Drilling Contractor March/April 2017
Ulterra was recently featured in Drilling Contractor Magazine’s March/April issue, discussing how our CounterForce® technology has been put to the test drilling in deepwater with rotary steerable systems.
Ulterra was recently featured in Drilling Contractor Magazine’s March/April issue, discussing how our CounterForce® technology has been put to the test drilling in deepwater with rotary steerable systems.
Operators in the Northeast US have been drilling wells with increasingly complex well plans. Due to this, they have been looking more to rotary steerable systems (RSS) to reduce slide time in the lateral and increase directional flexibility and responsiveness. As a result of the down market, RSS have become a more affordable and viable option and Southwestern Energy is certainly not an outlier in this trend with their operations in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Featured in the October issue of World Oil magazine, Ulterra discusses PDC bits for RSS applications.
To extract the full potential of different RSS types, operators have sought out drill bit manufacturers, to provide designs tailored to specific parameters and BHAs. Ulterra has utilized its proprietary technology to develop CounterForce™ PDC bits, designed specifically to reduce lateral vibrations, a leading cause of downhole tool failure.
Ulterra Drilling Technologies continues to expand the application for its groundbreaking CounterForce® cutting structure technology. CounterForce uses the cutting structure to reduce vibrations at the bit, which increases efficiency and reduces bit damage. Reducing vibration is particularly important on wells which utilize Rotary Steerable Systems (RSS), which are becoming more popular as well planners are pushing the limits on directional difficulty and lateral lengths.
Featured in the June issue of Oilfield Technology, Ulterra discusses how customized bit development for RSS reduces tool failure.
Nearly all new technologies struggle in their infancy to gain adoption due to high cost, problematic reliability, lack of understanding, and marginal value proposition. Over years of learning, development and refinement these hurdles reduce, and with each step new opportunities open up. This has been the case for rotary steerable systems (RSS), which is finding new value in this historic downturn.
Partnering with Weatherford to design a bit tailored for their Revolution® RSS tool in the Eagle Ford, Ulterra set back to back to back world footage records using the 8.75” U516M CounterForce®. Continued Partnership with Weatherford’s Revolution RSS has led to huge improvements in vibration and torque, which has drastically reduced the chance of tool failure.
As seen in the American Oil & Gas Reporter in the April 2016 issue, Ulterra discusses recent success when partnering with rotary steerable companies to match our bits to their tools. Adding CounterForce® to customized bit designs reduced drilling vibrations and increased ROP on both PowerDrive and AutoTrak™ systems.
In the past six months, operators drilling in the Wolfbone area of the Delaware Basin have been looking more to rotary steerable systems (RSS) to reduce the time spent drilling lateral wells. RSS have become a more affordable option due to their reduced cost in the down market.
![]() ![]() |
© 2020 - Ulterra. All Rights Reserved. Site by Moon & Owl