer the cutter lasts, the longer the bit can keep drilling. It is easy to see that bit life or durability has a direct bearing on our client’s costs,” he said.
The Raptor PDC cutter is the latest generation of thermostable diamond cutting technology brought to market. “Its development was underpinned by the idea of creating a cutter that will last forever in any rock type. Of course, we know we can never achieve that level of perfection, but it is still a goal worth striving for,” he stated.