The Future of MWD/LWD

A while ago I have conducted a small question to my fellow members of GE MWD/LWD Professional group on LinkeIn.com. The question asked is like this, “How do you see the future of MWD/LWD?” A simple straightforward question. I have raised this question because of my concern about the impact of global slowdown in the oil and gas industry and world financial crisis recently. And also due to the fact that some of us, Directional Drillers and MWD/LWD Engineers, in the world are sitting at home for over a year now. It surely has been a quite tough time for us.

Below are some comments that would describe the future of MWD/LWD.

The low cost tensor will be a staple. Gamma and resistivity with a directional package will do 90% of any log information required by geology. High cost operations like deep water or experimental wells will utilize the triple and quad combo wireless. ~ Craig Mooney

You will also see more unmanned on site MWD systems, with the rig crew handling the tool on the surface. Data and troubleshooting the systems will be handled at a command center with highly trained specialist monitoring the data from more than one site – possibly three or four. The specialist will cycle through on tours and make decisions on the tool functions. Directional drilling lead operators will also monitor the well’s direction from the command center. Experienced drillers will handle the sliding/rotating duties from the direction of the command center directional drillers, who monitor more than one job. The command centers will be able to remotely make adjustments to the MWD receivers to insure quality data and decoding capabilities. This is a transitional process to insure the proper training of the rig hands, with one MWD/DD person on site. For logging, the gamma data can be received in the command center (off-site) and logs can be generated, stored and broadcast from there. This data with proper authority can be received at the clients office for analysis real-time, by the geologist and drilling engineer, instead of waiting for updates via email on each kelly. This will improve the efficiency of the geo-steering process and involve the drilling and geology departments in a more real-time process. The transition process is the key to the entire process. ~ Kenneth Braud

What would be your own vision on this? Please tell me and share your comments here. Thanks.