P R IM I M D RILLING R ILLII NG ready - Drilling Contractor · directional drilling and...

50 November/December 2007 D R I L L I N G C O N T R A C T O R

P A C I F I C R I M D R I L L I N G

050505050505050505505505500550505555055050050500050005050505555505050505050500500000500505555550505000000000555505055050500005050505055055050500555555050000055050000500555000005005555050000000505500000005505000500505500555555555050055555555555555555555555555555005555555555555505055555555555050555555055555555555555500 NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNNoNNooNooooovevevevevevevevevveevevveveveveveveveveevvveeeeeeveveeeevvembmbmbmbmbmbbbmbmbmbmbmbbmbmbmbmbmmbmmbmbbbbmbm ererererereerereeererererrr/D/D/D//D/D/D/D/D/D/D/D/D//D/D/D/DDDDDD/ ececececcceecececeeeceeececceeeeceeeeeeeeccememememememememememmeemememmmemememememmmmbebebbebebebebebebebeebeebeeebbebbbebbbber r rrrr r rrrr rrrr 222222222220202000000202020202022222222200020202022222000200002202000002022220000002200222002000202220200022000020220202222202220020020020002200020020200022020000000200200700070707070707077070707070000700007070707070070700700707707070770007770007077777000000770707000707770000770777700007070707777700777777777000 D RD RD RD RD RD RD RD RD RD RD RD RD RD RD RRD RDDDDD RD RD RRD RRRD RDD RRD RD RD RRRRD RD RD RRD RDD RRRD RD RD RD RD RRD RD RRD RRD RD RD RRRD RD RD RD RD RRRD RRD RRD RDD RRD RRRD RD RD RDD RDD RRRRRRD RD RD RRD RRD RRD RD RD RRDDD RD RD RDDD RD RDDDDD RRD RRD RDDDDD RDDDDD RDDD RDDDDDDDDDD RD RRRRDDDDDDD RRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD RRDDDDDDD RRRR I LLI LI LII LI LII LIIIIIII LLLI LII LI LLLL LLLLLLLL IL IL IL ILLL IL IL IL IL IL ILLLL IL IL IL IL IIL IL ILLLLLLLLL ILL ILLL ILLL ILLLL ILLLLLLLLL ILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL IL ILLL ILL ILL IL II NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNND RDD RDD RDD RD RD RD RD RD RD RD RDDDDDD RD RD RD RRD RRRD RRD RRRRD RRD RDD RRRD RD RD RDD RD RD RD RRDD RDD RD RD RDD RRRD RDDD RRRRDDDDD RDD RDDDD RDDD RDDDD RDDDDD RDD RRD RRDDDD RDDDDD RDDD RDDDDD RDDDDDDDDDDDDD RRRRD III LII LI LI LII LI LII LIIIII LI LIII LLL LLLLLLL IL IL IL ILLL IIL IL IIIIIL ILLLL IL IL IL IL IL IL ILLLLLLL IILLLL IL ILLLLLLL ILLLLLLLLLLLLLL ILLLL ILLLLL ILL IILLL NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG C OCC OC OC OC OOOOOC OC OOC OC OC OOOC OOC OOC OOOOOOC OOOOC OOC OC OOOOOC OOOOOOC OOOOC OOOC OOOOOOOC OOOC OOOCC OC OOOC OOC OOOOOOO N TN TN TN TN TTTN TN TN TN TN TN TN TN TN TN TN TNN TNN TN TN TNNNNNN TTN TTNN TTTN TNNN TTTTTTTTTTN TTTTTTTTTTTTN TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTN TTN TTTT R AR AR AR AR ARRRRRRRRRRR AR AR AR AAR AR AAR AAR AR ARRRRRRRRR AR AR AAR ARRRRR AR AR ARRRRR AAAAAR ARR AAR AR AAARRRR AR AR ARRR AAR ARRRRRRRRRRR AR ARRRRR AR AR AR ARRRRRR ARRR ARRRRRR ARRRRRRR AAAAAAAAAAAAA C TC TC TC TC TC TTC TCC TC TTC TC TC TTC TC TC TCC TCC TC TC TCCC TC TCCCCC TCC TC TTTC TC TTC TC TTTC TC TC TC TTC TTC TC TCC TC TC TTC TC TCCC TTCC TTTTCCCCC TC OO ROOOO RO ROOOOOOOOOO RO RO RO ROO RRO RO RO RO ROOO RROOOOOOOOOO RO RO ROOOOOOOO RRO ROOOOOOO RRO ROOOOOOOO ROOO RO ROOOOOOO ROOOOO RRRROOOOO RO RO ROO RRRRRROOOO RO RO RRRROO RO RO ROO RRO RRRROO RO RO RO RRO RROOO RROOOO RROOOOOOOO RO ROOOO RROOOOOOOOOOOO RRRO RRRO RRR

