This work paved to way for the client to become more proficient in unconventional well construction and to obtain more value from real-time operations monitoring. It involved the documentation of best practices as well as the design of an optimum, large-scale real-time operations center for largely land-based drilling operations.

This work involved a major integrated study of selecting the right drilling fluid formulation and mud weight for a persistent borehole stability problem that the client was experiencing in one of their main prospects, which over the years had costed them many tens of millions of dollars in trouble cost. This cost was incurred despite the client following what were supposedly industry best practices. Through a combination of extensive drilling fluid – shale interaction testing, well file look-back analyses and sophisticated borehole stability modeling, an integrated solution to the problem was found and recommended.

This work involved the re-evaluation of rock mechanics tests conducted by a 3rd party laboratory that involved several artifacts and misinterpretations of tests that led to fluid systems of the supplier being improperly evaluated, causing difficulties with potential oil & gas operator clients. Careful review and re-analyzing of the data by EVO Energy Consulting placed the rock mechanics results in the proper perspective that was much more favorable for the supplier’s fluid systems, thereby resolving issues with the supplier’s clients.