Posted on February 27, 2013 by Dan

In January DTD completed the installation of two blind (single-ended) wells at an Air Force Base in the desert southwest. The location of these wells was as high profile of a location as possible at a military base… the main gate.

Two air sparge wells were installed, beneath and parallel to First Street, the main route into and out of the base. If there was a problem, the traffic of  thousands of people passing to and from the base would come to halt. The horizontal environmental remediation wells were successfully installed over seven days, with no disruption to traffic, and with most people having no idea the installation was underway. The image below to the right shows the rig set up on the edge of the road, screened by temporary fencing.

The project was completed with our CMS 9030 drill rig, pictured below to the left. This drill rig is equipped with Range 2 (31 ft) drill rod, allowing it to handle the large drill pipe necessary for the knock-off installations.

DTD has developed and perfected a patent pending knock-off installation technique. This technique allows DTD to drill and precisely locate the bit through the designed well screen position. Once the drilling is completed, DTD uses the well materials installed through the middle of the drill rods to knock off the disposable drill bit, then strips off the drill rods. The well materials are left in the exact position where the drill rods were advanced and located.

This technique is particularly important in soft flowing sands, cobbly formations  or other conditions where keeping the borehole open is difficult, and following a previously drilled pilot hole with casing is impossible to ensure.

DTD has used the knock-off technology successfully on several projects on both the east and west coast. The tooling has been designed, analyzed,  and redesigned, allowing DTD to use the tooling to install wells as long as 1,450 feet in loose and collapsing sands. Please contact DTD for further information.

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