P AP AP APP AP A C IC IC IC IC I F IF IF IFF I C CCC R IR IR IR IR I M M M MM D RD RD RD RD RD I LI LI LI L L IL IIL I N GN GN GN G

ready

51November/December 2007


D R I L L I N G C O N T R A C T O R 5151515151515115155155515511151511115511NNNNoNNNNNNoNNNoNoNoNoNoNooN veveveveveveeveveveveveembmbmbmbmbbmbmbmbbmbmbmbmbbmbmbbbmbbbbbbbbbbbmbm ereerererrerrererererererererererrererrerrerr/D/D/D/D/DD/D/D/DD//D//D///D//D/D/D///D//D//Deceececeecececceceeeeececceeeeececceecccceecccccemeemememmemememememmemememmemememmemmeemmmeeeemeeeeee bbebebebebbebebebebebbbebbebebbebebbbbbebebebebbebebbbebebbb rrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrrr 2020202020022022002020202020220020070707007770707077070707707070707070707777707007

P A C I F I C R IR M D R I L L IL II N GN G

D RD RD RD RD RD RD RD RD RD RD RRD RD RDD RD RD RRD RD RD RRRRD RD RD RDD RDDD RRRRRRRD RRRRRRRD RR I LI LI LI LI LIII LLI LI LI LI LI LI LI LIII L IL IL IL IL IL IIL IL IL IIL IL IL IL IL IL IL IIL IIIILL IIILLL NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNND RD RD RD RD RD RD RD RD RD RD RRRD RD RDD RRRRD RRRRRRD RDD RD RRRRRRRD RRRRRRR II LI LI LI LIII LLLI LLI LI LI LIIIII L L IL ILL IL IL IL IIL IL IL IIL IL IL IIL IL IL IIL IIIILL IILLL NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG C OOC OC OC OC OC OC OOOC OC OC OC OOC OC OC OCCCCCCCC N TN TN TN TN TNN TNN TN TN TNN TTN TTTN TNN TN TNN TTTN TTTNNNNN TN TTN TN TN TTTTTNN R AR AR AR AR AAR AAR AAR AR AR ARRRR ARR AR ARRR AR AAAAAR AAAAAAAAAAAAAAR A C TC TC TC TC TC TCCC TCC TC TC TC TTC TC TCC TC TTC TTC TTTTC TTTTTT O RO RO RO RO RO RO RO RO RO ROOOO RO ROO RRO RO RRO ROO RO ROOO ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ROOOOOOOOOOOOO

To meet To meet

soaring energy soaring energy

demands at home, demands at home,

China is working China is working

harder than ever to harder than ever to

reach out to the global reach out to the global

drilling community for drilling community for

new technologies, new new technologies, new equipment, new reserves. equipment, new reserves.

Here’s a glimpse into CNPC’s Here’s a glimpse into CNPC’s projects, ambitions, challenges and more.projects, ambitions, challenges and more.

By Linda Hsieh, associate editor

to take the world stage

52 November/December 2007 D R I L L I ND R I L L I N G C O N T R A C T O R


IN THE CENTER of Daqing, a city of more than two million people in northeast China, the sprawling Iron Man Memorial Hall stands in dedica-tion to Wang Jinxi, a 1960s oil worker who earned the nickname of “iron man” with his devotion to the development of Daqing Oilfield. He is said to have jumped into a pool of drilling mud to keep it from freezing — temperatures in Daqing can drop below -30°C in winter-time.

It is this “iron man” spirit that still moti-vates China’s petroleum workers to this day, according to the Daqing Drilling & Exploration Group of the Daqing Petroleum Administrative Bureau. The group is owned by China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the country’s largest oil and gas company.

