Frank’s International provided its FA-1 casing running tool (CRT) for a project in the Gulf of Mexico that the company says established a new worldwide milestone in casing while drilling (CwD) operations.
FA-1 was modified for 30in casing drilling and running that Frank’s provided to Schlumberger for a 30in CwD shallow waters project in the Bay of Campeche, Gulf of Mexico. The event marked the industry’s first 30in CwD job, Frank’s said.
The 30in by 34in conductor section was drilled and cased at 256m, drilling a total of 178m in 9.52 hours with an average rate of penetration (ROP) of 18.04m per hour. The successful implementation of Frank’s modified 22in FA-1 CRT in conjunction with the Schlumberger Direct XCD drillable alloy casing bit saved the operator 1.31 days.
Frank’s worked in close collaboration with Schlumberger to successfully complete the design, manufacturing and testing of the new components for the FA-1 CRT in just under eight weeks. The CRT and tubular running services (TRS) for the project were performed by Frank’s local operations team in Villahermosa, Mexico.
“Frank’s best-in-class engineering and manufacturing capabilities, combined with the superior service quality of our Mexico operations, enabled us to rapidly and successfully support our customer in achieving this important global milestone,” Billy Walker, vice president of Frank’s Latin America, Canada and US land operations said. “This event represents another strong example of our company’s capabilities as the leading provider in complex TRS solutions.”