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Abu Dhabi set to introduce advanced oil drilling technique
The Emirate of Abu Dhabi , which controls more than 90 percent of the UAE’s proven crude resources, is set to introduce a highly advanced oil drilling technique known as the “Underbalanced Technology (UBT),” according to industry sources.
The Canadian technique has already been deployed on a limited basis in Dubai ’s Margham and BP Amoco in Sharjah and is expected to be in service in Abu Dhabi late this year or early next year, the sources said.
 “ This sophisticated drilling technology is already in use in Dubai and Sharjah but it will be deployed on a large scale basis in Abu Dhabi late this year or early 2006,” said Tom Jenkins, UBT Manager at Al Mansoori Production Services (APS) company.
“ It is the latest technique in oil drilling and extraction and was first used in Canada in 1996 before it was developed worldwide five years later…our company is introducing this technology to the UAE and you will see it in service by key oil firms in Abu Dhabi, including the ADMA-OPCO and ADCO,” Jenkins told Pipeline.
He was speaking at the company’s annual open-house event, which marked the introduction of UBT by Al Mansoori, one of the largest oil services companies in the Middle East , with more than 800 staff members and operations in many countries.
Jenkins said UBT is more expensive than the traditional drilling technology such as vertical and horizontal techniques but yields much more oil and prolongs the life of wells. He said the system has also partly been deployed in Iran , Saudi Arabia and Oman while it is applied on a large scale basis in Canada , the United States and other countries.
According to a statement released by AL Mansoori at the March 15 event at its Musaffah Headquarters in Abu Dhabi , the introduction of this technique as well as three Rotating Flow Diverters, another advanced oil well service, coincides with strong demand and growing interest for advanced drilling technology in the region and other oil areas.
“ During 2004, Al Mansoori decided to register a Canadian entity, under which it embarked on its first UBT operations, gaining valuable experience, for not only for the organization as a whole but also for our experienced Middle Eastern staff who were deployed to Canada during these projects,” the statement said.
“ Since those earlier days, Al Mansoori has continued to enhance its abilities further and through a series of international joint ventures and exclusive alliance agreements has managed to pull together some of the latest advances in underbalanced technologies, an approach that is set o revolutionise the way that UBT services can be collectively provided to meet the customer’s exact requirements.”
UBT involves the use of oxygen or other gas substances to eliminate the use of mud that could damage the well’s hydrocarbon formations. A related technique is the Electro-magnetic Measurement, which ensures far more precise data while drilling.
According to industry sources, UBT is much costlier but has a far higher extraction rate of up to 38 per cent compared with 22 per cent in traditional techniques.
“ Since UBT has a bigger yield rate and prolongs the well’s life, its use on a large scale will largely support projects in the Gulf states to expand their oil output capacity,” Jenkins said. “ I believe it will be massively used in the region in the coming years.”
One of the global leaders in UBT is the US Weatherford company, which applies such a technique in the oil industry in many countries. The company has already reported tremendous success in the application of UBT, such as prolonging the well’s life, increasing its extraction rate, minimizing lost circulation and formation damage, improving recovery in deep, hot reservoir and deterring saltwater intrusion.
“ The benefits of underbalanced technology—increased productivity, enhanced reserves and faster drilling times—are well documented,” Weatherford said.
“ Additionally, over the life of the well, the track record of underbalanced demonstrates that long-term production can far exceed those of conventional wells in the same formation when the technique is correctly applied.”
Citing a US oil well as an example, it said a conventional overbalanced well in Wyoming suffered fluid losses of 40,000 barrels per day and differential sticking, resulting in three sidetracks due to lost bottom hole assemblies.
“ Consequently, the operation ran over budget by around $ six million…Weatherford drilling and offset underbalanced well with compressors and a rotating control head in the same formation….the well lost less than 200 bpd, suffered no differential sticking and was completed under budget.”
UBT characteristics
- Underbalanced drilling occurs when the bottom hole pressure is less than the pressure of the formation being drilled.
- Underbalanced maintains well bore pressure below formation pressure while drilling
- Lower pressure in the well bore encourages oil/gas flow, reducing formation damage.
- Lower pressure in the well bore increases the rate of penetration, prolongs bit life and increases flow.
- Lower pressure means less fluid loss when drilling, resulting in reduced fluid maintenance costs, a decrease in lost circulation time, and less non-productive time.
Al Mansoori offers with UBT
- Reservoir screening
- Overall project management
- IADC accredited training services
- UBT well control systems
- Rotating Flow Diverters
- On/offshore separation systems
- Marine deployed UBT services
- N2 generation and compression
- Air drilling and air hammer services
- Drilling and production fluids
- Multi-phase metering systems
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