The discovery of Daqing Oilfield in 1959 was celebrated as step toward energy self-sufficiency at the time — Daqing sig-nifies a “double celebration” in Chinese. However, China’s demand for oil and natural gas in recent years has soared beyond 1960s imagination. The country now stands as the world’s second-largest consumer of oil, and it understands all too well that energy is critically impor-tant to its expanding economy.

The Chinese petroleum industry, includ-ing industry leader CNPC, has been strongly pushing technological advances through both internal research and coop-eration with foreign companies. Zheng Yi, vice chief engineer and secretary general for CNPC’s engineering technol-ogy & market department, emphasized that the company is eager to learn about new drilling techniques and equipment from around the world. CNPC knows they will be critical if they are to maxi-mize remaining reserves on their 13 oil-fields, many of which are mature.

CNPC DRILLINGInternal reorganization in 2007 means there is no steady number of drilling companies at CNPC at this time, Mr Zheng said. But the number of its rig fleet provides a taste for the company’s size: As of September 2007, it owned 1,035 drilling rigs, mostly land rigs with a few shallow offshore units, plus 2,000 workover rigs. Mr Zheng said 22 million meters (72.18 million ft) were drilled in 2006. Although he expects that number to stay about even for 2007, he noted that 22 million meters “is double what we drilled just five years ago, only about 11 million meters (36.1 million ft).”

More than 10,000 wells were drilled in 2006, and this year CNPC plans to drill 12,000 . By September, more than 700 horizontal wells and 140 underbalanced wells had been drilled for the year — numbers that reflect CNPC mandates in 2006 to begin large-scale uses of these advanced drilling techniques to limit for-mation damage and improve production rates.

The most active fields nowadays, in terms of rig numbers, are the Sichuan

and Changqing fields in the Southwest and the Xinjiang field in the Northwest, Mr Zheng said. But the king of CNPC fields and the biggest-producing field in China is still Daqing, home to the “iron man” spirit.

‘DOUBLE CELEBRATION’ The Daqing Drilling & Exploration Group (DDEG), a massive entity within itself, owns four drilling companies and 121 drilling rigs, plus additional workover rigs, said Liu Fu, DDEG assistant presi-dent and general manager .

While production at Daqing has been declining, DDEG said it is hopeful that new technologies, such as horizontal/directional drilling and underbalanced operations, can make a difference. At the beginning of 2006, CNPC called for full deployment of horizontal drilling. By the end of the year, 522 horizontal wells had been completed. On the Daqing field alone, more than 50 horizontal wells were drilled in low-permeability, low-productivity areas. As of September 2007, the ratio of vertical to directional wells drilled had reached 1 to 0.83, Mr Liu said.

DDEG has reported average daily output from horizontal wells to be 2-5 times higher than that of vertical wells . Other improvements reported include faster drilling time, lower costs and reduced pollution risks.

U nderbalanced techniques have been significantly beneficial for parts of Daqing’s low-permeability formations as well, Mr Liu said.

CNPC production statistics

In first half of 2007, CNPC’s oil and gas output totaled 553 million bbl of oil equiva-lent, a 3.7% increase from the same period in 2006. It produced 420 million bbl of crude oil, a 0.1% increase from 2006. It also produced 798 billion cu ft of market-able natural gas, a 16.5% increase from 2006.

For 2006, its crude oil out-put was 830.7 million bbl , a 0.9% increase from 2005. Marketable natural gas out-put was 1.37 billion cu ft, a 22.5% increase from 2005. Total output of crude oil and natural gas was 1.06 billion bbl of oil equivalent.

355541

723

929

1,275

1,700

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Foot

age

(100

0m)

Year

Total Footage Drilled Outside ChinaUp 37% on average every year since 2001

Great Wall Drilling Company, CNPC’s international arm, has expanded rapidly outside of China since 2001. The chart above shows that GWDC’s footage drilled overseas has increased from 355,000 m in 2001 to 1.7 million m last year.



