Drift Wellbore is developing a patent-pending technology for multistage completions that eliminates the need for frac plugs and the resulting challenges that come with them.

This radical update to traditional plug-and-perf technology creates benefits that no other multistage completion technology offers:

• Elimination of coiled tubing drill out.
• Completion of extended and ultra reach horizontal wells.
• Multistage completion of under-pressured reservoirs.
• Completions in reservoirs with severe casing deformation.
• Elimination of frac plug related problems like fluid erosion around plugs, misalignment in the casing, premature setting all resulting in less production and reserves.

Drift wellbore provides direct equipment sales with price contingent on the number of stages in a given wellbore.

Drift Wellbore's proprietary technology eliminates the need for frac plugs or sliding sleeves and the challenges and problems of using them.

• Eliminates frac plugs
• Eliminates coiled tubing or workover rig drill out
• Unlimited number of stages
• Uses ballistic perforating for maximum reservoir contact
• No more ball and seat or pump down darts that can get stuck in the casing
• No more counting technologies that are unreliable during hydraulic fracturing
• Complete the entire well even with severe casing deformation
• Operational ease of deployment
• Completion of ultra reach horizontal wells
• Completion of under pressured reservoirs

Plug-and-Perf has been the most accepted method of multistage completions globally. However this technique suffers from numerous problems and challenges:

• Plugs Prematurely Set in the Casing:

Plugs are pumped down on wireline at high speed in hopes of reducing completion time. However, human error and wellbore geometry can cause plugs to be prematurely set in the vertical section of the casing or above their intended setting depth. This means that the completion must stop and the plug removed before any additional stages can be stimulated. Mobilizing a coiled tubing unit or service rig can add days to the completion of the well and interrupt the operational cadence.

• Deformed Casing:

There have been quite a number of technical papers and articles about the deformation of casing in MSF projects. “The interplay of hydraulic fracturing and formation geomechanics is deforming and even shearing steel casing” (Jacobs, January 2020). Most frac plugs cannot pass by typical casing deformations resulting in a long section of the reservoir rock that remains unstimulated. Alternatively, smaller diameter frac plugs can be run but many have lower differential pressure capacity that limits the amount of stimulation that can be applied. In either case, it is common for a well with deformed casing to “lose stages” resulting in less production and lower reserves.

• Plugs that Move Under Differential Pressure:

Frac Plugs are mechanical devices that are designed to perform within a design envelope. However, wellbore conditions coupled with design tolerances on geometry and materials in the frac plug can result in plugs that “skid” downhole or move under high differential pressure. If the plug begins to move under differential pressure, the seal is quickly lost, and the treating fluid can bypass around the plug itself. This fluid bypass around the plug can erode the steel casing creating fluid channels that direct the stimulation fluids to the previously stimulated zone. The result is that the lower zone is stimulated more than once and the next higher zone is under-stimulated. Damaged casing with no pressure integrity and improperly stimulated zones result in lower production.

• Improperly Set Plugs:

Similar to the previous problem, plugs can be partially set or misaligned to the center line of the casing as a result of the orientation and weight of the wireline BHA. This can also lead to loss of pressure integrity across the plug result in erosion of the casing that leads to fluid bypass around the frac plug. ConocoPhillips and others, have used diagnostic techniques in Canada and the US to validate this problem (Rassenfoss, October 2020).

All of the problems stated result in NPT, increased well cost, lost production and possibly lost production reserves. The design of the Drift Technology is uniquely suited to address and solve these challenges.