Improvement in ROP with Real Time MSE Monitoring in the Salton Sea

Abstract

One of the biggest handicaps of the Geothermal Drilling industry is the poor performance on rate of penetration (ROP) when compared with the Oil and Gas Industries; most geothermal wells lack proper data collection while drilling, data integration, and analysis of such data. This lack of essential engineering, well planning, and construction tools seemingly adds a significant amount of time to the industry average of 12-days non‑productive time (NPT) per geothermal well, as compared to oil and gas wells, therefore, leading to higher well costs. Geothermal Resource Group (GRG) has recently been involved in the drilling of two wells on the Salton Sea, utilizing real time monitoring of MSE (Mechanical Specific Energy) and achieving ROP like those of oil and gas wells cutting drilling time by 15 days and 25 days respectively, when compared to average drilling time in the Salton Sea.