John Turvill, Smith International, Inc.
Commercial Measurement While Drilling systems have now been available for over ten years. A broad range of capabilities have been developed, albeit at significant cost. Development has primarily been driven by technology availability. The market for MWD services has been primarily limited by capability, supply and cost. MWD technology has now matured to the point where it is possible to offer significantly more capability than may be required in a given situation. Current MWD applications can be categorized as directional drilling, drilling efficiency, non-reservoir formation evaluation, and reservoir evaluation. The basic data requirements of these applications are sometimes complementary, however the cost of providing a system to cover all applications is prohibitive for the majority of wells. MWD is a technological development impacting several other wellsite services. The most significant of these are Drilling Equipment, Mudlogging and Wireline Logging. MWD cannot fully supplant any of these services, and must coexist alongside them all. Thus, any projection of the future role of MWD must look at the current and future interaction between all these services. Analyzing the inherent capabilities and limitations of each service provides an insight into their intrinsic benefits and value. Projecting likely future developments, it is concluded that MWD services will evolve to offer a broad range of applications solutions. These will focus on the inherent unique capability of MWD systems to provide downhole information as the well is being drilled. This should result in MWD services becoming an economically viable option for a wide range of wells.