American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2016 - 81

curve and lateral rates of penetration by
38 percent for an Eagle Ford operator,"
Fuselier details. "The bit included
StaySharp™ 2.0 cutters, which combine
the latest manufacturing techniques to
improve wear resistance and edge integrity
with an optimized profile that boosts stability and overall drilling efficiency.
"For higher speed applications, we
have developed one-inch King Cutters™,
further building on the StaySharp 2.0
technology," Fuselier continues. "These
cutters provide a larger depth of cut and
are delivering record performance in both
the Eagle Ford and the Denver-Julesburg
basins. In the latter, we are drilling at
725 feet an hour in areas where offset
wells average 620 ft/hr."
In a Permian Basin lateral application
where durability is more of a concern,
Talon Force bits have helped an operator
drill 55 percent farther at a 25 percent
higher average ROP, Fuselier says.
She attributes the bit's success in hard,
interbedded formations primarily to Stabilis™ reinforced cutters. "These cutters
have a modified geometry that strengthens
them so they can withstand three times
the load of a conventional design before
failing," she says. "The unique design
also allows the cutters to withstand a
larger wear state before breaking, allowing

the bit to drill farther."
Stabilis cutters also provide a much
smoother torque response than standard
cutter geometries, Fuselier advises. "In
applications where the bit is going in
and out of hard and soft formations, the
smoother response will protect the cutting
structure even more and lead to more efficient drilling," she relates.
The bits' short shank decreases makeup length to improve control in conventional directional drilling, and increases
bit side forces on rotary steerable systems,
Fuselier mentions. She emphasizes that
Baker Hughes works closely with operators to optimize the bit profile and cutter
layout for each application.
"Since commercializing the Talon
Force platform in June 2015, we have
drilled 600 wells and more than 3 million
feet of rock worldwide," she reports.
"The Stabilis cutter alone has been applied
in the Permian Basin, the Williston Basin,
the South Central Oklahoma Oil Play,
and the Mississippi Chat, as well as in
Kazakhstan, the North Sea and the Middle
East. In almost every case, we saw an
improvement in average ROP and footage
drilled."
Permian Basin PDCs
To speed Permian Basin drilling, Dril-

Baker Hughes' new Talon™ Force bits
combine tough materials with novel cutters and application-specific designs to
tackle everything from high-speed vertical drilling to laterals in hard, interbedded formations.

formance has developed two bits. "For
the curve section, we now offer the
DF516R2," details Casey Kitagawa, the
company's global application engineering
director. "Because the transitional formations in West Texas and New Mexico
vary widely in their characteristics, it can
be difficult to maintain tool-face control
there. The DF516R2 maintains control
through a unique depth-of-cut management

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