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The largest tangible cost to drilling and producing a natural gas or oil well is associated with the cost of casing and production strings (tubulars).
NETL continues to work with industry to develop innovative alternatives to typical casing programs. The wave of the future for completion technologies is the "smart well". Research projects focus on the development and integration of real-time diagnostic systems with real-time stimulation options. DOE is funding research to develop improved sensors and monitors, and automated completion equipment to respond to the data transmitted during "smart well" application. In conjunction with “smart well” monitoring and response, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, and intelligent computing systems are being developed to assess the data that the downhole sensors transmit. Tubel Technologies, Inc. has developed a downhole pressure and temperature gauge to provide wireless monitoring of wellbore parameters. The technology uses acoustic waves to transmit low-power signals through the production tubing to the surface where sensors acquire and process the information in real time. The new gauge will decrease completion cost while increasing reliability.
Recently, MASI Technologies developed an advanced drilling fluid technology that will provide improved wellbore stabilization and reservoir productivity. The new drilling fluid uses aphrons, a uniquely structured microbubble of air or gas created by combining surfactants and polymers, to fill fractures and pores in rocks and other media. The aphrons create a seal that stops or slows the entry of fluid. This minimizes the damage to gas reservoirs and drillers are then able to use less expensive conventional drilling equipment to complete wells that previously would have required more complex drilling methods.
Ceramic borehole sealants were developed as independent producers identified critical technologies needed to improve wellbore stability. Ceramic borehole sealants were first used by nuclear water storage facilities, and were adapted to replace traditional wellbore cement. The chemically-bonded phosphate ceramic sealants are cement-like, rapid setting, dense materials with great tensile and compressive strengths. They are self-bonding, and bond with sandstones, shales, and other types of formation rocks, and set up within hours even in saline water. The material can be drilled and machined, and is targeted for use in sealing and stabilizing borehole walls; fluid diversion; plugging vertical, deviated, and horizontal wells; sealing lost circulation zones, and stabilizing ocean flood muds, silts, and sands.
Building on previous feasibility work on lightweight drilling fluids sponsored by the NETL, CSI Technologies Inc. demonstrated the use of hollow glass spheres to develop an ultra-light cement. The new ultra-light hollow glass sphere cement systems will allow simple or complex wells to be successfully completed with less formation damage while still providing effective formation isolation. This strong, ultra-lightweight cement will be especially beneficial in low-pressure reservoirs. As part of this project, CSI developed a free electronic decision support tool, designed to help one choose the most cost effective low density cement system. CSI is also developing a supercement for use in high temperature wells as part of the
Deep Trek Program.
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About NETL
E&P Technologies
