Background

An estimated 407 billion barrels of onshore discovered oil in the U.S. is non-recoverable with current drilling and production technologies. Of that total, 218 billion barrels can be found at the relatively shallow depths of 5,000 feet or less. Even at today’s high oil prices, industry-sponsored research remains on the decline, and operators tend to use familiar technologies rather than risk failure with advanced technology. To bridge this technology gap, DOE partners with industry to develop and demonstrate new technologies to access domestic petroleum resources.

The Microhole Technology (MHT) Program is developing a promising suite of technologies that enable drilling of wells with casings less than 41/2 inches in diameter using coiled tubing drill rigs that are relatively small and easily mobilized. These technologies have the potential to reduce the cost of drilling shallow- and moderate-depth holes for exploration, field development, and long-term subsurface monitoring.

Goal

The goal of DOE’s MHT Program is to develop cost-effective technologies that
enable:

• Development of shallow (<5,000 feet), currently uneconomic oil and gas
resources.

• Acquisition of high-resolution, real-time reservoir imaging without interrupting production.

• Reduced environmental impact via lower volumes of drilling fluid, smaller
operational footprint and pad/extended-reach drilling.

To accomplish these goals the nearterm MHT program focuses on two areas of technology development:

• Field demonstrations where existing coiled tubing rigs are showing that economic resource recovery can result from wells with less than 41/2-inch casing.

• Development of tools to drill, evaluate, complete, and produce from lateral microholes drilled out of 41/2-inch casing.