7.

Retractable drill-bit technology - drilling without pulling out

drill-pipes -

Part of the book "Russian Drilling Technologies" in writing by M. Gelfgat

etal. For PenWell

7.1 Introduction

Subsequently with the development of rotary drilling and increase of borehole depths the ideas were
developed by engineers of decreasing drill string tripping time to change the worn bit. The development of
a bit, which could be run down and pulled out of the bottom hole inside the casing or drill pipes by the wire
line, or drilling mud circulation was the principal answer. The main feature of such a bit should be the
possibility to take up two positions: (1) operating one for the bottom hole destruction and (2) transport one
for moving inside pipes. From this it follows the bit name – Retractable Bit (RB) (Fig. 7.1). This kind of
tool provides the possibility to realize the method of drilling without pulling out the pipes (DWPP), which
affects substantially the process of construction of a borehole or one of its intervals. The latter resulted
from DWPP new features, such as:
(1) Continuous flushing of the borehole during the RB operational cycle: running in - drilling - pulling out;
(2) Change of the different purpose tool - drilling, coring, milling, - without pulling out drill pipes;
(3) The logging operations carrying out without pulling out pipes;
(4) Relief of drilling rigs crew workload.
At the same time, the traditional method of bit rotation by stiff drill string or/and DHM is maintained. It's
quite natural, that the advantages achieved require some additional investment. Except for the more
complicated bit design the special or internal flush joint drill pipes of increased, as compared to standard
ones, diameter should be used. Actually, this supposed to be casing pipes application, which introduces
new significant advantage of the RB technology – borehole casing simultaneous with drilling.
Unfortunately, the quality of standard casing pipes and particularly types of thread connections did not
allow using them for DWPP especially in hard formations. Nevertheless, this trend of RB use could be one
of the major tasks for future research, because it brought revolutionary changes in the entire drilling
process.
This chapter shows the development of RB designs for DWPP with DHM in Russia during the past 50
years, including the latest research and field application in offshore stratigrafic drilling projects. This in it's
way unique experiment of long standing allows to estimate, with due regard for current mechanical
engineering achievements, the possibility to use RB and relevant technology in modern drilling projects.
Besides casing drilling these are riserless drilling, geothermal drilling, and offshore scientific drilling.

7.2 Historical Review of Drilling with Retractable Bits (RB)

7.2.1 Developments outside Russia

First projects of DWPP occurred at the beginning of 20th century. Drilling method with RB and DHM was
proposed in 1902. The attempts were made after the First World War of this method realization in Poland,
and a little bit later in France (1928). Over the same period (20-30s) great interest to RB was displayed in
the USA. The bit designs with retractable blades operated worse than standard two-blade drag drilling bits
("fish-tail" bits). In 30s, three-cone rock bits were introduced as the main type of rock destruction tool. First
designs of cone rock RB were patented in the USA before the Second World War.
Three-cone Harley bit (see Fig.7.1) characterized by the presence of three separated legs with cones, which,
in transport position, are displaced along the height, forming a garland.
Four-cone Walker bit (Fig.7.2) has four cones, arranged, when transporting, in a garland. In the operating
position, the cone pairs are mounted at two levels, and the pair of cones drilling the central part is a little
ahead of the peripheral pair of cones.
The common feature of the above mentioned cone rock bits, is the transmission of operating bit loads from
the drill pipes shoe directly to the legs. The latter is characteris tic of the RB designed for rotary drilling. RB
for operating with DHM requires the separation of rotating legs from the fixed string shoe. The first designs
of cone rock RB for use with DHM were developed according to the scheme of retractable reamer with a
pilot bit. Among these is Syul bit (Fig.7.3).
"Carter Oil" company has made several field tests based on two types of 248 mm diameter RB with special
178 mm diameter pipes in 1957. The bits had four cones, arranged in transport position by pairs at two
levels. In operating position all four cones are mounted on the same level, with two ones of them drilling
the central part of the bottom hole, and the other two - peripheral part. In the another bit there were three
cones, arranged in the transport position as a garland. In the operating position, they are mounted as in a
standard three-cone rock bit. At the depth up to 500 m, there were drilled 350 m with 4-cone bits and 128 m
with 3-cone bits. “Hughes Tool Co.” with the right to introduce some design changes into them acquired
the license for these bits manufacturing.
In 1960s the investigations on the use of RB in ocean scientific drilling began - Mohol project and DSDP
(Deep Sea Drilling Project).
For the second phase of the Mohol project there was developed the prototype of retractable diamond bit for
coring (stage A. report "Downhole Drilling Tools"- vo1 40300). The analysis of the possible use of the
similar bit for DSDP was carried out in 1968 (Engineering Study: Methods to Penetrate Hard Formations
in Deep Ocean Basins, IPOD Technical Report No.2 p.38-39). The conclusion was made that it was non-
expedient to develop retractable cone rock bits because it was necessary to change drill pipes on "Glomar
Challenger" for the pipes of larger diameter. The retractable diamond bit was recommended for supply with
the aim to expand the possibilities of coring in hard formations. These proposals have not been realized.
TESCO Corporation, Calgary, Canada has started in 1995 the extended program of "Casing Drilling"
system development. The retrievable assembly includes a well-known in principle expandable reamer with
the pilot bit [ ]. DHM could be a part of assembly. Other important parts are latching units and MWD. To
drill directional wells the assembly extended ahead the casing shoe. A test has been accomplished at the
TESCO R&D center in Calgary in 1998. 3040 feet borehole was drilled with three different casing strings.
95 /8 casing until the 150 feet depth, 75 /8 casing until 575 feet and 5½ casing was used until the final depth.
TESCO was continuing "Casing drilling" field-testing with some promising results.

