Surface logging (mud logging) combines expertise with innovative tools to minimize unexpected events and enhance overall drilling efficiency.

Electronic drilling recording
Our advanced electronic drilling recorder (EDR) monitors a wide range of parameters key to drilling efficiency and safety. Its complementary software facilitates tracking, organization and analysis of the measured data for maximum benefit. Its remote-access feature enables key stakeholders to monitor data from offsite locations.

Geopressure consulting (GPC) services
Maintaining a vigilant eye on pore pressure is essential to optimizing drilling, minimizing nonproductive time and wellsite risk, and reducing operational costs. Our GPC consultants provide an array of services to predict and manage pore pressure, such as assisting in the selection of drilling mud, advising on measures to remediate abnormally high pore pressure, identifying fractures and advising on casing points.

They perform a pre-drilling assessment to predict a well’s pore pressure and highlight potential drilling hazards. Using real-time data, they continue to refine the pre-drill prognosis during drilling operations and then perform a post-well profile to generate geopressure curves for the entire logged section of the well to facilitate drilling optimization on subsequent wells.

Hole-stability monitoring
We offer a comprehensive hole-stability monitoring service to help minimize unscheduled events during drilling. We examine trip overpull and underpull conditions, analyze surge/ swab and torque/drag, and perform fill-on-bottom analysis to preempt any hole-stability problems. We also use a quantitative cuttings tool (QVC) to continuously monitor cuttings volumes and sizes. In addition to their application to hole-stability monitoring, these measurements can be used to improve cuttings circulation, determine borehole diameter and maximize rate of penetration.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) detection
Prolonged exposure to amounts of H2S as low as 10 parts per million (ppm) can be harmful; amounts greater than 1,000 ppm can be fatal. Using our pH/pS system, Weatherford wellsite surface logging specialists sample drilling mud to detect H2S early, reducing the risk of personnel exposure.

Kick detection
Our pit-volume totalizer (PVT) and early kick detection system (EKDS) monitor a range of parameters—including pump strokes, flow measurements, pit levels and standpipe pressure measurements—to identify unexpected changes in the drilling fluid system, critical to detecting the onset of a kick.

Secure Drilling^SM services 
Surface logging (mud logging) plays a critical role in Secure Drilling operations, especially as it applies to optimizing mud weights. We lend critical expertise to your underbalanced drilling operations. Our WellWizard® underbalanced drilling software enables us to monitor underbalanced and managed pressure wells with a high degree of precision. Our capabilities include maintaining optimal mud weights, determining when a well enters a sweet spot, and preventing circulation loss and differential sticking.

Vibration detection
Particularly problematic in harsh drilling conditions, torsional drillstring vibrations can lead to overgauge hole, drillstring failure and excessive bit wear. Leveraging our proprietary vibration-detection software suite, we help you detect and remedy vibration before it becomes a problem.

Maximizing drilling efficiency.