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We’re focused on your results

Continuous innovation, service excellence, and reliability. That’s what we’re known for at ProDirectional. However, we don’t innovate for the sake of finding a new way to do things. For us, it all comes down to enabling our clients to reach the kind of success they’re aiming for.

Whether it’s developing new MWD tools, enhancing industry-leading mud motors, or finding a more efficient way to repair and maintain equipment, we leverage our expertise to deliver value to our clients in a way they haven’t seen before. The collective best efforts of our application engineering, field operators, remote operations specialists, coordinators, project managers, and other team members is what leads to client success — and our clients always know they can depend on us.

It’s not enough to just say these things; however. With many success stories under our belts, we wanted to share a recent engagement with a client in the Eagle Ford / South Texas region that really encapsulates our commitment to excellence.

In fact, you can hear the words straight from the client themselves: 

“To the whole team, I commend you for your unceasing resolve to push for performance and influencing all our service partners to do the same!”

Why do they feel this way? Let’s find out!

Saving time and costs on a challenging well pad

Any operator will tell you that when you’re dealing with a challenging well pad with multiple wells that have long laterals, your bottom line isn’t always going to look the way you want it to. At ProDirectional, when we’re faced with such conditions, we bring in our application engineers — industry-leading minds with extensive experience in this area — to devise a drilling plan that exceeds client expectations.

• 6-well pad 
• Two 4-K laterals and four 6-K laterals
• One science pilot hole well

Our team developed a well plan which included:

• Motor: [Name motor and link to motor page]
• MWD tools: [Name MWD tool and link to tool page]
• [Any other tools] 

The result? The drilling performance on this pad outshone every other pad since the beginning of this operator’s drilling program.

• All-time basin records: 2,937 FT/DAY and 2,853 FT/DAY
• On average records: 538 FT/DAY over goal
• All-well average: 2,200 FT/DAY
• Schedule: 9.7 days under plan
• Costs: $1.9 million under plan
• Work breakdown structure: 13% under plan

More than impressive numbers

The level of client success this operator achieved may sound unique, but it is only one story with many others just like it. Our commitment to client success is something we focus on every day and with every client.

Here is what this client noted as part of our standout performance:

• Navigating challenging conditions: Normally when you see this type of drilling performance, it correlates with a flat lateral path. However, with this pad, we drilled laterals containing over 250 ft of vertical throws caused by several faults and over 38 degrees of plan changes in the lateral alone.
• Attention to health, safety, and the environment: Over the course of this engagement with the client, there were zero accidents, incidents, or spills.
• Professional operations: We monitored and followed clean-up cycles, trip speed, and excess drag protocols to ensure a clean wellbore after trips for production casing runs.

• Impeccable communication: ProDirectional was in continuous communication with the geosteering team to adjust the optimal drilling window while navigating through 250+ ft of vertical throw in the lateral.
• Consistent downhole tool reliability: The client was continuously impressed with the reliability of our MWD tools and mud motor equipment. This is as a direct result of our repair and maintenance program, ensuring each piece of equipment can perform reliably under challenging conditions in the field.
• Remote operations support: Our Remote Operations Center provided a wealth of expertise to the field operators, the team was ready to troubleshoot any issue that arose on any well in the pad.
• Minimal non-productive time: We averaged under five hours of non-productive time on all non-science wells. 

On top of all that, what really stood out to the client was our team’s collaboration with their rig crew and service partners. We are all working on the same project and we’re on the same team. This means that our field crew is there to support the operator’s rig crew and other service providers that are there at the well — because we know we are only as strong as the weakest link.

Your success is our mission 

Client success means everything to our team, which is why we are constantly focused on innovative solutions to challenging situations. Whether you’re dealing with a difficult well pad with long laterials or something else, our application engineers are ready to roll up their sleeves and figure out a well plan that will help you reach your goals — and most likely exceed them, too.

Get in touch with ProDirectional today to learn more about our commitment to client success and our innovative approach to drilling.

Enabling operators to drill wells without non-productive time is what we do everyday.

Our customers know us for our constant reliability, in everything from our equipment to our service. 

So, what makes us so reliable in the first place? It has everything to do with our application engineering process. 

Instead of taking an off-the-shelf approach and purchasing all of our motor components, we optimize the equipment to better meet the needs of each operator and the environment in which they are drilling. Mud motors are an incredible piece of equipment that is responsible for faster and more efficient drilling, and we take great pride in the motors that we produce.

Ever wondered how a mud motor actually works and the different components it contains? You’re about the find out.