7.2.2 Developments in the USSR

First field experiments on turbodrilling with RB were carried out in Baku in the beginning of 30s. The work
on DWPP development was resumed in 1945. Major works on drilling technology with RB have started in
1948 and carried out by two groups of engineers and scientists. One group, lead by Georgyi Barshay was
working on turbodrilling with RB and other – lead by Yakov Kershenbaum developed rotary RB. Since
1953, all research and development works on DWPP with turbodrills were carried out in the VNIIBT These
R&D can be divided into some stages.
A. Development of drilling technology with bits of 12" diameter (1948-1956) included:
- Designing of the first retractable tool;
- Testing of RB in drilling separate intervals of borehole at the depth up to 1500 m.
B. Development of drilling with bits 10" (1957-1964):
- The serial production of RB and turbodrills with retrievable rotors for DWPP;
- Working out the trip operations with RB;
- Drilling the first test boreholes of 2100 m, and then 2800 m depth.
C. Commercial use of DWPP (1965-1971):
- Test and industrial drilling of boreholes of 2500-3000 m depth;
- Mastering of drilling technology;
 - The development of special retractable tools for drilling problems elimination and prevention of
troubles;
- Improving RB and turbodrill designs;
- Improving the tripping operations with retrievable tools.
D. Development of drilling technology with bits of 9" diameter (1967-1975):
- Commercial designs of RB and turbodrills with retrievable rotor;
- The development of the retractable tool for coring;
- Positive displacement motor (PDM) and special torque-reaction latch development;
- Diamond drilling techniques by turbodrills with retrievable rotor field testing;
- Drilling of exploratory boreholes up to 2800 m depth.
In the time the development of RB designs was carried out in the following trends:
a) Step bit (1949-1952) - three-cone pilot bit and two-cone expandable reamer (Fig. 7.4);
b) One-step RB of BD type (1953-1964) - two cone bit with monolith (made in one piece) drill head
(Fig. 7.5);
c) Two piston bit of D2PV type (1959-1968) - two-cone bit with separate legs, and the internal system
of movable components in the mechanism (Fig.7.6);
d) Bodiless bit of DRB type (1966-1970) - two-cone bit with the external system of movable
components in the mechanism (Fig.7.7);
e) Three-cone bodiless bit of 3DR type (1969-1975) – external movable system features by two holders
for legs with cones and special arrangements for proper bit transferring consequence (Fig.7.8).
One of the results of test-commercial DWPP in the USSR was the development of the same method of
coring in hard crystalline rocks. The new advanced continuous coring system was designed in VNIIBT for
ultra-deep borehole application according to the national program "The investigations of the earth crust and
ultra-deep drilling". The calculations showed, that when drilling below 7000 m (corresponding to the
second stage of Kola SD-3 borehole drilling) this method would be substantially more effective than the
others.
In 1969-1973 there were developed and manufactured prototypes of tools for drilling diameter 217 mm
borehole in hard formations. There were several type of core heads, core barrels, retractable blade reamer
with diamond composite cutters (Fig. 7.9), retractable three-cone bit and retrievable DHM. Drillstring was
assembled of internal flash 6-3/8"(162mm) OD steel and 6-5/8"(168mm) aluminum pipes. Alternating
cycles of tests and corrections introduced into the designs of various tool modifications were carried out in
1974-1978 in the borehole "Sputnik SD-3". This borehole was specially constructed at the distance of 50 m
from the main borehole "Kola SD-3" for different experimental works and drilling tools field-testing.
The tests proved the possibility to use DWPP in crystalline rocks. However, it was not used in the "Kola
SD-3" borehole. The main reason consisted in the fact that the drill string of 168 mm diameter was not
turned out to be run into the diameter 214 mm open hole of more than 5 km length drilled with 147 mm
aluminum drill pipes. Commercial mastering of this technology was transferred to the "Krivoy Rog SD-8"
scientific borehole, which was entirely drilled with aluminum pipes of 168 mm diameter. Field tests have
been finished in 1987 in 217 mm diameter pilot borehole at the depth up to 3500 m. Commercial use of
coring technology with retrievable tools was continued in the main borehole (see Chapter 5).
In accordance with the order of USSR Academy of Sciences, the investigations on the use of DWPP with
DHM and RB for scientific drilling in ocean began in 1984. As a result, the Scientific offshore continuous
coring system was developed and field tested in 1991 in underwater mountains of Josefin, Amper and
Gorringe bank in Atlantic ocean from DS (drill ship) "Bavenit". The trials proved the prospects of this trend
for deep water riserless drilling. Tests carried out in the variety of geological conditions showed different
retrievable tools, including retractable cone bit and blade-type retractable reamer serviceability and allowed
to verify the rational drilling practices. This program was cancelled in 1992 due to the lack of funds to
complete the scientific drill ship construction.
The idea to revive drilling with casing technology has been arisen time to time. In 1970s, the attempt has
been made to develop it for the top 95 /8 ” casing set-up in West Siberia. Four-cone RB (Fig. 7.10) has been
successfully tested for this purpose, but the total arrangements have not been worked out properly and this
test did no lead to any further commercial applications. Actually there were no significant economical
reasons for casing drilling in this region at that time.
7.2.3 Recent developments in Russia

