BlueFire, the good folks out of Houston selling and leasing their proprietary polycrystalline diamond cutter (PDC) bits to domestic drillers operating in the many burgeoning plays here in the U.S., reported today that they have moved to aggressively establish several footholds in the Permian Basin community.
Chairman and CEO of BLFR, William Blackwell, enamored of the results with prospective clients thus far, proclaimed confidently to markets that BLFR is now in a prime position to “generate substantial business” among the Permian operators, who are all hungry for the company’s high-grade PDC bits. Between the Permian and Eagle Ford you have around a million barrels per day of output (Reuters). This is a massive target for BlueFire, whose bits are sought after across the industry for their optimal rate of penetration and superior handling in hard rocks and shales, with their big, fat face volumes and computational fluid dynamics directed ports, they tear through sticky clays and limestone while cooling quickly and retaining maximum cutting parameters off the faces.
The end result of BLFR’s ingenious bit design is longer bit runs even in this tough Permian material, where hard rock formations and shales beat down lesser hardware. Thus, the BlueFire PDC bits represent a substantial breakthrough from an operator’s standpoint. In fact, it is almost impossible to really quantify what this means until you have “felt” a bit at the controls in these basins, or looked closely at the up-time dynamics for a field crew. Whereas typical bits simply shoot drilling fluid into the wellbore in an inefficient manner, giving disparate coverage at the key point of contact with the material, BLFR’s technology uses strategically aligned ports to jet high-pressure fluid onto the entire edge of these large-diameter PDC cutters.
Testing by BLFR indicates a drop of temperature by 30% on the cutting surfaces using their technology. It would be pointless to explain all the physics behind why this is so important from an engineering and drilling standpoint, but suffice it to say, the resulting decrease in wear and tear on the cutters is immense, translating directly into more bang for the customer’s buck and a longer product lifecycle to boot. In addition to these performance metrics, which alone set the technology in a class by itself, the BLFR bits also shed cuttings faster because of the design.
For operators in the Permian this technology is a real boon and bits are one of the most costly components as well, something which makes the BLFR technology particularly attractive. The ability to upgrade to superior performance, while getting more life out of the bit is huge, especially for smaller operators where budgeting is tight. BlueFire has clearly identified their market and is getting some really nice buzz so far with prospective clients, definitely want to keep an eye on these guys.
To learn more, head over to www.FlueFireEquipment.com
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