The mud motor: breaking down each major component 

A mud motor has four main sections: the lower-end bearing pack, the drilling motor transmission, the bent housing, and the power section. At ProDirectional, our mud motors are based on the industry’s most trusted power sections, which we combine with our highly engineered lower-end design in the bearing and transmission sections. Together, this creates the most reliable mud motor in the industry. 

The lower end bearing pack

This section of the mud motor includes the flow diverter, upper radial bearing, axial bearings, lower radial bearing, near-bit removable or fixed stabilizer, mandrel, and bit box.

The lower end bearing pack transfers the torque and RPM, which is generated by the power section and the top drive of the rig, to the drill bit. It also connects the rest of the mud motor to the drill bit. The lower end bearing pack includes a number of bearing surfaces and shafts which are designed to transfer power by carrying the weight on bit and transmitting torque.

The drilling motor transmission

The job of the mud motors transmission is to connect the rotor to the lower end bearing pack. It also converts the motion of the rotor, which is eccentric, into a concentric rotary motion, which results in more consistent energy transfer to the drill bit. The drilling motor transmission essentially carries the torque and rotary motion that is created by the power section to the lower end.

At ProDirectional, we have motor sizes for every interval from surface to slimhole drilling applications. 

The bent housing

Sometimes, the bent housing section is considered to be a part of the mud motor transmission section. However, because it plays such an important role in directional drilling, we are detailing it as a separate component. 

In directional drilling, the bent housing is what enables curved drilling. It is made of a premium-grade steel which has a slight angle that can range from 0 to 3 degrees. Using this segment of the mud motor, the directional driller can orient the motor to drill in a specific direction, rather than drilling a straight line. To achieve the desired well geometry, operators have to carefully calculate the direction of drilling using highly reliable MWD tools. 

The power section

This section contains the top sub, rotor catch, stator, and rotor. Here is where the hydraulic energy of the drilling fluid is converted into rotational horsepower. 

At ProDirectional, our power sections are tuned for hard rock, soft shale, highly inter bedded rock, and many other drilling environments. We also have elastomers for water or oil-based mud that can be used for standard or high-temperature drilling environments.

The difference application engineering makes

There are many service providers that offer operators mud motors drilling equipment. What makes our drilling motors different? It has something to do with the 100,000,000+ feet of drilling experience we have under our belts, combined with our focus on application engineering.

Unlike other service providers that simply purchase or rent mud motors technology from manufacturers and then use them in the field, we take a different approach. 

In order to exceed the performance goals of our customers, we optimize the drilling technology based on our extensive field experience. Every time our team goes out into the field, we learn from the challenges the different geographies create and then use that information to further optimize the equipment.

This results in less downtime and minimizes non-productive time because our mud motors are highly reliable. They have been tried and tested, optimized, and then tried and tested again. 

Not only that, but we also repair and maintain all of our own equipment instead of letting third parties provide that service. This enables us to be well-informed about the wear and tear on each mud motor component so that we can get ahead of any issues before they arise. Quality control is something we take very seriously.

 

ProDirectional’s application engineering highlights

Here’s how we ensure our mud motors technology never fails in the field:

• Optimization and refinement: We have engineered the proprietary drive line and lower end based on our field experience to minimize non-productive time. 

• Extreme power: We have sourced the most reliable power sections in the industry to ensure maximum power is delivered to the drill bit.

• Quality control: We reinforce our stringent quality standards with a full department that is dedicated to the repair and maintenance of our equipment.

• Innovative processes: Instead of a manual approach, we digitally track each mud motor component to ensure all repair and maintenance is up to date. 

• Professional expertise: Our application engineering team consults with customers to determine the best mud motor configuration for their geography and performance goals.

Continuous improvement: The job is never done at ProDirectional. Our engineers are always updating our design and equipment to better perform in the field.

Reliable mud motors drilling for your application

Don’t settle for any mud motor. If you want to avoid non-productive time on your well and eliminate extra trips downhole, get in touch with ProDirectional today to learn more about our mud motors technology, how it works, and what configurations our application engineers recommend for your well.

Highly customized MWD equipment and mud motors get the job done

If you consider the different basins and geographical areas in the continental United States, there is a lot of diversity in the formation, well construction requirements, and reservoir temperatures. That means that the way you drill wells in these different basins needs to be diverse also — you cannot use the same MWD tools and mud motor technology in the Permian as in the Haynesville because you’re dealing with a completely different application. 

That’s why when you’re considering which MWD and directional drilling service provider to work with, it’s important to look at their diversification of technology and skill. If they can’t offer a way to customize the drilling equipment based on the characteristics of your specific application, you may end up in a situation where you’re dealing with non-productive time as a result of downhole equipment issues — costing you a lot of time and money.

