Offshore application of a novel technology for drilling vertical boreholes

A new concept for automatically drilling vertical boreholes was recently implemented by Elf Enterprise Caledonia called the vertical drilling system (VDS). The VDS was used to drill the 16-in. hole section of a North Sea exploration well. This was the first time this technology had been used offshore, drilling from a semisubmersible drilling unit. The VDS was shown to have an application in penetrating a drilling target that required a near-vertical wellbore. Technical functioning of the tool and field experience is reported along with performance comparisons to offset wells.