Weatherford announced the commercial release of its JetStream Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) circulation sub at SPE ATCE 2015 on Tuesday.
Poor wellbore integrity can cause events, such as stuck
pipe, wellbore collapse, sloughing shales and lost circulation, which are major concerns for drillers in deep water. The JetStream RFID circulation sub enables operators to run a series of tools at different positions along the drillstring and remotely actuate the valves an unlimited number of times in a single trip to achieve higher flow rates and cleaner wellbores.
“Weatherford has pioneered the innovative application of RFID technology in the oil and gas industry to drive operations efficiency,” said Neil Gordon, V.P., Intervention Services and Drilling Tools, Weatherford. “As operators deal with more complex wellbores, the ability to drop an RFID tag from the surface and circulate it through the sub enables our clients to open and close downhole tools multiple times, which provides superior operational flexibility and saves days of rig time. In deepwater drilling operations, RFID technology can save the client over $1 million per application by reducing the amount of non-productive time. This is critical in the current economic environment.”
Recently, an operator drilling in the North Sea deployed the JetStream RFID circulation sub in a 6.5-in. intermediate section that was drilled to total depth of 10,446 ft through a soft, porous limestone formation. The JetStream RFID circulation sub was actuated a total of 16 times to spot 29 lost-circulation material pills, which allowed the operator to maintain loss rates below 20 bbl/hr and avoid abandoning the well.