At ProDirectional, we pride ourselves on our ability to adapt to any drilling situation. We understand how important it is for our clients to avoid NPT, so we come prepared with the right tools for the task at hand.

MWD services and mud motors for the oil and gas industry

We are experienced in drilling in every major basin across the United States, from the Eagle Ford Basin to the Permian or Haynesville, and a multitude of others. With this kind of diverse experience, we have had the opportunity to develop the range of drilling equipment required for each type of geographical area.

Mud motors for directional drilling

We offer our customers over 30 different types of directional motor configurations — far more than the typical directional drilling service provider on the market. Our application engineers carefully select the downhole motor configurations our customers need by evaluating the different formations and temperatures we have to drill through, resulting in a job that remains on schedule and maximizes efficiency. 

Measurement while drilling (MWD) tools

Not only that, but we also have four different MWD equipment platforms — Sprint MWD, Octane MWD, Octane XT MWD, and Electromagnetic MWD — allowing us the ability to accurately, safely, and successfully drill in any area regardless of the challenges our clients are facing. 

We don’t try to force fit generic technology for every application. Instead, we customize the drilling motor and MWD tools to meet our customers’ unique needs on location. 

Drilling with mud motors and MWD technology that’s fit for purpose 

Our application engineers and operational teams recommend which MWD equipment and mud motors our customers should use based on the unique characteristics of each basin. 

• Eagle Ford Basin: In this area of Texas, speed is a driving factor. It’s important to choose powerful equipment that can drill quickly and efficiently. In addition, downhole temperatures can be elevated in this region, so it’s important to have equipment that can withstand extreme heat while performing reliably. 
• Permian Basin: In this region, there are a multitude of target formations that are produced, so one of its unique characteristics is the diversity itself. We have a range of downhole drilling equipment that can be customized to meet the needs of each benchmark in the Permian — that goes for both the Midland and the Delaware basins. 
• Haynesville: Temperature is an important factor here because it gets extremely hot in this harsh drilling environment. This area also requires equipment that is going to be highly reliable — because if an issue occurs in the production interval, it can take a day or more to get back into the hole. We always aim for some speed here; but we really focus on going for reliability to lower well costs. 
• Marcellus and Utica: In these regions, we frequently drill on air. Here we utilize electromagnetic (EM) MWD tools for the right results. Plus, we’re dealing with extremely long extended reach laterals, which require highly specialized knowledge and capabilities.
• Powder River and the Rockies: In these areas, the drilling applications vary a lot, and  there are also challenges around getting the MWD equipment and steerable motors where they need to be on time, especially in the winter months. This requires a regional presence as well as specialized logistical and operational experience along with proper job planning. 

Pivoting with downhole drilling tools and steerable motors 

Across the board, ProDirectional has the most diverse asset base which we can customize according to the needs of the many different applications clients have. What this also means is that we have the ability to pivot faster than other service providers.

For example, if we encounter an unexpected issue while drilling that requires a different type of mud motor or MWD tool — in any basin — we have the technology available in house we can deploy right away, minimizing NPT for our customers.

Unrivaled expertise in downhole mud motor design and MWD tools

Having the ability to offer customized MWD equipment and mud motor tools is one thing; you need the application engineering expertise to oversee it. That’s why we have an application engineering team that supports each of the different regions we operate in, with dedicated personnel for key basins. In addition, we also have operational teams to support each basin, along with our well planning team. 

Our experts become specialists in their areas  by focusing their time and effort on the unique characteristics of the location and the challenges that can arise because of them. This helps us to be ready with solutions that we can apply whenever a problem emerges, saving our customers time and money. 
Supporting our application engineers, operational teams, and well planning teams is our Remote Operations Center, which consists of highly experienced personnel that have knowledge of all the major basins. They are available 24/7/365 to provide guidance on any issues that occur.

You need the right MWD tools and downhole motors for the job 

Don’t settle for service providers that want to jam a square peg in a round hole. You simply can’t achieve the results you want by using generic technology for specific applications. Reduce non-productive time and increase performance — while saving your time and money — by choosing fit-for-purpose technology that is highly customized for your application and managed by personnel with specialized knowledge. 

Get in touch with ProDirectional today to discuss the specific characteristics of your drilling application. 

Reliability + performance = peace of mind

Drilling is the first step in your process, but what happens when your drilling schedule is thrown off as a result of unreliable downhole motor technology? The non-productive time can last a few hours at best, a few weeks at worst, costing your organization hundreds of thousands of dollars. In addition, when your drilling schedule is off track, your entire operation gets derailed, taking longer for you to achieve a return on investment. 

