Drilling Technology
Iron that thinks, hands that don't have to.
Technology on a drilling rig only earns its keep if it takes a person out of a dangerous place or takes a day off the well. Everything below does one of those two things, and we can show you the numbers for each.
The stack
What is on our rigs
Automated pipe handling
Iron roughneck, hydraulic catwalk and a racking arm under one control. On our eleven equipped rigs the driller trips pipe without a floorhand inside the red zone. Dropped-object exposure and hand injuries both go to zero for the tripping operation.
Rotary steerable
Push-the-bit and point-the-bit systems run on every lateral over 9,000 ft. Higher build rates, smoother hole, and a wellbore that casing and completions actually run into without fighting.
Managed pressure drilling
Closed-loop circulating with a rotating control device and automated choke. Narrow-margin sections that used to need three casing strings frequently take two, and kick detection moves from barrels to gallons.
Real-time downhole
MWD and LWD with gamma, resistivity, and along-string pressure. Directional decisions get made against the log rather than against a plan drawn six months ago.
Hybrid rig power
Battery packs shave the peak load off the gensets so engines run in their efficient band instead of chasing the mud pumps. Where highline is available we take grid power and shut the engines down entirely.
Closed-loop fluids
Solids control, centrifuges and cuttings dryers that keep drilling fluid in the system and cuttings out of a reserve pit. Less mud bought, less waste hauled, smaller pad.
Automated driller
Weight, torque and differential pressure held to setpoint by the control system rather than by hand. Consistency in the middle of the night is where the footage actually comes from.
Torque & drag modelling
Live hookload and torque compared against the model on every connection. Divergence is a warning about hole cleaning long before it becomes a stuck pipe event.
Well control instrumentation
Coriolis flow-in and flow-out metering with automatic gain and loss alarming. On MPD wells, influx detection is typically inside 1.5 barrels.
Why it matters
Technology has to pay for itself twice.
Once in safety, once in days. We do not put a system on a rig because it demonstrates well at a trade show. Every item on the list above went through a twelve-well trial on a single rig, with the results measured against the rest of the district running the old way.
Three systems failed that test and are not on our rigs. We will tell a client which three and why, because the reasoning is more useful than the list.
- Twelve-well trial before fleet-wide adoption
- Measured against a district control group, not against a vendor claim
- Maintenance and spares planned before the first installation
- Crew training completed before the equipment ships
Measured outcomes
Before and after, same district, same formation
| Metric | First 10 wells | Current | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spud to rig release, Permian lateral | 16.6 days | 14.2 days | −14.5% |
| Average rate of penetration, production section | 54 ft/hr | 71 ft/hr | +31.5% |
| Tripping speed | 840 ft/hr | 1,180 ft/hr | +40.5% |
| Non-productive time | 4.8% | 1.9% | −60.4% |
| Cost per foot | $226 | $182 | −19.5% |
| Recordable incidents per 200,000 hours | 0.71 | 0.00 | −100% |
| Diesel burned per well | 96,400 gal | 61,200 gal | −36.5% |
Internal operating statistics, Permian district, comparable well designs. Unaudited.
In development
What we are working on next
Ironhand robotic floor
Full robotic tubular handling with no personnel on the drill floor at any point in the well. Currently on a land test stand; it is the defining system of the Ironmark XG-1 concept.
Composite-titanium riser
A lighter riser string that lets a smaller hull hold station in deeper water. Coupon testing complete, full-scale joint not yet built.
Autonomous tripping
Closed-loop trip sequencing with the driller supervising rather than operating. Two rigs are running the software in shadow mode with no control authority.
Development programmes are unsanctioned research. Nothing on this list is offered commercially.
How we take work.
Xtragate does not tender publicly and does not accept unsolicited enquiries. Programmes come to us through operators we already work for.