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Drilling Rig Photo

Directional + Horizontal Drilling

Directional Drilling

Directional drilling is one of the most popular methods of extracting our natural resources. Our team has experience drilling directional wells on almost every continent.

 

Directional wells are drilled for several purposes:

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  • Increasing the exposed section length through the reservoir by drilling through the reservoir at an angle.

  • Drilling into the reservoir where vertical access is difficult or not possible. For instance an oilfield under a town, lake or a difficult to drill formation.

  • Allowing more wellheads to be grouped together on one surface location can allow fewer rig moves, less surface area disturbance, and make it easier and cheaper to complete and produce the wells. For instance, up to about 40 wells can be grouped together on an oil platform or jacket offshore. The wells will fan out from the platform into the reservoir below. This concept is being applied to land wells, allowing multiple subsurface locations to be reached from one pad, thereby reducing costs.

  • Drilling along the underside of a reservoir-constraining fault allows multiple productive sands to be completed at the highest stratigraphic point.

Horizontal Drilling

Since NDD's inception in 2009, we have maintained a strong focus in the application of horizontal drilling to grow from new player to well-seasoned industry veteran. The numbers speak for themselves: In Alberta and Saskatchewan, we have drilled more than 350 horizontal wells. We also have extensive experience in the Wabasca oil sands, Swan Hills Reef, Cardium, Glauconite, Shaunavon and Bird Bear formations.

 

Our strongest concentration of drilling is located in the Viking formation near Kindersley, SK. There we have over 250 wells that reach from Swift Current all the way up to the formation’s origin in Viking, AB.

 

measurement while drilling

The New Discovery Measurement While Drilling (MWD) systems have the latest technology available in the market today. Our Electric Dipole EM system has a MTBF of over 2,500 hours making it the most reliable EM system on the market. It can reach depths of 4,200m TVD and is one of if not the most powerful tool around. Our Pilot Positive Mud Pulse Tool is extremely reliable on deep wells and in areas where an EM pulse cannot transmit.

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