Hughes Christensen's Ream While Drilling line of fixed blade eccentric reamers has achieved a significant milestone. The three application-specific RWD tools have drilled over 1 million ft of straight hole, directional wellbore, and slimhole wells worldwide. The cumulative footage landmark is a testament to the sophistication of the initial RWD design and to Hughes Christensen's application and research engineers who have systematically upgraded and improved the technology since its introduction in 1997, the company says.

The RWD footage breakdown reflects the diversity of the tool's capabilities to deliver a performance step change in the world's highest profile/cost drilling environments including the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea, the company says.

To date, RWD has drilled 1.06 million ft of hole at an average penetration rate of 46 ft/hr. The majority of the footage was drilled with a conventional bent housing mud motor assembly. In 2000, the first simultaneous application of RWD technology on a rotary steerable system (Ursa A-6 Horizontal Well) delivered higher penetration rates at a lower cost/ft than a steerable motor assembly and bicenter bit in the GoM. In the last four years, RWD has accumulated 103,400 ft on this style BHA with the longest RWD/RSS run reaching 11,221 ft at a total measured depth of 29,846 ft.

RWD's fixed blade design has proven extremely dependable reaching section TD on 65% of the runs while drilling the casing shoe 33% of the time. The total footage drilled and performance records demonstrate RWD's application advantage over bicenter bits and conventional concentric/mechanical underreamers, the company says.

Hughes Christensen's design engineers upgraded RWD technology to improve steerability and drill out capabilities. The new generation of RWD2/S/ST (vertical, directional, slimhole) feature patented cutter and blade layouts that protect the ID casing wall and optimize performance while drilling ahead in new formation. RWD2 features include:
• Active stabilization pad (ASP)
• Optimized hydraulics
• BHA & pilot bit flexibility
• Drill out protection
• Hole opening blade
• Genesis cutters.

08/17/04