If OTC is any indication — and what better — the technology of well construction is motoring along at a brisk pace. Sprinkled through the vast landscape of petroleum technology and its support systems were some interesting new developments that bear mention here. Space prohibits inclusion of everything worth noting, but here is a nod toward a few items of interest that may be coming soon to a field near you:

It would be hard to top “MudCube” as a memorable trade name, and the technology is equally as clever. It is a step change in the treatment of drilling fluids, says Cubility, its Norwegian developer. Unlike traditional shale shaker technology, which, as the company describes it, “uses brute force on the mixture trying to shake the mud off the cutting,” the MudCube system separates fluids from cuttings by vacuuming it through a rotating screen belt. The mud gets vacuumed away, ready to be used again while cuttings are transported off the screen and into containers.

The contemporary shale shaker, which would be instantly recognizable to a driller a half-century ago, would be a candidate for the title, if one were awarded, of “Most Obnoxious Rig Equipment.” Cubility says MudCube has — get this — very low noise and no vibration. In addition, it’s an enclosed system (no emissions) that can be operated without a large HVAC installation. It reduces mud loss and has low weight and low screen consumption, according to the company. It combines the shaker, degasser, dryer, and swarf unit into one system. For more information, visit www.cubility.no.

Drilling rigs themselves are becoming more specialized, and interesting nontraditional approaches continue to pop up. From French company Dietswell come two novel rig-design ideas.

A new type of compact and highly mobile rilling rig called the “Reverse Circulation and Rotary” (RCR) drilling rig is designed for conventional rotary drilling and reverse circulation. The company says RCR advantages compared to traditional designs include no substructure, small footprint, and quick rig set up. The rig has a self-erected derrick set and an innovative pipe handling system.

According to the company, the RCR requires fewer than 20 people to operate and improves maintenance and safety. Advanced automated features include remotely controlled hydraulic erection of the mast. There is no need to rig down the top drive for mobilization and demobilization. The company says it is possible to move with the rig floor in place. The rig design provides for semi-automatic handling of drill pipe and semi-automatic drillpipe makeup and breakout.

The RCR rig concept has two versions, the RCR-1200 and RCR-2000. The RCR-2000 is a small footprint drilling rig with similar capacity to a conventional, medium-size rig. The RCR-2000 is a bigger version of the RCR-1200 and can drill wells of more than 14,764 ft (4,500 m) total depth The RCR-2000 is a fast moving rig with all loads wheel-mounted for safe and easy transportation.

Dietswell’s second new idea is what the company calls a “horseshoe semisubmersible, tender-assisted drilling rig.” This design is said to be capable of placing a derrick set on a platform in one operation. Other features claimed by the company are 700 square meters (7,534.7 sq ft) extra available storage deck during operation using a foldable deck, the ability to use a dynamic positioning system, a low weight derrick set to allow for large pipe set back, and a double standing pipe rack for drill pipe (triple) and casing (double).

The derrick set transports “ready-to-use” and not in modules. There is no need for assembly and dismantling of the derrick set, and no welding is required. The risk of structural damage compared with derrick set built from modules (repeated assembly/dismantling) is minimized. For more information, visit www.dietswell.com.

Drillers of shallow, horizontal land wells have a new weapon in the form of the American Directional Drill VR-500. The rig uses rack and pinion thrust rather than gravity to provide weight on bit, and the company says this allows drilling horizontal wells at extremely shallow depths. The rack and pinion system provides 500,000 lb of thrust and pullback force.

Maximum rotary torque is 30,000 ft/lb. A remotely operated pipe handling system is part of the package.

Another interesting feature, the Wiggle Steer System, provides, as the company describes it, “…the means to rotate the drill pipe and subsequently the cutting head on the drill string back and forth over a predetermined range. This back and forth motion would cause the hole made by the cutting head to be more open in a particular direction and therefore facilitate steering of the drilling pipe in that direction under ground.” For more information, visit www.americanaugers.com.

These are just a few of a number of new well construction tools present at OTC but by no means all of them. As drilling gets more challenging, more and more of the traditional tools and techniques are getting tossed overboard and replaced by a clean sheet of paper (or a blank computer screen). These are interesting times.