The Microhole Technologies Initiative Program Facts [136 KB PDF]

The Department of Energy is charting the future of drilling research during the next decade. Under the new microhole initiative, it will pursue a major research program in the area of drilling and using smaller diameter wells less than two inches. The cost to drill these wells will be significantly less and the associated waste with such wells will be much less than conventional well drilling. But will the wells be functional and will the industry find they fill a niche requirement? How will the industry best use small diameter wells and what characteristics will make them attractive? These were the questions DOE asked at a meeting held in April 2003, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Industry operators, academia, and the service providers were asked to help the DOE chart the directions and develop the priorities in implementing this initiative. The discussions and the answers to the questions posed are summarized in a new report prepared by Spears & Associates entitled "Microhole Initiative, Workshop Summary" [PDF].

The group in attendance at the meeting highlighted four primary applications: drilling development wells, drilling reservoir data monitoring holes, drilling shallow re-entry wells, and drilling deep exploration tails. For the details of the responses and the highlighted critical technologies, see the Workshop Summary report [PDF] for the full text.

The Microhole Technology  Initiative is focused on developing the capacity to drill small diameter boreholes (approximately two-inch diameter), the equipment to complete microholes, and the diagnostic tools to measure important reservoir characteristics. This suite of technologies is expected to impact the nation's ability to explore, develop, and produce new oil and gas resources. Since the equipment needed to drill microholes is smaller and more transportable, the environmental impact is reduced - making oil and gas development in environmentally-sensitive areas more palatable to the public.

The cost reduction using this technology is estimated to be nearly one-half the cost of traditional drilling rigs. Lower-cost boreholes increase the cost effectiveness of drilling exploration test holes, acquiring a greater number of reservoir measurements, and applying 4-D reservoir monitoring techniques to image reservoir changes during production.

The feasibility of microhole technology has been demonstrated by pioneering work conducted by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in collaboration with Maurer Technology. The team has successfully used coiled-tubing-deployed microdrilling to drill wells as small as 1-3/4-inch in diameter and as deep as 800 ft. The feasibility of measurement tools such as geophysical instrumentation and logging tools has also been positively evaluated.

The presentation "Microhole vs. Slimhole: The Future of E&P" was presented as the keynote address in a special session on Slimhole Drilling at SPE's 2005 Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition by Roy Long.

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