Unlock the Precision of Managed Pressure Drilling with Merlin
Merlin presents an exhaustive selection of engineering solutions, practical training modules, and continuous operational support for Managed Pressure Drilling. Specializing in regulation of wellbore pressures, Merlin prioritizes instant risk management, and offers relevant training to elevate your team's competencies. Guided by Merlin's instructions, your team will adeptly understand the limitations of your pressure management systems, design intelligent drilling methodologies, and efficiently tackle emerging drilling impediments.
Explore Our Key Services
Offset Well Review
What is a “complex” well? It could mean a deepwater well, if you are used to shelf drilling, or multilaterals if you only drill single-leg horizontals. Regardless of what you are going to be doing, reviewing what’s been done before by your company and others is a fundamental part of the well design process. Facts are power is a phrase we repeat often in our training and it applies particularly to this exercise. Merlin’s well delivery process has been created to integrate this fact finding into a process designed to ultimately deliver reliable drilling operations.
Feasibility Study
Complex challenges require clear definition of objectives and constraints to be successful. In the early stages of a project, undertaking a detailed feasibility study is the best way to ensure that the objectives can be achieved given the constraints applied, whether they are subsurface or project based. Merlin has a broad range of tools and experiences through our pioneering work in extended reach wells, which can be applied successfully to other complex well types.
Problem Review
Despite our best intentions, problems during drilling and completion activities can occur on complex wells. Merlin has been involved in problem reviews since our founding in 2007. Whether it’s a twist off, side-track, drilling dysfunction affecting ROP or another problem we have the capability to get involved and make a factual, objective assessment of the situation and what needs to be done next time to avoid further reoccurrences.
Detailed Well Design
Planning something out of the ordinary with your team? An extra set of competent eyes reviewing and challenging your well designs or operational plans is cheap insurance compared to the costs which can rack up if something slips through the net and causes a problem on location. The best organisations embrace this process, as an opportunity to validate their plans and learn from what others with similar challenges across the globe are doing to keep ahead of the game. Merlin’s competence, gained from the worlds most complex wells, allows us to facilitate this knowledge transfer.
Client School and Bespoke Training Courses
Similar to Merlin’s renowned extended reach, high angle and complex well training course, Merlin’s MPD open seat course is designed to teach the fundamental success factors across a range of MPD techniques, from the technical drivers through to equipment standards and certification. Courses are delivered over a period of three days in the classroom, or split over five half-days if taught online.
Client School and Bespoke Training Courses
In addition to the public open seat courses, Merlin also creates bespoke training based on individual client needs for a particular campaign or well. Our courses feature an interesting mix of theoretical class work, mixed with group exercises on real world problems to illustrate the relevance of the material. These courses incorporate the clients own information to provide context for the delegates.
Highly Recommended
Merlin has expanded its expertise to include Managed Pressure Drilling Training (MPD). Using the methodology from our highly regarded extended reach and complex well training, our MPD training course is designed to take you from an introduction to the technology, through to an in-depth examination of the core technical subject matter. This will give you the confidence and understanding to assess whether MPD, as an enabling technology is right for your well or project.
Topics include deep dives into the drivers for use of MPD, types of MPD systems, the design criteria associated with each type, how to decide which system to use, management of anchor points, well control considerations, equipment specifications and much more. Explanations around where torque, drag and hydraulics loads come from and how they need to be modelled and managed to assure success operationally. We also talk about cleaning up, tripping, stuck pipe risks, wellbore stability, and many other topics on our engineering and operations open seat courses, available to anyone with an interest or responsibility for drilling operations.
What will I Learn?
- Benefits and risks of using a particular MPD technique.
- Data required to run MPD simulations.
- How to select anchor points and design a well around them.
- How does MPD impact fluid design and well control?
- Understand the equipment and the external standards associated with it.
- Issues associated with the design, specification and management of an MPD equipment spread.
- Deepwater project planning & considerations
- In depth analysis of constant bottom hole pressure, pressurised mud cap, continuous circulating and constant mud line MPD techniques.
Real-time management and optimisation:
Rigsite Hole Condition Monitoring
Building an MPD spread on the rig and integrating it into into the drilling package takes time, effort and experience. There is a huge range of variables to be considered – the system set up, available space, available power, piping requirements, certification and warranty considerations, manning levels and so on. All conspire to cause problems which need attention to detail in the planning and execution phases. Merlin’s experience allows us to help you avoid the opportunities for cost over-run and delay which comes with the territory.
Remote Operational Support
MPD, PMCD, riser mud-level control, it doesn’t matter what set up you are using, we can support you on location when drilling ahead in your sensitive hole sections.
