Nanotechnology Can Overcome the Critical Issues of Extremely Challenging Drilling and Production Environments

摘要

Due to a progressively decreasing trend in finding easy oil and gas, the industry is shifting to high risk and extremely challenging drilling environments to meet global energy demands. This is reflected by increasingly higher drilling activities in complex geological areas, deepwater environments, extreme high-pressure/high temperature (HPHT) conditions, etc. The increasing shift from vertical to deviated, horizontal or extended reach drilling; from single lateral to multilateral drilling; from conventional completions to coiled tubing (CT) or casing while drilling; and from rotary drilling to downhole motor drilling, etc., also dictates the development of highly reliable tools and equipment for a trouble-free drilling operation. Moreover, critical issues such as HPHT, complex geology, greater water depth, and high rig rental and operating costs make oil and gas exploration and exploitation today highly risky and extremely costly. Therefore, drilling operations in these extreme environments need reliable, chemically resistive and mechanically stable surface and subsurface tools and equipment with short- and long-term fail-safe capability to overcome the technical limitations of conventional tools.