This month the ED Projects Switchblade stabilizer was highlighted in the online edition of Offshore Engineer.

ERD wells push distance boundaries
Scott Weeden looks at new developments in extended reach drilling, which include managing vibrations, thereby allowing the BHA and bit to stay on bottom longer and get the well to total depth.
Hutchison (Iain Hutchison, managing director at Scotland-based Merlin ERD) also mentions a different kind of stabilizer called a Switchblade from ED Projects in the Netherlands. “They’ve got this Switchblade stabilizer that helps the vibration like any stabilizer, but it’s got a really peculiar blade set. A huge issue is that stabilizers get balled up in the shallower, softer formations. This stabilizer, with its hydrodynamic design with enhanced flow-by area, can help if there is a clay-balling problem,” he says. The hydrodynamic design also helps with tripping by tackling the root cause of pack off, which minimizes wall cake damage when both tripping and backreaming.
According to ED Projects, better drilling fluid displacement reduces the risk of swabbing and surging, which are key causes of wellbore instability. The tool profile and monoblade orientation reduces torque, drag and torsional vibration, which are key causes of borehole enlargement and subsequent BHA component failure.
Scott Weeden