The Calgary and Houston-headquartered company now aims to take its current fleet of two XSR 200 Plus CTD units deployed in Saudi Arabia along with its patented Intervention Coil Units to 10 units over a period of five years. PUMMY KAUL reports

At a time when the oilfield service market continues to remain challenged, Xtreme Drilling and Coil Services, an onshore drilling and well services contractor, says it’s fairly busy with new contracts and is strongly positioned to improve market share.

The Calgary and Houston-headquartered company continues to explore additional opportunities in the international market and believes that the Middle East, in particular, represents a strong and stable growth area for the company in years to come.

The drilling and services provider has set its sights on the Middle East’s deeper horizontal drilling market, building and customizing its solutions to meet the needs of this region. "Over the next five years, the Middle East will be our primary target area. This is where we want to be," says Tom Wood, CEO, Xtreme Drilling and Coil Services in an exclusive interview with OGN.

Xtreme has had coiled tubing drilling (CTD) rigs operating in Saudi Arabia since 2010 where it started working with Saudi Aramco on its underbalanced coiled tubing drilling (UBCTD) project partnering with other major oilfield services companies.

The company has two XSR 200 Plus CTD units working for Saudi Aramco on gas fields in the southern part of the country. These units feature electronic injector heads and can mobilise up to 50 per cent faster than traditional drilling rigs, using modular transportation systems. The units are performing re-entry work using their patented electronic injector head and proprietary programmable logic controller (PLC) to resolve casing exit challenges.

"Technically, I think it’s going to be the highest specification coil tubing operation in the world," Wood says about the Aramco project. The XSR units, he says, are delivering outstanding results on the deep horizontal re-entry project in Saudi Arabia, cutting drilling time dramatically while increasing production.

The company now aims to take its current fleet of two XSR 200 Plus CTD units deployed in Saudi Arabia along with it’s patented Intervention Coil Units to 10 units over a period of five years. "Over the next two to five years, we would like to see five to ten XSR units in Saudi Arabia or in other pockets of the Middle East," Wood adds.

According to Wood, the success from the Saudi Aramco project has led to inquiries from other producers in the region that recognises the value proposition of Xtreme’s patented coiled tubing drilling systems.

The company also plans to introduce its automated, plug milling technology, X-Mill into Saudi Arabia in the near future. "We will take the technology which we’ve developed in the US, and that has enabled us to achieve new benchmarks in the US unconventional plays,  and transfer it into this region," reveals Wood.

A Canadian public company with a corporate office and engineering and design team in Calgary, Xtreme also has offices in the US, Balmer India, Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, and Luxembourg.

An economist by education, a visionary by experience, and a car racer by hobby, Wood insists that he has grown up on `drilling and coiled tubing services’ and has worked his way to the top through extensive experience in the energy industry.

Xtreme is the third company Wood has founded since his first coiling venture which was started way back in 1997 and was acquired by suitors within three years of its launch.

Leading-edge technology

With its in-house engineering department and commitment to innovation, Xtreme continues to introduce new technologies to the industry. It holds numerous patents worldwide for both drilling technology and transportation techniques that allow for faster rig-up and rig-out. Additionally, it has extensive patent-related applications in progress in the US, Canada and other jurisdictions around the world.

Xtreme has pioneered the deep reach coiled tubing market with 2 5/8 inch diameter coiled tubing, AC electric injectors and proprietary software control. It also holds all depth records with this large coil size which has allowed its customers to drill and complete longer reach horizontal wells in the US and the Middle East.

"In these tough situations, we are still the busiest coil tubing operator in Texas, right now. We may charge more but we are getting the job done in up to one-third of the time," says Wood.

Wood ... taking a big leap

Wood credits Xtreme’s current promising position to its leading–edge vision and proprietary technology. "Technology continues to bring value to a business throughout the tough times, whereas commodity-based businesses tend to struggle," says the economist-turned-CEO of the company.

Founded in 2005 by Wood along with a team of industry veterans with a history of driving innovation in rig engineering, Xtreme currently operates two service lines: Drilling Services and Coil Services under contracts with oil and natural gas exploration and production (E&P) companies and integrated oilfield service providers in Canada, the US and Saudi Arabia.

The company offers some of the deepest-reach coiled tubing service units in the world. Its growing fleet consists primarily of units customised for deep horizontal resource plays, with technologies including an AC electronic injector head and proprietary PLC system. Currently, Xtreme is providing ultra-deep well intervention services such as perforating and frac plug milling in the Eagle Ford Shale and Permian Basin, where it is setting new performance benchmarks for larger-diameter coiled tubing and extended reach wells.