D R I L L I ND R I L L I N G C O N T R A C T O R

Zou Yeh, chief engineer for Daqing Drilling, and Zhang Shurui, senior engineer for DDEG’s No. 1 Drilling Company, both cited deep gas wells as a big concern — especially since these wells are often drilled in the volcanic formations common to the area. These wells average more than 4,000 m (13,100 ft) deep, they said, with the deepest at 4,900 m (16,000 ft). About 60 of these deep wells are drilled per year, Mr Zhang said, and drilling speeds and well-bore collapses can be headaches.

Underbalanced drilling has helped to a degree, but Mr Zhang and Mr Zou agreed that geosteering equipment would be extremely helpful . H igh costs, however, still keep things like rotary steerables out of their reach.

Case in point: In September, DRILLING CONTRACTOR toured No. 1 Drilling Company’s Rig 70163 on the Daqing Oilfield. The drilling team, which had drilled three other deep wells since 2005, was three months and 3,600 m into a 4,400-m MD/3,800-m TVD gas exploration well using downhole motors and MWD. With no top drive or rotary steerable equipment, drilling through the volcanic rock has been tough going. Average pen-etration stood at about 1 m (3.28 ft) per hour in September.

The project would be going much faster if geosteering tools were available, Mr Zhang said. As it is, the well was expect-ed to be completed by November 2007.

GOING INTERNATIONALMr Liu pointed out that DDEG doesn’t serve just Daqing Oilfield; it is a compre-hensive drilling engineering group that provides services on more than a dozen domestic oilfields other than Daqing. Since 1998, DDEG has also contracted for international work, providing drilling technology services in countries such as Algeria, Indonesia and Venezuela.

As a relatively late entrant to the inter-national market, Mr Liu said, DDEG is still going through the process of learn-ing and opening new markets for itself. He emphasized that the group is keen to step up communication with other com-panies in the international community .

GREAT WALL DRILLINGAlthough many of CNPC’s subsidiaries, such as DDEG, work extensively around the world, the bulk of its international work is still carried out by subsidiary Great Wall Drilling Company (GWDC). Founded in 1993 , the company specializ-

es in onshore drilling and operates more than 180 rigs in 26 countries (including four joint ventures), ranking it among the biggest land drilling contractors in the world.

Most of GWDC’s fleet were manufactured by CNPC’s own factories, said Great Wall vice president Du Jun. A big portion of them are 1,500-hp to 2,000-hp rigs with depth capabilities ranging from 2,000 m to 9,000 m (about 6,600 ft to 29,000 ft). Mr Du noted that some clients have requested 3,000-hp rigs, but GWDC

determined there was not sufficient work to justify the cost of acquiring such a rig at this time.

Still, GWDC has kept busy. Since a major reorganization in 2001, the company’s total footage drilled outside of China has increased by an average of 37% every year, from 355,000 m ( 1.16 million ft) in 2001 to 1.7 million m ( 5.58 million ft) in 2006. A total of 35 Great Wall rigs are working in Kazakhstan, its biggest mar-ket . Other major operating areas include Sudan and Venezuela.



“As a subsidiary of CNPC, we try to fully utilize the advantages of CNPC’s inte-grated resources, such as equipment, technical expertise, financial resources and human resources,” Mr Du said. For example, Great Wall has access to tech-nological advances at the CNPC Drilling Research Institute, established in 2006 to improve innovations and R&D in drill-ing technologies.

Additionally, GWDC has access to the more than 1,000 rigs owned by CNPC. However, Mr Du acknowledged that, at this point, no additional CNPC rigs are available for the international market . “Just 2-3 years ago, we were actively try-ing to send more rigs outside of China, but it’s a very different story now.”

Now, CNPC does not have enough rigs to meet its own drilling needs in China,

both Mr Zheng and Mr Du said. So unless it’s for CNPC’s own overseas development, no more rigs will be sent outside of China .

CNPC is working to amend that lack of rigs though . The company owns several drilling rig manufacturing companies, the biggest of which is Baoji Oilfield Machinery (BOMCO). The company is capable of building 9,000-m (29,500-ft) depth rigs and is targeting the build-ing of 12,000-m (39,400-ft) rigs . Overall, CNPC is building and/or refurbishing 40-50 rigs a year on average, Mr Zheng said. “We don’t have enough rigs to meet our needs. Rig and parts manufacturers in China are very, very busy.”

