The world demand for energy is escalating. Two of the few major energy sources are Oil & Gas. In order to extract these energy resources drilling must be used to reach the underground reservoirs. Major oilfields are found on both land (onshore) and under the sea bed (offshore). When drilling for Oil & Gas, a drill bit is used attached to a drill pipe tools with diameters from 1000 mm down to 100mm. The largest hole is at the top of the well which must be sealed as the steps get deeper. This is called well construction. The well is sealed from collapsing by using a steel tube with cement to fix it to the well formation. This steel tube is called the casing which has several functions. The major one is to seal off the well from its high pressure. In “open hole” drilling the tools are exposed to the severe wear from the formation, after setting the casing. The current depths of wells are from 3,000 m to 10,000 m deep.
What is Hardbanding?
Hardbanding is a very established name for the wearfacing welding process used in drilling to minimize wear on casing and drilling tool joints in order to reduce operational costs associated with Oil & Gas production. It involves the application of a wearfacing material on the drill tool joint. The process is done by approved hardbanding applicators for OEM drill pipe producers and drilling companies. Trio OilTec Services have executed hardbanding in the Norwegian market for more than 8 years. Due to excellent co-operation between Trio OilTec Services and StatoilHydro, there has been a very successful development and use of new, innovative alloys such as OTW-12, OTW-16 wires and also special coating (MX5). Today Statoil- Hydro approves OTW-12, OTW-16 and the MX5 coating for drilling.
In the development of these products, TRIO, took this task very seriously, and uniquely in the industry constructed its own dedicated hardbanding Wear test Machine and also full scale automated Hardbanding welding facility. With Trio’s integration into the global Castolin Eutectic organisation, there is an extension its product offer outside of Norway.
