The operator’s concerns

Northeast Natural Energy wanted to improve operational efficiency and well quality in drilling a long tangent section, a high-DLS curve section, and a long 8,682-ft lateral.

What was planned

The operator was going to use two BHAs due to the high performance required to successfully drill these sections according to plan. However, this well had the largest step-out on the pad and required kicking off at 56° inclination for 3,160 ft and drilling through abrasive sandstone.

What Schlumberger recommended

Schlumberger recommended using the NeoSteer CLx ABSS with AxeBlade ridged diamond element bit and the xBolt G2 accelerated drilling service to drill the tangent, steep curve, and long lateral in one run.

What was achieved

The NeoSteer CLx ABSS drilled 13,819-ft MD through all three sections and reduced the tortuosity of the complex well trajectory while staying 91% in a 4-ft zone, compared with most wells with a 10- to 20-ft window. This percentage includes the footage at the heel where the wellbore was soft landed. Throughout the drilling process, azimuthal image and dip picking helped the wellbore stay in zone through formation changes. Using the NeoSteer CLx ABSS instead of the traditional two-BHA strategy also enabled Northeast Natural Energy to maintain a high ROP because the operator was able to avoid sliding.