Liu Guanghua, president and senior engineer of CNPC’s Beijing Petroleum Machinery (BPM) factory, can attest to

that. BPM produced its 100th top drive in mid-2007, and it is the largest supplier of surface-mounted BOP control systems in the world, Mr Liu said. Last year the fac-tory produced 530 BOP control systems of up to 15,000 psi. Roughly half were exported outside China. About a third of its top drives are sold internationally as well, he noted.

Mr Liu said it takes BPM three months to make one top drive and estimated that, currently, it would take them about six months to deliver a new top drive after getting the order. BPM also makes downhole motors, progressive cavity pumps and drilling jars.

CHALLENGESAccording to CNPC’s 2006 Annual Report, its “priority areas” are increas-

Daqing Well Control Training Center of China is equipped with a full-scale rig that can simulate a well blowout. Every year, about 3,400 well control students go through the school, which includes 13 well control instructors and five HSE training instructors.

Jidong Nanpu discovery

In May 2007, CNPC announced that a newly found oilfield in the tidal and shallow water area of Bohai Bay has a reserve of 1 billion tons, or about 7.35 billion bbls, the largest discovery in China in more than 40 years. The oilfield lies in the Nanpu block of CNPC’s Jidong Oilfield in north China’s Hebei province.

The Nanpu block, partly offshore, covers an area of 1,300-1,500 sq km and is expected to produce light crude. It is an uncompart-mentalized high-grade oil-field with average oil layer thickness of 80-100 m and major target zone depth of 1,800-2,800 m. Production testing results show that the daily output of each vertical well is between 80-100 tons and between 200-500 tons for each horizontal well.

CNPC also has several onshore oilfields in the Jidong area with total reserves of more than 100 million tons.




ing prospecting efficiency in complicated reservoirs, EOR of mature oilfields, reducing production and operation costs, improving product quality and clean operations. The report also noted that most of its major oilfields are suffering from high water cut, high percentage of low-permeability reserves and increased difficulty of heavy oil development and EOR. These were all supported in com-ments from Mr Zheng at CNPC’s Beijing headquarters and from Mr Liu, Mr Zou and Mr Zhang in Daqing.

To address these challenges, CNPC in 2006 decided to integrate and optimize its scientific and research resources by establishing the CNPC Drilling Research Institute, which includes eight research centers and one factory (Beijing Petroleum Machinery).

On the equipment side, the research institute has been focusing on improv-ing their top drives. According to Zou Laifang, vice president of the research institute, they are also on the verge of producing geosteering tools in associa-tion with BPM. The institute has spent more than eight years researching near-bit geosteering equipment, he said, and finally research is finished and field tri-als are under way.

The institute traditionally operates on two levels of research, Mr Zou said. The first is advanced R&D on emerg-ing technologies; the second is direct

problem-solving for CNPC oilfields. The latter can be done through real-time monitoring from the research facilities . On 18 September, the Beijing branch of the institute was monitoring three wells simultaneously, including a 7,380-m well on the Xinjiang field.

Mr Zou cited several specific challenges facing the research institute and CNPC. One is drilling vertical wells in high-angle formations, as often seen in north-west China such as Xinjiang, Qinghai and Gansu provinces. With formation angles in the range of 72°, sometimes drilling speeds are so slow that only 5-6 m are drilled a day. Improving drilling speeds in high-density, low-permeability and low-porosity formations is a chal-lenge they’re facing on many oilfields .

Another challenge is controlling different pressures with one formation, he said. In addition to using advanced drilling fluids to improve formation pressure capacity, they have made limited progress using corrugated pipe to expand formation pressure parameters. So far, the corru-gated pipe solution has been used in low-pressure formations on 3-4 open holes and 90 cased-hole wells.

The application of extended-reach drill-ing has been challenging on shallow off-shore drilling as well, he said. In China, offshore drilling falls under the control of China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), but CNPC is allowed to drill

Zhang Shurui (left), senior engineer for Daqing’s No. 1 Drilling Company, monitors drill-ing on Rig 70163. Improving efficiency and safety on deep gas drilling is a major focus for the Daqing Drilling & Exploration Group, which owns the No. 1 Drilling Company.



within 5 meters offshore (see “ Jidong Nanpu discovery,” page 54). In these very shallow, gentle-slope areas, CNPC must reach out from land to very shallow formations at about 1,200 m (3,900 ft) . ERD applications in these situation have reached upward of 5,400 m (17,700 ft), Mr Zou said, and problems such as well-bore collapse have been common.