In order to ensure your directional drilling operations go as planned — or even exceed expectations — it’s important to use the right mud motor technology. While there are plenty of options available on the market, many of them are not engineered for reliability or performance. However, with the high costs of NPT and the negative implications towards well profitability, operators can’t afford not to go with highly engineered mud motor equipment for directional drilling. 

ProDirectional is a leader in directional drilling mud motor design and development, utilizing dominant power sections together with rugged lower-end design — maintained and repaired according to stringent quality standards. This leads to lower non-productive time, higher drilling performance, and faster achievement of ROI.

The difference application engineering makes in mud motor design

At ProDirectional, we take great pride in making our equipment the best it can be. Sometimes, this involves designing and engineering each drilling mud motor component from scratch, while other times it involves sourcing the best components available on the market and combining them with our own proprietary technology.

When it comes to our downhole drilling motors, this is the approach we have taken. We source the industry’s most powerful and trusted power sections — the sheer force is industry leading. However, if you combine this amount of power with an “off-the-shelf” driveline, the results will not produce ideal outcomes, with high potential for reliability issues or even mechanical failures that leave parts of the motor downhole.

Industry-leading mud motor design

We combine these industry-leading power sections with our proprietary transmission and lower-end mud motor design that has been developed by our engineering team. Reliability is a core focus of everything we do, which is why we have spent countless hours on the development of our downhole motor technology. Drilling rigs, motor power sections, and drill bits continue to get stronger. So, the design of the downhole mud motor transmission and lower end needs to be able to harness all of this power and energy without components breaking down when in use. 

We understand that if a mud motor comes apart downhole, our clients endure unplanned expenditures from NPT, in some cases upwards of a quarter of a million dollars, leaving them further from their goal. That’s simply not something we’re going to let happen. We know what reliability is worth.

Our proprietary and highly engineered downhole drilling motor designs are capable of delivering upwards of 40,000 pounds of torque, while often subjected to 100 times the force of gravity (100 g), in temperatures up to 380 degrees Fahrenheit. The amount of engineering that goes into this quality of steerable motor technology is unmatched, and something we have taken great care to develop for our customers.

Cradle-to-grave lifecycle management

While many service providers outsource their repair and maintenance procedures, it is a critical part of our mud motor program at ProDirectional. Here’s what our cradle-to-grave lifecycle management looks like:

• We own all of our downole motor assets
• We engineer them in house
• We guide operators how to use our equipment in the field
• We maintain and repair each component

This kind of full-circle lifecycle management of our steerable motor technology leads to incredible performance results for our customers.

Instead of hourly based maintenance like the rest of the industry, where downhole mud motor components are maintained based on the amount of hours they are used, we take a condition-based maintenance approach. Why? Because one hundred hours of use in the Permian isn’t the same as one hundred hours of use in the Haynesville area. In order to properly maintain and repair our mud motor technology, it’s imperative that we consider how it has been used in the field and under what conditions.

Digital mud motor technology logs

To take our quality control standards one step further, we also electronically log every usage, maintenance, and repair for each drilling motor component in our proprietary digital assessment management technology platform, which helps us determine when a component needs to be retired or further repaired.

With an application engineering team in house, our engineers consider any issues our mud motor technology sees in the field and how those issues can be prevented in the future. They re-design and re-work components as needed to ensure the best possible performance, which means we are continuously evolving and improving our technology.

Through these stringent quality control measures, we offer the highest level of reliability for our mud motors, coupled with the highest level of performance.

What are reliability and performance worth to you?

What does your organization look for when evaluating mud motor oil and gas equipment for directional or downhole drilling? It’s likely reliability and performance are your top two criteria. In order to get the level of reliability and performance you’re aiming for, it’s important to look for technology that is properly engineered. Without that, you simply won’t get a level of reliability of performance you can trust — leading to costly non-productive time.

Get in touch with ProDirectional today to learn more about industry-leading downhole motor technology and how it can support your operations, ensuring drilling goes according to schedule so you can reach a faster return on investment.

MWD equipment is not the same as MWD technology

There are many service providers that offer Measurement While Drilling (MWD) tools and services. However, it’s important for operators to remember that not all service providers are the same. Some service providers purchase MWD technology from third-party suppliers while others simply rent from third-party providers who own, maintain and repair the MWD equipment. In both of those cases, there is a major potential for equipment issues to occur while drilling. Why? Because when third parties are involved, the equipment providers are one step removed from the drilling job and typically don’t fully understand the nature of the drilling operations.

At ProDirectional, we not only design and develop our own directional drilling technology and downhole drilling tools — we maintain and repair them to the highest standards as well. This allows us to clearly differentiate our technology from off-the-shelf MWD equipment.

