In the oil and gas industry, quality sample drilling is a process that is used to obtain representative rock samples from a well. This is necessary, as the samples obtained can help determine the reservoir’s characteristics.
What should I know about this?
Core drilling is getting pieces where an uncased hole is drilled using mud slurry or water as the flow medium. For this method, a drill bit with diamond-impregnated teeth cuts into solid rock material and removes cylindrical cores from the wellbore that are 3 – 5 inches in diameter. After being cut by the drill bit, these cores are measured for their length and brought up to the surface along with any other formation fluids that may come back up during this process.
The fluid is separated through phases by density between oil and gas, which enables the core collection without contamination from the liquids. Water and mud are recovered separately through separate steps to be re-used for other drilling operations. After removal of the cores, diamonds on a surface drill bit shape that portion of rock exposed by the previous bit into smooth, even surfaces, allowing for further penetration in any direction.
Core drilling is often used to collect samples where precision exploration is necessary or additional information about some regions of interest is required. This technique can yield accurate results but requires special equipment, specific training, and significant cost.
We hope this information has been useful to you.