In late February, Weatherford completed a drilling and reaming project near Sakhalin Island, Russia, that resulted in a total of 52 hours in rig time saved.
The operator contracted Weatherford to enlarge a 3641ft (1110m) hole section from 8.5in to 9.5in on an offshore development well. Weatherford deployed a dual-reamer bottomhole assembly including a RipTide drilling reamer and a RipTide Rathole Killer drilling reamer. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags enabled both reamers to be opened and closed remotely and selectively throughout the run. This method allowed the crew to drill and ream the hole section to a total depth of 14,629ft (4459m), eliminate the rathole and clean the wellbore in a single trip.
By removing the need for a dedicated cleanout trip, which takes an average of 52 hours in this field, the RFID tools produced significant value in terms of time, cost and operational efficiency.
“This job was a perfect illustration of how team effort can produce results within an incredibly short timeframe,” said Nicole Carpenter, vice president and global account manager at Weatherford. “We look forward to applying these tools to future operations in this field.”