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Type | Private |
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Industry | Oilfield Services |
Founded | 1980 |
Headquarters | Houston, TX |
Services | Precision Wellbore Placement |
Number of employees | 500+ |
Parent | SLB (2023-present) |
Website | www.gyrodata.com |
Gyrodata, Incorporated is a privately owned company headquartered in Houston, Texas.
It is a leading provider of technology and services, including gyroscopic surveying, and wellbore logging, to the upstream oil and gas industry. The company’s surveying, wireline, and support services help customers place wells more precisely and accurately, improve hydrocarbon recovery factors, and reduce project lifecycle costs.
Gyrodata operates in more than 50 countries across multiple energy markets and employs approximately 600 people. The company has principal offices in Aberdeen, Scotland and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The company operates across four major service areas: Drilling, Surveying, Wireline, and Support.
Drilling Services encompasses a wide range of technologies designed for directional drilling applications, including performance motors, measurement-while-drilling (MWD) tools, rotary steerable systems (RSS), and gyro-while-drilling (GWD) tools, the latter of which was invented by Gyrodata in 2002 to use real-time gyro steering and surveying data while drilling. Surveying Services provides gyroscopic surveys designed to improve wellbore placement using both spinning-mass and solid-state technology, depending on the application. Wireline Services covers not only traditional wireline and cased-hole logging solutions but unique offerings in high-density wellbore tortuosity logging and cement bond logging. Support Services covers drilling optimization and real-time monitoring provided by a remote operations center, with experts on-hand 24/7 to help improve performance and drilling challenges.
Gyrodata was founded in Houston, Texas by Robert S McMahan, Steve Klopp, Gary Uttecht and a team of industry veterans who recognized a gap in the market for surveying technologies. Several large, multinational oil and gas companies supported Gyrodata during its formation in an effort to bring new surveying technologies to market. After several years of technology development and numerous field trials with leading oil and gas operators, Gyrodata ran the first commercial gyroscopic survey in 1983. Several months later, Gyrodata opened its office in Aberdeen, Scotland to provide services for the North Sea. In 1987, Gyrodata opened its first office in Malaysia, and began working across the Asia Pacific region. A year later, the company opened its first offices in the Middle East. That same year, Gyrodata introduced the Gyrodata Electronic Magnetic Surveyor (GEMS) steering tool, which provided drilling guidance in directional drilling applications and logging.
In the early 1990s, Gyrodata built its Eastern Hemisphere headquarters in Aberdeen, Scotland while opening new regional offices in Argentina and Venezuela, which represented its first entry into Latin America. Following this, the company introduced the gyroscopic steering tool in 1992, which allowed for real-time gyro toolface on wireline while drilling and sliding. The slimhole gyro system was also introduced the same year. Gyrodata commercialized the industry’s first drop gyroscopic surveying system in the mid-1990s, which used a battery-powered system. The drop tool eliminated the requirement for wireline and nonmagnetic collars, and the foundation of this technology remains a part of Gyrodata’s service offering today. In 1997, Gyrodata introduced its line of Advanced Logging Combination (ALC) tools, which enabled simultaneous collection of a gyro survey along with a variety of wireline logs provided by third-party wireline companies.
Fast-forward a few years to the start of the new millennium, and Gyrodata acquired Cambridge Drilling Automation to expand its technology and service offerings. Cambridge was an industry pioneer and leader in the development of RSS. This acquisition led to Gyrodata launching its own RSS—a closed-loop system with point-the-bit technology. The company launched its first GWD tool in 2002, providing drillers with the ability to use real-time gyro steering and surveying data while drilling. Simultaneously, Gyrodata introduced a survey-while-drilling technology in North America that would become the foundation of its future MWD technologies. In 2008, engineers at the company achieved compatibility with third-party electromagnetic telemetry to transmit GWD in real time with a broader range of host MWD tools and also performed the first successful run with a high-speed drop gyro system. The following year, the Continuous All-Attitude Tool (CAAT) was introduced, which provided continuous surveying from vertical to horizontal while moving in or out of the well.
