Houston-Seven years of engineering and development, funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, have produced an intelligent drill string network capable of transmitting downhole data to the surface several orders of magnitude faster than conventional mud pulse and electromagnetic transmission. The technology has the potential to change drill strings from simply a drilling tool to a sophisticated information system. With data transfer rates approaching 2 megabits a second, the intelligent drill string allows instant retrieval of data from measurement-while-drilling and even high-resolution logging-while-drilling tools, and gives the driller real-time control of downhole mechanical devices. More importantly, it supports high-speed/high-volume, bidirectional data transmission to and from hundreds of discrete measurement nodes along the full length of the drilling string-not just at the bit-enabling new technologies that can improve well productivity and profitability, increase drilling efficiency, reduce drilling time and costs, and enhance well control safety while remaining virtually transparent to day-to-day rig floor procedures.
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