"Our company has taken a big leap in coiled tubing technology," affirms Wood. "We have always tried to push the envelope and think out-of-the-box," he adds.

The good news is that the market appears to be validating Xtreme’s technological advantage over other coiled tubing providers. This is evident by the fact that the company has increased the customer base by 100 per cent over the past 12 months as there are now 72 E&P companies that the company has active agreements with in South and West Texas.  "When operators begin to complete the large inventory of drilled but uncompleted wells Xtreme should be strongly positioned to increase activity levels and gain market share," the company says.

New standards in coiled tubing

As the push for longer laterals continues in North American shale plays, Xtreme is enabling operators to efficiently complete wells at unprecedented depths. Its XSR coiled tubing fleet is currently focused on well interventions in the Eagle Ford shale and Permian Basin, where it is establishing new industry standards for not only reach but also operating performance, safety and efficiency. The result: reduced total time on well, faster time to production and—ultimately—optimum reservoir performance.

Setting standards in reach: With some of the deepest-reach coiled tubing service units in the industry, Xtreme’s XSR fleet is purpose-built for the greater depths and extended reach required in unconventional resource plays. Its large-capacity coil reel trailers can transport 27,000 ft of its tapered-design 2-5/8-inch coiled tubing, yielding lateral reach capabilities that exceed industry standard 2-inch coiled tubing by 3,000-5000 ft.

"Answering an industry need to an area in which the most commonly available coiled tubing sizes ;(2, 2 3/8 and 2 7/8 inch) could not address, we sought to fill the gap with 2 5/8-inch coiled tubing. There had been 2 5/8-inch tubing produced already for other applications, such as surface piping, so we started looking at 2 5/8 inch and found that we could design a reel to hold 27,000 ft of it to answer the need," explains Wood.

Xtreme began using 2 5/8-inch coiled tubing in the Eagle Ford in February 2012, and in May 2013, the company set a record for the deepest coiled-tubing job with that size, at 20,400 ft in the Eagle Ford. In January 2014, the company deployed its fourth XSR 200 coiled-tubing unit to Texas, which was a mastless version of the original XSR200 design. This adjustment allows greater flexibility in relation to working next to existing equipment, such as frac or wireline, he adds.

The XSR fleet is currently providing memory logging, tubing conveyed perforating, milling and coiled tubing fracking services on extended-reach lateral wells in the Eagle Ford and the Permian. In 2015, an XSR unit set a Permian Basin record by reaching a total measured depth of 21,154 ft. Expanding on these achievements, Xtreme is working with operators to push beyond 21,000 ft MD in the Eagle Ford, a service no other coiled tubing company can offer, reveals Wood.

Setting standards in operating performance: Xtreme’s all XSR coil tubing units are equipped with AC electric injector heads and proprietary electronic PLC systems, including X-Mill real-time milling software. This allows weight on bit to be regulated in conjunction with differential pressure across the motor, vastly reducing motor stalls and stuck-in-hole incidents that can damage equipment and compromise hole quality. Annular velocity for an XSR unit with a traditional 2-7/8-inch motor at 2.5 bpm exceeds that of a 2-inch coiled tubing unit by 25 fpm. In addition, an available 3-1/2-inch motor can accommodate a 3.5-4 bpm pump rate for annular velocities above 258 fpm. With greater annular velocity and a controlled run rate, more plugs can be milled per run so fewer short trips are needed.

The company - in yet another technological advancement - continued to add to its impressive track record when its US XSR division milled out 42 plugs in 40hrs with only a single motor stall and an impressive, average plug mill time of 9.5min/plug.

In the third quarter of 2015, the company says it milled out plugs in a horizontal section of 12,450 ft with 2 5/8-inch coiled tubing from a vertical kick off point of 6,500 ft. In addition, the company more recently milled 52 plugs without a short trip utilizing a single bottom hole assembly.  In total, Xtreme has performed more than 82 million round trip running feet with 2 5/8-inch coiled tubing since commencing operations in Texas in 2012. 

Over this period the trend in most major resource plays has been to increase the length of the horizontal section in order to increase well productivity. In response to customer demand Xtreme has continued to improve its industry leading technology and recently introduced a trailer configuration that is able to transport 27,000 ft of 2 5/8-inch coiled tubing.

Unlike other large coil providers Xtreme has the ability to deploy to these depths due to its technologically advanced 200,000 pound pull capacity A/C injector and proprietary electronic logic control system.  The company recently performed work on a well in excess of 24,000 feet which represents the longest length reached well in Xtreme’s history.