Slim Hole Technology - An Economic Key to Future Drilling Developments

"Based on present allowables, probably more than half the wells in Texas today could be produced through 1.5-in. tubing", stated Philip L. McLaughlin, president of The McLaughlin Co., Dallas, at a recent meeting of the Mid-Continent Section Study Group in Tulsa, Okla. McLaughlin, who was very closely associated with slim hole drilling and completion techniques and equipment while employed by the Cardwell Manufacturing Co., spoke to the Mid-Continent Section Study Group on the economics of slim hole drilling and completions. McLaughlin, owner of a firm which specializes in product market research and "assistance programs" for oil companies, opened his discussion by warning the group that since the oil industry is in a period of dynamic transition; oil companies, drilling contractors, service companies and equipment manufacturers must continually make themselves stronger as an industry and more alert to opportunity if they expect to continue their past progress. Oil Industry Needs New Ideas for Economic Survival "If oil is to economically survive in our lifetime, it must show a greater willingness to seek out, test, develop and adopt new ideas and new methods. Many research departments are thinking too small to create big deeds. There is a dire need of a freer exchange of information at all levels of each segment of our industry." Much of our present day equipment has outlived its economic usefulness-demanding an engineering revolution similar to the one the auto industry experienced in the late thirties. To cope with this transition which is resulting from keener competition, poorer economic conditions, higher dry hole ratios and fewer reserves found for each well drilled, coupled with technical and management complacency, he advised that the oil industry must either develop methods of economizing, change "fixed idea" and "ivory tower thinking", or receive a much lower return on investments. "If 15 per cent depletion allowance is passed, I expect a great engineering and economy revolution that must come, will develop in a hurry or the oil industry is likely to wake up some day and find itself, joining the railroad industry, as the second biggest ‘sleeping giant’ in U. S. history.