There are many reasons why the oil and gas industry has fallen in love with directional drilling. No matter what the situation, trenchless isn’t just a better option but is also the only possible solution for an installation job–directional drilling can pull through in any environment to get things done right where you need them without harming areas that might have been previously deemed off-limits.
Today’s advanced technologies have allowed engineers at some companies to establish new solutions when trenchless isn’t an option. They can now use directional drillIng instead, which is less time-consuming than traditional methods such as trenching.
Here are a few pointers to keep your directional drill in tip-top shape for your next horizontal directional drilling project and many more to come:
Rotate the drill pipe.
On a directional drill, the drill pipe is arguably the most worn component. It isn’t particularly expensive, but keeping it in good condition order is critical because it can make or break a directional bore.
Rotate the pipe throughout the drill string to help extend its service life. Instead of starting with the same piece of drill pipe every time, rotate it around the string to ensure even wear on all of the pipes.
Make use of drilling fluid.
Some in the business feel that because it’s a 100-foot bore rather than a 1,000-foot bore, the project may be completed without the use of drilling fluids. Or they’ve worked without drilling fluids in the past and will continue to do so in the future. However, this wears down the equipment. Things don’t last as long as they might if a project was completed with the correct fluids.
How significant is the difference between drilling fluid and “mud” can make?
Using fluids on a regular basis can extend the life of a drill by roughly 20%. The tooling that goes into the ground has a life expectancy of roughly 50%, which is really important.
Check the ground conditions.
It’s tough to keep equipment in good working order if it’s not even up to the task. Choosing the correct tooling and fluids for a directed bore can not only assist operators in completing a task successfully but will also reduce equipment wear.
Of course, you don’t want to drill through rock with a bit that was made for dirt. Select the appropriate tools for the work, and the drill will be far more resistant to wear and tear. Also, the mud formula may need to be tweaked from job to job.
There are a lot of variables to consider. You might have very abrasive sand in one bore and need to use a special drilling fluid to reduce friction, while you might have no friction at all in another bore. However, if you want to keep the drill pipe from sticking to a clay formation, you’ll need to add some slick properties to the drilling fluid.
If the machine’s gauges display excessive rotary torque, it’s possible that the wrong fluid is being used.
Make sure to use high-quality makeup water.
You may have chosen the best drilling fluid formula for the job, but if you aren’t careful with your water source, you may still risk damaging your equipment.
Operators are most likely drawing water from a creek or a fire hydrant. If the fire hydrant hasn’t been cleaned for a long time, they’ll have a ton of sand in those pipes, and it’ll be pouring right into their mixing tank. The sand is then combined with the drilling fluids and sent through the mud pump.
They should utilize a strainer device before dumping water into the tank if they’re drawing water from a creek. Otherwise, the mud system will be clogged with pebbles, small rocks, and larger grains of sand, which will be forced via the mud pump as well.
Ensure that drill operators are well-trained.
Make sure that your operators are fully trained and conversant with the drill’s and drill pipe’s limits to avoid drill damage. Staying within those parameters and not pushing the drill too hard can assist prevent pipe from being bent or not returning at all.
Takeaway
The horizontal directional drilling method requires meticulous care to make sure the equipment doesn’t break down. An equipment failure caused by ignored maintenance might result in more than simply downtime.
It can even force you to abandon your project mid bore and start again. It’s not easy to get broken down equipment out of a hole while still being able to utilize that hole, with some jobs taking months or years instead of weeks for completion as they wait on replacement parts/equipment coming outfitted by experts who may have been scheduled days away!