In 2010, the company introduced several new technologies, including a new, in-house-developed gyroscope—which is the primary sensor used across a range of Gyrodata technologies and services—a new mud motor, and a new GWD system designed to provide surveys at up to 40° of inclination. GWD systems for wells with up to 70° of inclination shortly followed, establishing Gyrodata as the only provider of gyroscopic surveys above 40°. Construction began on the company’s new headquarters in Houston, Texas in 2010, and in early 2011, Gyrodata began operating from the new offices. The next several years saw a substantial amount of technology innovation, including a GWD system for wells up to 90°, a high-density tortuosity logging software to improve casing running and placement of artificial lift equipment, and two next-generation MWD systems: one that provided inclination and azimuth while drilling via mud-pulse telemetry, the other that used electromagnetic telemetry to enable compatibility with RSS and GWD tools.
The commercial release of solid-state gyroscopic technology in 2018 represented a step-change in the way the industry approached surveying. Following this, Gyrodata released two new products—one a drop gyro surveying system and one a GWD system—in 2019. Both were powered by solid-state gyros.
In the oil and gas industry, the term wireline usually refers to the use of multi-conductor, single conductor or slickline cable, or "wireline", as a conveyance for the acquisition of subsurface petrophysical and geophysical data and the delivery of well construction services such as pipe recovery, perforating, plug setting and well cleaning and fishing. The subsurface geophysical and petrophysical information results in the description and analysis of subsurface geology, reservoir properties and production characteristics.
A drill string on a drilling rig is a column, or string, of drill pipe that transmits drilling fluid and torque to the drill bit. The term is loosely applied to the assembled collection of the smuggler pool, drill collars, tools and drill bit. The drill string is hollow so that drilling fluid can be pumped down through it and circulated back up the annulus.
Schlumberger NV, doing business as SLB, also known as Schlumberger Limited, is an oilfield services company. As of 2022, it is both the world's largest offshore drilling company and the world's largest offshore drilling contractor by revenue.
Baker Hughes Company, incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law and headquartered in Houston, is one of the world's largest oil field services companies. The company provides products and services for oil well drilling, formation evaluation, completion, production, and reservoir consulting. It operates in over 120 countries, with research and manufacturing facilities in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Germany, Norway, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Missouri. From 2017 to 2020, the company was majority owned by General Electric (GE); however, GE no longer owns an economic stake in the company.
Directional drilling is the practice of drilling non-vertical bores. It can be broken down into four main groups: oilfield directional drilling, utility installation directional drilling, directional boring, and surface in seam (SIS), which horizontally intersects a vertical bore target to extract coal bed methane.
Well logging, also known as borehole logging is the practice of making a detailed record of the geologic formations penetrated by a borehole. The log may be based either on visual inspection of samples brought to the surface or on physical measurements made by instruments lowered into the hole. Some types of geophysical well logs can be done during any phase of a well's history: drilling, completing, producing, or abandoning. Well logging is performed in boreholes drilled for the oil and gas, groundwater, mineral and geothermal exploration, as well as part of environmental and geotechnical studies.
NOV Inc., formerly National Oilwell Varco, is an American multinational corporation based in Houston, Texas. It is a worldwide provider of equipment and components used in oil and gas drilling and production operations, oilfield services, and supply chain integration services to the upstream oil and gas industry. The company conducts operations in more than 500 locations across six continents, operating through three reporting segments: Rig Technologies, Wellbore Technologies, and Completion & Production Solutions.
In geotechnical engineering, drilling fluid, also known as drilling mud, is used to aid the drilling of boreholes into the earth. Used while drilling oil and natural gas wells and on exploration drilling rigs, drilling fluids are also used for much simpler boreholes, such as water wells.
Logging while drilling (LWD) is a technique of conveying well logging tools into the well borehole downhole as part of the bottom hole assembly (BHA).
A drilling rig is used to create a borehole or well in the earth's sub-surface, for example in order to extract natural resources such as gas or oil. During such drilling, data is acquired from the drilling rig sensors for a range of purposes such as: decision-support to monitor and manage the smooth operation of drilling; to make detailed records of the geologic formations penetrated by a borehole; to generate operations statistics and performance benchmarks such that improvements can be identified, and to provide well planners with accurate historical operations-performance data with which to perform statistical risk analysis for future well operations. The terms measurement while drilling (MWD), and logging while drilling (LWD) are not used consistently throughout the industry. Although these terms are related, within the context of this section, the term measurement while drilling refers to directional-drilling measurements, e.g., for decision support for the wellbore path, while LWD refers to measurements concerning the geological formations penetrated while drilling.
