DRILLING

Exclusive: Ballistic to hit in October

HENDERSON-based Matrix Composites & Engineering will launch a new Ballistic “economy” range of products in October to complement its Max-R range which is sold across Australia, North America, Asia and the Middle East.

Exclusive: Ballistic to hit in October

Matrix flagged the development of the Ballistic range of cost-effective cementing and casting equipment and tools this week. It said the range was suited to onshore oil and gas drilling projects.
 
The company is targeting the US$400 million-plus (A$400 million plus) North American cementing and ancillaries market with the technology, which CEO Aaron Begley told Energy News will be commercialised in October.
 
The Ballistic suite, part of Matrix's new business structure, has been in development for about a year, and Begley said Matrix had received "a lot of interest", mainly from international companies including suppliers, many of whom are its clients in Australia.
 
Begley said the Ballistic range included lower-cost casing jewellery that has a much broader range of applications for every well site, including CSG wells.
 
That technology is in addition to its Max-R low-friction composite drilling and completion centralisers that are made specifically for the industry's extended reach onshore operations.
 
Max-R centralisers are stocked in the US and Australia and sold in Canada, the US, Australia, the Middle East and Asia.
 
The 100% metal-free polymer centralisers are designed to convey well screens, completion tool strings and typical casing and tubing strings into highly deviated and challenging horizontal wellbores. 
 
They are made from proprietary blends of premium engineering grade polymers, which makes them robust, durable and able to deliver superior performance, the company says.
 
Begley said the Max-R technologies are particularly targeted at horizontal completions, where demand barely tapered off, even when the US shale oil industry bottomed last year during Saudi Arabia's price war with the high-cost North American producers.
 
Begley said the proliferation of the technology proves just how the US shale producers are winning the game at the moment.
 
"OPEC doesn't have the same power it once did over global oil production, so despite the cartel's output cuts the US is very much the swing producer," Begley told Energy News.
 
"The proliferation of drilling in the US onshore is a key market for us. Over the last 4-5 years we've developed and commercialised a range of low-friction centralisers recognised as being the best in the market which have sold several thousand of around the world."
 
Matrix also provides an analytical service for well planning.
 
"The total footage of wells drilled in the US with horizontal completions hasn't declined much at all. It's continuing to grow from where it bottomed last year, but it's almost back to the level it was 2-3 years ago," Begley said.
 
"Horizontal completions are used to maximise oil recovery from a single well completion, which is the sweet spot for Max-R, so we've ridden that wave with the product.
 
"Horizontal drilling across the board is a growth market, and we're seeing it as being the most cost-effective way of completing wells, particularly those which require stimulation."
 
 

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