Drilling engineers working in oil and gas carefully plan well trajectories to avoid well-to-well collisions. And for the first 20 years of my career, so did I.

Recently, however, I had the opportunity to be part of a groundbreaking project where the client's vision was the exact opposite: intentionally intersecting multiple horizontal wells at a depth of roughly 8,000 meters.

Not for oil and gas, but for geothermal.

For two wells to follow and intercept each other, a magnetic ranging detection system is required. The target well would now be a moving target, and the extended horizontal reach meant that the directional motor bottom hole assemblies (BHAs) typically used for well interceptions were not an option. But with a determined and multidisciplinary team, it’s not long before you start thinking outside the box.

We ended up combining active magnetic ranging (AMR) technologies—rotating magnets and a client proprietary ranging tool, to be exact—in a motorized rotary steerable system Orbit BHA with the Gyrolink and MWD Trulink surveying tools. We deployed it in two simultaneously drilled wells, jointly developing an industry-first directional drilling and ranging workflow for Well Radar.

And you want to know the best part? The wells are part of the world’s first commercial, closed-loop advanced geothermal system (AGS).

The project reached an unprecedented level of technical performance. All six lateral wellbores were intercepted as planned on the first attempt, and a total of 48 kilometers of closed-loop system were drilled. The last intercept well was delivered in just 17 days—a 70% reduction in drilling time compared to the average drilling time of the first four lateral wellbores.

The client AGS officially began supplying electricity to the grid. It is expected to provide 64 MW of clean thermal energy for district heating and 8.2 MW of electrical power. This will translate into approximately 44,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions avoided.

To say I feel privileged to have been a part of this journey is an understatement. The moment you see decades of expertise evolve into new applications—especially ones in clean energy development—is a powerful reminder that innovation has no boundaries.

Which is why I call upon my colleagues to continue discovering ways in which our knowledge and skills can power the next 100 years of the energy industry. SLB has done some incredible things over the last century, and the opportunities ahead are just as exciting!