Geosteering is the optimal placement of a wellbore based on the results of realtime downhole geological and geophysical logging measurements rather than three-dimensional targets in space. The objective is usually to keep a directional wellbore within a hydrocarbon pay zone defined in terms of its resistivity, density or even biostratigraphy. In mature areas, geosteering may be used to keep a wellbore in a particular reservoir section to minimize gas or water breakthrough and maximize economic production from the well. In the process of drilling a borehole, geosteering is the act of adjusting the borehole position on the fly to reach one or more geological targets. These changes are based on geological information gathered while drilling.
Underbalanced drilling, or UBD, is a procedure used to drill oil and gas wells where the pressure in the wellbore is kept lower than the static pressure of the formation being drilled. As the well is being drilled, formation fluid flows into the wellbore and up to the surface. This is the opposite of the usual situation, where the wellbore is kept at a pressure above the formation to prevent formation fluid entering the well. In such a conventional "overbalanced" well, the invasion of fluid is considered a kick, and if the well is not shut-in it can lead to a blowout, a dangerous situation. In underbalanced drilling, however, there is a "rotating head" at the surface - essentially a seal that diverts produced fluids to a separator while allowing the drill string to continue rotating.
In the oil and gas industry, coiled tubing refers to a long metal pipe, normally 1 to 3.25 in in diameter which is supplied spooled on a large reel. It is used for interventions in oil and gas wells and sometimes as production tubing in depleted gas wells. Coiled tubing is often used to carry out operations similar to wirelining. The main benefits over wireline are the ability to pump chemicals through the coil and the ability to push it into the hole rather than relying on gravity. Pumping can be fairly self-contained, almost a closed system, since the tube is continuous instead of jointed pipe. For offshore operations, the 'footprint' for a coiled tubing operation is generally larger than a wireline spread, which can limit the number of installations where coiled tubing can be performed and make the operation more costly. A coiled tubing operation is normally performed through the drilling derrick on the oil platform, which is used to support the surface equipment, although on platforms with no drilling facilities a self-supporting tower can be used instead. For coiled tubing operations on sub-sea wells a mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) e.g. semi-submersible, drillship etc. has to be utilized to support all the surface equipment and personnel, whereas wireline can be carried out from a smaller and cheaper intervention vessel. Onshore, they can be run using smaller service rigs, and for light operations a mobile self-contained coiled tubing rig can be used.
A rotary steerable system (RSS) is a form of drilling technology used in directional drilling. It employs the use of specialized downhole equipment to replace conventional directional tools such as mud motors. They are generally programmed by the measurement while drilling (MWD) engineer or directional driller who transmits commands using surface equipment which the tool responds to, and gradually steers into the desired direction. In other words, a tool designed to drill directionally with continuous rotation from the surface, eliminating the need to "slide" a mud motor.
Oilfield terminology refers to the jargon used by those working in fields within and related to the upstream segment of the petroleum industry. It includes words and phrases describing professions, equipment, and procedures specific to the industry. It may also include slang terms used by oilfield workers to describe the same.
Weight on bit (WOB), as expressed in the oil industry, is the amount of downward force exerted on the drill bit and is normally measured in thousands of pounds.
In the oil industry, a deviation survey, or simply a survey, is the measurement of a borehole's departure from the vertical, expressed in degrees (°).
IntelliServ is a National Oilwell Varco brand that manufactures and sells a broadband networked drilling string system used to transmit downhole information to the surface in a drilling operation.
Wireline quality assurance and quality control is a set of requirements and operating procedures which take place before, during, and after the wireline logging job. The main merits of wireline QA/QC include accuracy and precision of recorded data and information. Accuracy is a measure of the correctness of the result and is generally depended on how well the systematic errors are controlled and compensated for. Precision is depended on how well random errors are analysed and overcame.