The technology of scientific drilling in oceans field tested in 1991 became a logical basis for deep-water
stratigrafic drilling. The latter concept was offered by IKU Petroleum research, Norway in view of the fact
that deep-water exploration for oil became a field of strategic research efforts. To prove the evaluation of
future oil and gas provinces productiveness, soil samples and rock core need to be recovered and
investigated during the so-called stratigrafic boreholes drilling. These holes are drilled in riser-less mode
with relatively small drill ships normally used for geotechnical purposes. However, the conditions of such
drilling operations are beyond the capabilities of such vessels when the water depths at the location exceed
500-600 meters. A solution to this was the usage of large diameter internal flush aluminum drillstring and
DWPP technology. For this particular application the Complete Coring System (CCS) has been developed
and tested by Aquatic Company in collaboration with Fugro Engineers B.V., the Netherlands. Retractable
tools were an essential part of CCS that allows spudding boreholes, drilling and reaming especially in hard
rocks.
The CCS along with aluminum pipes of 164 mm diameter was successfully employed since 1993 until now
from two similar in size geotechnical DS "Bucentaur" and DS "Bavenit" with displacement of about 5000
tones only. Drilling operations were performed in the areas of Atlantic Ocean (Voring Basin, Rockall Bank,
offshore West Africa), Norway Sea, Gulf of Mexico (Mississippi Canyon, Green Canyon, Viosca Knoll,
Garden Banks area), Gibraltar Strait, offshore Japan and in the Black Sea.
The experience gained for RB offshore application lead to the development of special tri-cone retractable
bit TRB-300 for Ocean Drilling Program – ODP TAMU RF, USA in 1994 (Fig. 7.11). The aim of this bit
was to spud and drill a borehole top section in conjunction with specifically designed Drill-in BHA.
Actually, this was drilling with casing technology for drilling through unstable and fractured crystalline
rocks. Unfortunately, this bit has been bench tested only, ODP never used it offshore because of
shortcomings of DI-BHA design, and some other reasons not tied to TRB-300 itself.
Several companies and specialists revived the casing drilling idea last years. This led the activity of CCS
type assemblies to be matched for up-to-date drilling with casing systems. The extensive design experience
available allowed developing retrievable BHA for several casing string sizes (133 /8 ", 7" and 51 /2 ") with
application of retractable bits and reamers similar to ones presented in this chapter.

