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What is Air Drilling?

25 January 2019

Air drilling technology is considered to be a cost-effective drilling method for operators – requiring minimal cleanup and disposal of fluid on the surface. Another huge benefit of air drilling is that it’s faster, but operators usually only drill the first 30-40 degrees of the curve on air.

Often, operators drill part of the tangent/curve on air, trip out, go in with a curve assembly, and drill the rest of the curve with a PDC, and then go back in with the lateral assembly. With Ulterra’s AirRaid, operators are able to achieve and maintain integrity throughout the entire interval.

Performance Win

This technology utilized in Ulterra’s Northeast US District just achieved impressive drilling performance. While drilling in Ohio County, West Virginia, Ulterra’s 8.75″ AIR713 drilled the entire curve from 0 to 90 degrees in one run! This full curve was a big win because the team was able to combine the 2 curve runs, ultimately eliminating a trip and BHA run. With Ulterra’s AirRaid, they were able to go straight in with a lateral assembly after our run landed the curve; saving them an entire RSS curve run and reportedly ~$100K.