Newly developed elastomer enables successful drilling of 3,000 m in single BHA run

By developing a new DynaPower™ extreme-durability (XD) motor elastomer for Dynaforce high-performance drilling motors—part of the Dyna-Drill portfolio of downhole motor equipment—a geothermal operator, a geothermaloperator in Europe sucessfully drilled 3,000-m lateral in a single BHA run, achieving substantial performance gains, including higher on-bottom ROP, improved ROP per circulating hour, and increased meters drilled per day below the rotary table.

In onshore Europe, a major operator’s geothermal development required drilling 12 lateral wells, each approximately 3,000 m in length, as part of a closed-loop geothermal system. The project’s economics depended on completing each lateral in a single BHA run. However, repeated motor elastomer failures significantly impacted performance. Elastomer chunking and debonding led to unplanned trips to surface to replace the BHA, increasing time and cost. Prior efforts to resolve the issue—including testing multiple elastomer formulations and motor technologies—were unsuccessful, as the failures persisted. Consequently, the operator sought a reliable solution that would enable each 3,000 m lateral to be drilled in a single BHA run and restore the project’s economic viability.

SLB overcame the challenge by developing a new DynaPower XD elastomer for DynaForce motors, enabling the operator to drill the entire 3,000 m lateral section in a single BHA run. This innovation delivered significant performance gains—a 30% increase in on-bottom ROP, a 100% increase in ROP per circulating hour, and a 120% improvement in meters drilled per day below the rotary table compared with the previous best lateral performance. The campaign successfully completed the 12, 3,000 m laterals in just 10.8 days, achieving the best performance on the project to date.