Overview
Since the beginning of the shale revolution in the early 2000’s, we have seen significant changes in how wells are drilled. As operators continue to iterate and drill longer laterals with premium connections and larger pipe, we will continue to see a need for higher torque ratings in all aspects of downhole equipment. Achieving higher torque ratings require new solutions to streamline the process of breaking high-torqued equipment without sacrificing safety, speed or equipment life.
Challenge
An exploration and production (E&P) company with operations in the Midland Basin was battling over-torqued connections and trying to mitigate the resulting drillpipe damage. Between Q3 and Q4 of 2021, a considerable number of their drilling connections had to be broken with manual tongs. In addition to slowing the connection process down and reducing the life of the drillpipe, a larger threat was the added safety exposure. With tong events attributing to a large percentage of crew time in the red zone, they knew they needed a new solution that could break connections at a higher torque than 60,000 ft-lbs.
Since the beginning of the shale revolution in the early 2000’s, we have seen significant changes in how wells are drilled. As operators continue to iterate and drill longer laterals with premium connections and larger pipe, we will continue to see a need for higher torque ratings in all aspects of downhole equipment. Achieving higher torque ratings require new solutions to streamline the process of breaking high-torqued equipment without sacrificing safety, speed or equipment life.
Challenge
An exploration and production (E&P) company with operations in the Midland Basin was battling over-torqued connections and trying to mitigate the resulting drillpipe damage. Between Q3 and Q4 of 2021, a considerable number of their drilling connections had to be broken with manual tongs. In addition to slowing the connection process down and reducing the life of the drillpipe, a larger threat was the added safety exposure. With tong events attributing to a large percentage of crew time in the red zone, they knew they needed a new solution that could break connections at a higher torque than 60,000 ft-lbs.