Drilling in coalbed methane reservoirs using multilaterals is another area the research institute is focusing on, Mr Zou said. The production rate from these wells have not been ideal, so the center is trying to determine if multilateral technology is really a good fit for these formations.

He also mentioned that cementing in sour gas formations has been problem-atic, especially in the Sichuan province .

Finally, Mr Zou said, there’s the ever-present challenge of protecting the reservoir while drilling. He noted that improvements in drilling fluids have helped, as well as underbalanced drill-ing, which only recently began to see widespread use in China.

One project that had significant influ-ence on the spread of underbalanced techniques in China was done by Great Wall Drilling. According to Mr Du, air drilling is not new in China, yet due to a lack of equipment and misunderstand-ings about the technology, it was not popular or commonly used.

An integrated drilling project in Iran in 2000 changed that. GWDC signed a con-tract with National Iranian Oil Company to drill 19 wells using three rigs in Tabnak, Iran’s largest onshore, sweet gas field. From the start, drilling progressed extremely slowly. The formation’s low downhole pressure made it difficult to drill with a mud system. Lost circulation, cave-ins and sloughing were encountered.

Knowing that one previous contractor took 440 days to drill one 3,000-m well in this field, GWDC decided to give air drill-ing a shot. An air drilling program was designed and implemented, and drill-ing time improved significantly. From 2001-2006, 22 wells averaging 3,000 m (about 9,900 ft) were drilled with 100% success, Mr Du said. Drilling time per well was shortened from 220 days on the first well to about 80 days.

Because of the success in this proj-ect, air drilling and related underbal-anced techniques caught the attention of Chinese companies, according to GWDC, especially in southern areas like Sichuan . “Air drilling or foam drilling has almost become standard drilling pro-cedure there to speed up drilling speed. This project had great influence on the development of drilling technology in China,” Mr Du said.

OPEN COMMUNICATIONOther than technological challenges, Mr Zheng Yi in Beijing noted that cost increases — on everything from casing/drill pipe to rigs and personnel — have impacted some projects.

Another big obstacles for Chinese com-panies, especially as they try to expand in the global market, remains language, Mr Du pointed out. This problem is

Students (wearing blue hats) from China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) receive training at the Bohai Petroleum Vocational College. The school is located near Tianjin, China, by CNPC’s Huabei Oilfield. Its well control training center is WellCAP-accredited.

This drilling project in Iran, undertaken by Great Wall Drilling Company, influenced the spread of UB techniques in China, said GWDC vice president Du Jun. Its success caught the attention of many in China’s drilling industry. Air/foam drilling has almost become standard now in some areas, he said, to improve drilling speed.



especially critical for GWDC since it is CNPC’s international arm , and the com-pany continues to work to make sure that its Chinese employees can com-municate efficiently and effectively with local employees — about 75% of GWDC’s 10,000-plus employees around the world are from host countries.

However, Mr Du emphasized that this problem is lessening every year as China opens up more and more. When he graduated from university in 1983, very few people in China could speak English, even college students. When he visited the Middle East in 2000, he was shocked when he was asked if China had any

drilling operations or oil. “That really surprised me. How could they think we don’t have any oil?” he said. “But what that really meant was that we lacked communication.”

Throughout CNPC, from Daqing to Beijing, from those in the field to those in offices, employees realize that China can benefit by learning from the inter-national drilling community. At the same time, they’re eager to share their own knowledge, successes and “iron man” spirit with the rest of the world.

China’s communication process has begun. Let’s keep pushing it forward.

In September, No. 1 Drilling Company’s Rig 70163 on the Daqing Oilfield was drilling a 4,400-m MD deep gas exploration well. Drilling through the volcanic rock formation has been a big challenge. The team had drilled three other deep wells since 2005.


P R IM I M D RILLING R ILLII NG ready - Drilling Contractor · directional drilling and...

Documents

Transcript of P R IM I M D RILLING R ILLII NG ready - Drilling Contractor · directional drilling and...