Our Services

Problem Root Cause Analysis

You’ve endured drilling difficulties, turn these into a gain, by learning from them to ensure they don’t recur. The majority of the problems we review have been experienced previously elsewhere. Our candid root cause problem reviews are invaluable for companies that want to learn from problems and continually improve.

Feasibility Studies

Increase your company’s assets’ value & profitability by exploiting stranded reserves. Use of existing facilities shortens time to 1st oil and can defer abandonment expenses. Surface wellheads increase ultimate recovery by 10+% when compared to subsea options. Recent technological innovations have pushed industry drilling reach capabilities to 15 km (50,000 ft) with Merlin already having produced feasibility studies beyond this!

Detailed Engineering Design

Focus on what’s actually required. Set out an optimized design that mitigates not only the problems most frequently experienced by others, but also the challenges presented by your design and local drilling conditions. Use engineering techniques to reduce drilling loads to further improve equipment reliability. Understand the strengths and limits of contingencies. Plan for success by setting up the Engineering models, such that they are ready to use during operations with minimal revision.

Equipment Specification

We’ll never turn down more horse power or increased equipment capabilities, but we can tell you the true ultimate reach of existing equipment, the minimum specification to reach an objective, what’s going to reach it’s limit first and options to work around this. Certain downhole tools are not compatible with demanding ERD wells and their use can cause failure by design. Likewise, small changes in BHA & drill-string design can have major impacts on equipment reliability.

Training

Drill further without rig upgrades, whilst delivering projects on time and budget by avoiding the operational problems that occur most frequently in ERD wells. Whether teaching for the first time, providing a refresher to catch new crew members, or reminding experienced hands what’s different in ERD, training is the best method to achieve a consistent knowledge level.

The soft issue of incorrect risk perception is responsible for 80% of the train wrecks in ERD wells, education not only maximises the probability of success, it upskills personnel reducing risk on future directional projects whilst showing how to drill beyond current limits.