What’s the difference between the two?

It all comes down to the expertise behind the tools. We’re a fully integrated organization, which means that we not only develop and design our own MWD technology, but we also utilize it in the field, and repair and maintain it after use. We are involved in every single touchpoint of our MWD technology — we know where it’s from, where it’s been, and where it’s going. This is what enables us to ensure our MWD systems are superior to others available on the market today.

We ensure drilling performance optimization by designing our own MWD tools

ProDirectional has a team of engineers in house who are tasked with designing and developing our MWD technology. They use the expertise gained from our field personnel — especially when it comes to the types of failures they see happening most often — and use this information in their work. All of our MWD technology is built to mitigate the types of failures that are responsible for unplanned trips. We understand how much non-productive time (NPT) costs our clients, which is why our MWD tools are built for reliability and drilling efficiency. 

Sprint MWD technology

Take our Sprint MWD technology for instance, which takes fast data transmission to a whole new level. It provides operators with real-time drilling data so that they can ensure wellbore placement accuracy. The speed of data transmission from the Sprint MWD means that operators can pump up surveys in under 28 seconds, significantly reducing flat time. Plus, we’ve significantly reduced the possibility for human error with a surface system that is easy to use and intuitive to learn. With the Spring MWD, we have even developed custom decoding filters in real-time while on a job to reduce decoding issues for our clients on the spot.

Octane and OctaneXT

Another example of our MWD tools that result in drilling performance optimization is the Octane and OctaneXT series. Designed to withstand the most hostile environments, the Octane and OctaneXT technologies offer reliability in harsh temperatures, enabling our clients to get high performance results in their drilling operations without worrying about tripping or NPT.

Preventing failures 

When any of our MWD technologies experience issues in the field, we don’t just replace the equipment. Of course during the job we ensure our clients deal with the least amount of non-productive time possible. However, when those tools get back to our lab, our engineers spend time analyzing the failure in detail to learn its root causes. Then, they work on developing fixes so that the same failure doesn’t happen again. MWD companies that don’t design and develop their own technology do not have the ability to apply any innovation or expertise to the equipment. Instead, they are bound to experience the same types of MWD equipment failures in the field over and over again.

Maintaining and repairing MWD technology can’t be left up to a third party

Do you know what happens to MWD equipment after it is used in the field? It all depends on the service provider. Many service providers send their MWD equipment to a third party, or its manufacturer, to repair and maintain. In this case, the third party service provider has limited information on how the equipment was used, whether there were any failures or issues, or anything else about the application of the equipment. As a result, they cannot really offer exceptional MWD reliability and accuracy because they do not have the full picture. 

In other cases, the MWD oilfield technology is maintained and repaired in-house by the service provider. However, often, there is poor record-keeping, so the organization isn’t always aware of the full history of the lifecycle of the equipment. They may not even know when it was last used or repaired and whether it is ready to retire. In many cases, repair and maintenance is an afterthought, so the equipment is not properly taken care of — resulting in issues and non-productive time during the job.

MWD equipment reliability 

We do things differently at ProDirectional. One of the ways we differentiate between MWD equipment and MWD technology is in the way we take care of the tools. For us, repair and maintenance are not an afterthought — they are an entire department. Our quality control standards are the most stringent in the industry. This is because we know our clients value reliability in the field, and we never want our MWD tools to be the reason for failures.

Our quality control process starts with inspecting every MWD part and component and understanding how it has been used in the field. Understanding the history of the equipment is essential to properly maintaining it. We repair the MWD oilfield tools to a like-new condition, while screening for potential concerns. If any issues arise, we re-work the components. After repairs are completed, we conduct pre-deployment testing to ensure all MWD components are field ready by putting them through rigorous proprietary evaluation procedures.

Not only that, but we also use a comprehensive lifecycle tracking software, ProTrax, to account for all of the assembly hours and usage, so we know when a component can be returned to the field or when it is ready to retire. This is a tracking process not used elsewhere in the industry.

Go above and beyond MWD equipment

ProDirectional offers MWD services in the Permian, Eagle Ford, Haynesville, the Rockies, Oklahoma, and the Northeast areas. No matter where our clients need to drill and regardless of the type of weather or geographic conditions, our MWD technology is highly reliable because we have a hand in it from the very beginning. From designing and developing it to utilizing it in the field to maintaining and repairing it, we are involved in every aspect of usage for our MWD technologies so we can ensure the best possible performance for our clients.

Get in touch with ProDirectional today to discuss your next project and find out how we can support you with highly reliable MWD technology and MWD equipment.