Churchill reports growing geothermal confidence

Churchill Drilling Tools, a leading oilfield service company specialising in drilling innovation, has reported growing confidence in the geothermal sector for its flagship tool, the DAV MX™ CircSub.

The increase in demand was triggered after the tool was run in the world’s deepest (4,650m) and hottest (427 °C) geothermal borehole in the Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) in 2017. The DAV MX CircSub was selected on the recommendation of a major operator and partner for the IDDP due to its robust temperature resistance and experience in HPHT conventional wells. The tool offered a contingency against pack-off related circulation loss in which the BHA components would be literally cooked if circulation was lost.

Since then operators have run the DAV MX CircSub 11 times in geothermal wells, activating the tool on 13 occasions. This included in 2018 a challenging onshore geothermal well in the Netherlands where the operator, running two DAV MX CircSubs, was able to boost annular velocity and optimise its hole cleaning process, not only increasing the volume of cuttings returns but also reducing the time to transport the cuttings to surface by around 75%.

Churchill’s European regional account manager, Corin Lewsey, said: “The DAV MX CircSub’s resilience, reliability and versatility in the most challenging of environments, including the world’s deepest and hottest geothermal well, provides operators with the confidence to run our tools. Indeed, demand for the DAV MX CircSub across the industry is at record levels, and we’re particularly encouraged by growing demand and interest in the geothermal sector.”

Churchill’s DAV MX CircSub, which operators have run on almost 2,000 occasions and activated nearly 1,000 times, will be on display at the GeoTHERM Expo & Congress, in Offenburg, Germany on February 14 and 15.

Mr Lewsey continued: “We have ambitious plans to expand our presence in the geothermal market and are pleased with our progress to date. With our track record and knowing that our competition simply cannot match the flexibility, reliability and resilience of the DAV MX CircSub, we’re confident that the geothermal sector will become a significant market for Churchill.”