Downhole Technology Cuts Down on Drilling Time and Cost
HOUSTON - February 24, 2015 - Luxembourg headquartered Neo Oiltools today announced the launch of its ground-breaking down-hole torque management tool, NeoTork.
NeoTork automatically manages torque generated from the drill bit and mitigates axial and torsional vibrations. As a result it brings down drilling time, reduces cost of drilling operations, while improving drilling performance.
“It is during times of challenge, such as the one the industry currently faces, that we often see new technologies emerge because service companies need to find ways to differentiate themselves,” said Pascal Bartette, Neo Oiltools CEO. “NeoTork addresses the operators’ challenge to cut costs and improve efficiency while limiting the number of trips that always remain a safety exposure .”
“We expect NeoTork to be a very significant step forward for the oil and gas industry,” Bartette said. “There’s no other product that is as simple to use as NeoTork nor one that provides customers with such good value for their investment. Some have even called it ‘Drilling made easy’ which I think sums up exactly what we’ve managed to create.”
The system has been through extensive lab and comparative tests in its development phase. In the results, vertical vibrations dropped by a factor of four and stalling virtually disappeared even with heavy loading (the drill string without NeoTork stalled 15 times). The BHA with NeoTork in place achieved a 40% improvement in the rate of penetration (ROP).
The technology has been designed to ensure that once downhole torque exceeds the preset limit, a system of disc springs and steel cables automatically contracts to reduce the bit depth of cut. The excess torque ‘stored’ in the system is slowly released as the drilling structure drills off. Crucially, the bit remains constantly engaged in the formation so drilling is never interrupted.
NeoTork can be used in a number of industry applications on both drilling rigs, or with coiled tubing in any operations that require milling, drilling or cutting of materials using rotation. It can also be used in specialized operations such as coring, hole enlargement, directional drilling, casing milling and well intervention.
An experienced team of oil and gas drilling professionals are behind the development of NeoTork. Pascal Bartette, Neo Oiltools CEO, is the former CEO of oil services company Reservoir Group, purchased in 2013 by ALS Global. The inventor of NeoTork, Philippe Cravatte, was the Technical Director of the Group, he also has a long history of technology development.
The company is now focusing on commercial development for its coiled tubing variant (sizes available from 2 1/8 up to 3 ½ inch). Tools for larger hole sizes, as well as conventional drilling applications, are due to be available from late Q3 2015 for testing.