Independent oil and gas companies have a knack for innovation. Independent players often have greater latitude to experiment with and adopt new technologies that can lead to some surprising results and even new best practices.

One such independent oil and gas company saw increased cost efficiencies and operational benefits since adopting the DURA-BASE advanced composite mat system for drilling operations. Don Day, drilling manager for an independent Houston-based operator, first began using the system on two different drill pads in the Marcellus in 2009.

Day started using the system as part of the company’s drilling pad site preparation and site containment measures. The mats are precision-engineered from a tough, advanced-composite formulation that helps distribute heavy loads and is tested to support up to 600 psi. The interlocking system forms a continuous surface that enhances worker safety, prevents differential movement or shifting, and supports heavy equipment.

Since initially trying the system, Day has continued using it for drilling projects throughout the Marcellus and has expanded its use to Colorado with similar results.

Each mat is designed as a single self-contained non-absorbent piece with no individual parts requiring pins or fasteners. This design makes the mats easier to clean while preventing site-to-site cross-contamination. The system is also liner-friendly, preventing spills from contaminating ground soil by protecting poly-liners underneath.

Additionally, the load-bearing capability of the mats reduces the amount of sub-grade aggregate needed to support the drilling rig pad, which in turn cuts down on the related trucking expense associated with hauling aggregate in and out of the site.

Exploring abroad
When Day was tapped to head the company’s drilling operations in Poland in 2011, bringing this best practice to bear was an obvious solution to the challenges of drilling there.

“When we came to Poland, we discovered that the terrain was more difficult, and we needed to deploy a rig matting solution that would protect our spill containment polyliners and allow us to safely and efficiently deliver the wells we were drilling,” Day said. “I wanted to bring DURA-BASE in because of its excellent terrain flexibility and because of how well it performed on jobs we did back in the States. The solutions typically used for site preparation in Poland were less than ideal.”

Before he pushed to use the mat system on his project, service crews were planning to use locally sourced concrete plates. Typically used to prepare sites for drilling projects in Poland, the 1.5-m-by-1.8-m (5-ft-by-6-ft), 6-in.-thick plates are extremely heavy and unwieldy, making them quite difficult to transport and deploy.

The lightweight, interlocking design of the mat system provided a remedy to the drawbacks of using the heavy concrete plates, counteracting the plates’ tendency to break easily or wear holes in poly-liners used for spill containment.

When Day worked to introduce advanced-composite mats as best practice on the operator’s rig in Poland, he found there was some initial skepticism and friction on the part of regulators.

However, once the mats were cleared by regulators, the crew got to work prepping the site and installing them. Since the system was developed with shifting surfaces in mind, it dramatically reduced the stone and associated trucking necessary to support the rig and allowed the drilling team to get to work more quickly.

“It takes 200 truckloads to build a location with these concrete plates and only 14 truckloads with the lighter weight mats. That’s a tremendous boon to us from a cost and logistics standpoint. Fewer truckloads save us valuable time and money,” Day said. “The concrete plates were difficult to move and would have taken upward of three weeks to deploy based on all the trucking and added weight. But with the matting system, we were able to get our rig site prepped in under a week.”

Beyond Poland

As the shale gas potential in Poland continues to be explored, one thing becomes clear: Companies that want to take part in developing challenging shale plays like the Baltic, Podlasie and Lublin basins need an edge that will help them minimize costs and boost efficiency wherever they can. DURA-BASE is a field-proven way to do just that and continues to serve Day and his company well.

“I’ve been very pleased with how well the matting system has performed for us, from enhancing HSE to cutting down on nonproductive time,” he said. “We’ve seen substantial time and cost savings.”

Ultimately, the benefits of advanced composite mats extend far beyond shale gas exploration in Poland. This site preparation system can aid operators whether they are developing tar sands in Alberta’s muskeg, drilling for oil in the Permian Basin and Amazon jungle, developing unconventional gas in the Marcellus and Utica, or doing LNG construction in Australasia.

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