7.5 RB Test and Field Applications Results

7.5.1 First test runs and intervals drilled with 12” RB (1948 – 1956)

Originally, retractable tools were developed for 295 mm wells. At that time, this was the most typical well
size for many oil and gas regions in Russia. 219 mm casing pipes were used in place of a drill string.
Special thin-wall tool joints (250 mm OD and 200 mm ID) with 1:12 tapered thread connected the casing
pipes together.
A step-shaped bit was used which consisted of a standard 197 mm three-cone bit and a two-cone retractable
reamer installed above it (see Fig. 7.4). A wedge, activated and moved downward by hydraulic force
pushing a piston, expanded reamer legs on hinges to operation position. Through a wedge-shaped central
watercourse, drilling fluid was flowing to reamer cones and a pilot three-cone bit. When it came time to
retrieve the bit, mud pumps were shut down and the wedge was moved to its original position by an axial
spring. After that, legs with cones were pulled inside a string shoe.
A 192 mm retrievable turbodrill with an axial-flow turbine was engaged with the string using splines on a
turbodrill nipple. The upper section included a system of rubber compartments for sealing the turbine in the
pipes. The results of testing in 1948 (six runs in the interval 90 – 130 m) prompted fundamental
modernization of retractable tool components and assemblies. A ram anchor was developed to fix the
turbine in the shoe. Modernized retractable tools with pilot reamers (Fig. 7.25) were tested in 1950 (26 runs
in the interval 60 – 450 m) and in 1952 (46 runs in the interval 210 – 740 m).
While 1952 testing, penetration per bit was 30 – 35% of penetration per regular bit at the offset wells,
average penetration rate being the same. Ten trips of the string were made due to unreliable operation of a
ram anchor and a bit retracting mechanism. In deeper intervals, a retractable tool pulling up caused
swabbing effect. The resulted difference of fluid levels inside the string and in the annulus led to higher
load on a wireline. Therefore, the tool was pulled up slowly with periodically repeated stops. In the end of
testing, while the retractable tool was pulled up, a perforated pipe was installed in the upper section of the
string (see Fig. 7.21). This allowed essentially reducing retrieving time. The trip time in the 730 m deep
well was 32 minutes. The testing involved a first trial of the method of retractable tool running down by
gravity.
A number of tests in 1948 – 1952 indicated a possibility of turbine drilling using retractable cone bits.

………………………………………………………….

The test drilling reviled that strength of 219 mm casing pipes did not correspond to the requirements of
turbine drilling. Six failures with pipes breaking were recognized in the lower section of the string along
the plane of weakness. This was the area of the thread connections. Plane of weakness of pipes below the
last thread required being unloaded from lateral bending forces that caused fatigue failure. This was
achieved by strengthening pipe connections with tool joints using shrink rings fit on a pipe body with 0.3 –
0.5 mm interference. The rings were welded on tool joints using electrical welding. Pipe threads in such a
design is affected mainly by axial loads. The ring, built-up on pipe, takes up dangerous bending forces.
Later, this stabilizing rim was shrink fitted on a tool joint (Fig.7.26). The first lot of tool joints with
stabilizing rims was made in 1955. Afterwards, tool joints of this design were widely used in fabrication of
steel pipes and aluminum pipes with steel tool joints.

7.5.4 Drilling with casing field test

For this purpose in 1974-1975 the first prototype of 4DV-295 bit (see Fig. 7.10) was manufactured and
tested in West Siberia. This was the 4-cone rock bit, with cones arranged in the transport position by pairs
at two levels. Two cones for drilling the central part of the bottom hole are rigidly interconnected with each
other and the seating cone in mechanism, and two peripheral legs with cones are hinged in the movable
body (Fig. 7.29). The bit with high RPM turbodrill was tested when drilling for surface casing in soft
formations - 400m was drilled in 7hrs with average ROP of 57m/hr. ROP range was from 30 to 80 m/hr in
different intervals. The average ROP, when drilling by standard bit was 78 m/hr.

7.6 Conclusion - RB Technology Prospects

1) Drilling with casing – this is most promising trend in cost-effective technologies for 21st century.
2) Super-long boreholes drilling – RB could provide drill string tripping timesaving, better well control
and borehole walls stability in 10-15 km long wells.
3) Scientific drilling – RB provides unique opportunities for continuous coring and logging operations
in all kind of geological conditions both onshore and offshore.
4) Geothermal drilling – drilling with retractable bits makes available cost effective deep geothermal
drilling in hard crystalline hot formations.