HDD

We are heavily present in the Oil & Gas industry, however we’ve been known to push a bit through a stake or two when it comes to HDD. We understand the shared components between HDD industry and Oil and Gas, but more importantly we understand their differences. When designing MWD tools for Oil & Gas, the critical factors are reliability, accuracy, temperature, shock and vibration. However, with HDD the requirements for temperature, shock and vibration are far less stringent.

These key differences allow for more freedom in HDD tool design. While the environmental requirements may be less than Oil & Gas, the requirement of accuracy specifications are much tighter, and room for error in this measurement is slim to none. Requirements are not the only difference between the Oil & Gas and HDD industries. The type of steering techniques used are very different. Although, both industries use inclination and azimuth as the basic measurements used to guide steering decisions. In Oil & Gas the intent is to steer down to a target zone and stay in the zone until the planned end.

With these types of drills, we do not really know our exact position when steering, and are using data from each sampling station to build our well. On the inverse, in HDD when steering the intent is to make the bit come up to the surface on the other side of a highway, river, or other obstacle. Combine the type of drill out with some of the technology that can be used with these shallow drill jobs, such as magnetic ranging and the uncertainty of an HDD drill out is at worst, in the center of the drill and at best, the steering hand will know exactly where the tool is at all times using a magnetic reference. 

We would like to use the example of navigation to present how we view the differences between the HDD and Oil and Gas industries. When you think of navigation, your first initial thought may be to a GPS.  Well, how did we travel around without the help of our GPS gadgets? Let’s think of a scenario in the era before we had GPS technology and are traveling at sea. Your only way of knowing how to navigate is by reading nautical charts and referencing sailing knots.

Starting with Dead Reckoning Navigation, you want to go west at 20 knots per hour, Go North 30 knots per hour, you would then have to calculate that to find your position. Using this method, it’s inevitable for error with factors such as the waves and the ship no turning exact, etc. This is the basic example of dead reckoning. If we were to extend this analogy to referential navigation, it would require the use of instruments to navigate the reference to a lighthouse. Being able to visually see the lighthouse provides an advantage in knowing your given position is to the distance of lighthouse using whatever type of equipment required for that time. This type of navigation allowed you for more accuracy in your measurements. Circling back to today’s navigation, GPS is commonly used to locate our position using GPS satellites via our phone or Trimble.

HDD fits the referential navigation and dead reckoning analogy because on many jobs we can use coils and beacons to find our way. However, sometimes we are required to drill in magnetically compromised environments which ultimately require the use of a gyro. We believe the future is strongly based around having extremely accurate dead reckoning navigation, beacons, and a gyro.

The HDD market holds great interest and untapped potential that we feel we can assist in moving the mwd technology toward the future. We understand that HDD requires extreme accuracy and low cost, which aligns perfectly with our sales model for our products.  Some ways we feel we could help this industry is by providing tools that are simple to use. As an example of our goal for simplicity, our surface software is touch-based and meant to help fresh steering hands enter the industry.

We're looking for an HDD Partner

We’re seeking an HDD partner to work on developing better technology, whether that be with a Gyro, beacons, or wireless communication. Multiple navigation techniques will be required and will have to continue to evolve and improve. Whether it's connecting two bits downhole or pushing a bit through a stake, we think combining an Oil & Gas drilling perspective with an HDD perspective will mean an overall better result when trying to solve big industry issues.

If you feel that your values align, please let us know by filling the form below: