DRILLINg
FOR IMPROvEMENT
Statoil and Halliburton report significant cost savings and more accurate
well placement at the Leismer demonstration project
by Deborah Jaremko
PHOTO: JOEy PODLUBNy
educed costs, faster drilling time, and
more accurate well placement—that is
what Statoil and Halliburton say they
achieved in drilling the steam assisted grav-
ity drainage (SAGD) well pairs for the Leismer
demonstration project, drilling that was
completed in December 2009. The two com-
panies did this through what they call a series
of firsts in SAGD drilling, and a clear mandate
from Statoil. “We basically asked them to drill
the wells on plan with no margin of error,”
Statoil’s Chad zimmer told the audience at
the recent Canadian Association of Drilling
Engineers/Canadian Association of Oilwell
Drilling Contractors annual conference. “That
encouraged everyone to perform at the peak
of their game.” Statoil is a new player in the
oilsands business, having bought in with the
acquisition of junior North American Oil Sands
in 2007. Leismer is its inaugural project, the
demonstration stage of a phased installation
called kai kos Dehseh, which for the local
Chipewyan Prairie Dene first Nation means
“Red Willow River.”
Applications have been filed for 10 phas-
es that would bring production to a com-
bined total of 240,000 barrels per day. The
Leismer demonstration, which is expected to
be commissioned later this year, will have a
capacity of 10,000 barrels per day, through
four separate well pads with a total of 23
well pairs. zimmer says that the true vertical
depth of the target formation is 430 metres,
with a drilling program calling for 700-metre
to 800-metre lateral sections.
Drilling SaGD well pairs at the now-suspended
Joslyn project, summer 2005.
