Darcy Technologies launches pioneering completion system for the global oil and gas industry

Darcy Technologies Ltd (Darcy) will launch its Critical Matrix Management system at the SPE’s annual technical conference in Florence, Italy (September 20-22, 2010).

Providing operators with a revolutionary new completion methodology which sets out to optimize reservoir inflow and maximize recovery by applying stress beyond the wellbore, it is expected that the new system will be a major topic of discussion at the conference.

Commenting on the launch, industry veteran and Darcy CEO, Steve Bruce, states, “We are proud to be at the forefront of bringing a step-change in possibility for operators. Conventional completion methods which are well established in the market such as gravel packing and expandable screens, are able to help operators address sand mobility in the near wellbore. However, they are not able to address the source of the problem, beyond the near wellbore and in the formation.”

“Simply put,” Bruce says, “the Darcy system provides operators with a solution to the issues of near wellbore degradation and associated production issues which all too often beset them over the productive life of the well. Our system does this by addressing the area beyond the near wellbore and within the wellbore’s critical matrix.”

Bruce explains, “The Darcy system has been developed on well-established principles of engineering and an advanced understanding of wellbore rock mechanics and stress changes during production. Specifically, the Darcy system allows operators to apply calculated and modulated stresses beyond the wellbore into the formation to influence the near wellbore area’s critical matrix.”

“It’s by maintaining these stresses and creating near virgin conditions (or ‘zero skin’ effects) that the Darcy system reduces the degradation of the near wellbore during production, thus enabling the controlling of sand, channelling reservoir fluids, isolating flow and, crucially, boosting overall permeability.”

Indeed, studies show that completion designs which offer support to the formation as the reservoir depletes can improve the wellbore’s productivity and reliability.

The Darcy system, which is modular and incorporates the proprietary Tri-axial Activation Platform, has the benefit of allowing the integration of components to match individual completion requirements and is the only method to provide positive compliance.

“Another way of looking at it,” he adds, “is that Completions Groups now have a system at their disposal which provides them with openhole performance with cased-hole functionality. The Darcy system is innovative yet simple and reliable – from a completion point of view it doesn’t get much better than that.”

The specialist oil and gas investor Epi-V has supported the development of the system. Steve Kent, Epi-V partner and industry expert, says of the Darcy offer, “The industry has been relatively slow to take-up more innovative completion methods, frequently citing the issue of complexity as a barrier to adoption. However, the Darcy system provides a genuinely straightforward option that we believe will lead to a reinvention in well design for sand control which is long overdue and badly needed. Hence we, along with other partners, have committed a multi-million dollar investment to supporting the commercial growth of the business.”

Kent adds, “Darcy is led by a highly experienced management team and this expertise combined with the benefits that the Darcy system provides, will be capable of adding significant value to operators. Something that should prove of major interest to completions engineers looking for effective production and sand management systems, and which will see Darcy establish itself as a force in a market which is currently worth more than US$600 million per year.” He concludes, “And that is something which we are keen to take advantage of.”

Darcy Technologies is based at Kintore, near Aberdeen, United Kingdom. For more information on Darcy Technologies, log on to www.darcyflow.com