TIM BEATON, SHEAR BITS,
USA, REVEALS NEW HYBRID
DRILL BIT DESIGNS THAT
HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED TO
PROVIDE ENHANCED DRILLING
PERFORMANCE.
GETTING AHEAD
WITHHYBRIDS
Figure 1.
Gouging/shearing cuttingactions.
I
f there is one common theme that pervades the drilling
industry, it is one of continuous performance improvement.
Every year wells are drilled faster and more efficiently
than the year before, and that is a situation that has not
changed in decades. A well that required dozens of bits to
drill 40 years ago can be completed with 2 ‑ 3 bits today. Some
wells that took over a month to complete even a few years ago
can now be completed in a week. There are obviously many
contributing technologies and developments that have created
the environment of efficiency that exists today, in areas from
surface equipment to mud systems, but there is no doubt that
drill bit technology has also played a key role. This progression
of performance has allowed some new applications to become
economically viable, and, in the current environment of
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