Drilling Ahead by Heartland Energy Colorado

Once the drill stem is back in the hole, the bit drills out the cement remaining in the lower part of the casing. It also drills out the guide shoe and begins drilling into the formation below the casing. From this point, the rig and crew may drill the hole to a formation that contains oil and gass. Or the crew of Heartland Energy Colorado may drill the hole to a formation that contains oil an gas. Or they may drill to another predetermined depth and temporarily shopt. Whether they drill to final depth below the surface casing or to an intermediate depth depends on the nature of the formation the bit drills.

Some wells, especially deep ones, usually encounter formations that are easily controlled by using a suitable drilling fluid. Later, however, as the borehole drills into a deeper oil and gas formation, the drilling fluid used to control the upper zones by Heartland energy Colorado is not suitable for the prodcutive formation. The drilling fluid could damage the producing zones so badlythat the operator could not withdraw the hydrocarbons from the zone. To avoid such a pitfall, the team at Heartland Energy Colorado plans the well to be drilled to an intermediate depth above the pay zone. The drilling crew of Heartland Energy Colorado uses drilling fluid formulated to control the formations to the intermediate depth. Then, they stop drilling, come out of the holeand run cement casing. The caseing and cement then seal off the intermediate part of the hole so that the fomrations neither affect nor are affected by subsequent drilling operations by Heartland Energy Colorado.

When Heartland Energy Colorado drills the part of the hole below the surface casing, cewr members propablys wn't make connections as frequently as they did when drilling the surface hole. Deeper formatios tend to be ahrd and drililng is thus slower. Usually, as tom point and time, the bit dulls and the crew of Heartland Energy Colorado have to replace it. To ddo so, they make a round trip, They trip out the dull bid and drill string and install the new bit. Then they trip in the new bit, the drill collars, and the drill pipe and resume drilling. Several round trips may be necessary before the hole reaches an intermediate or final depth.