Directional Technologies, Inc. is the nation’s expert environmental horizontal well drilling firm that specializes in the design and installation of horizontal wells for remediation.

Various case histories, articles, and presentations spanning over 20 years of experience can be found under the Case Studies tab and additional technical content can be found under our Horizontal Well News tab.

This page discusses:

1. Factors that an experienced  environmental horizontal well driller must be knowledgeable about and or consider when selecting liquid drilling fluids (referred to as “drilling mud” or just “mud”);
2. Drilling mud types, properties and function; and
3. Proprietary well completion techniques that Directional Technologies employs to ensure that the environmental horizontal well performs as designed.

Selecting the Correct Drilling Fluids

Drilling muds serve many functions, including:

1. Maintain bore stability
2. Remove drill cuttings from the bore
3. Suspend and release drill cuttings
4. Seal permeable formations, and
5. Cool, lubricate and support the directional drill bit and drill pipe

There are numerous drilling mud types, but for the environmental horizontal well driller, the key types are typically bentonite-based muds and polymer-based muds.  Bentonite is a naturally occurring clay-like material that typically exists in deposits that are commercially mined.  Bentonite-based muds are water-based, that is, water is mixed with varying proportions of dehydrated powdered product to form the drilling mud.  Bentonite-based drilling muds are proven products with long histories of success, both in the environmental horizontal driller field and the oil field.

Polymer-based muds use various proprietary materials such as polysaccharides and guar gums.  Some of these products purport to be biodegradable.  However, it has been shown that the breakdown products, usually sugar compounds, can act as nutrition sources for bacteria that tend to foul well screens.

Selection of the right drilling mud is critical to the success of a horizontal remediation well installed by an environmental horizontal well driller.  Directional Technologies has decades of experience with horizontal directional drilling and are experts at designing the optimum drilling mud programs for environmental directional drilling assignments.

After the environmental horizontal well driller has installed the horizontal remediation well, it must be developed in order to function properly.  Horizontal environmental well drillers employed by Directional Technologies use a proprietary process to develop our horizontal remediation wells.  Environmental horizontal well drillers employed by Directional Technologies have mastered the horizontal remediation well development process.

A more detailed discussion of drilling muds can be found on our web site in the article Horizontal Wells – Drilling Fluids Bentonite vs Bio Polymers.

Please feel free to contact us should you have any questions regarding our processes to train our employees to safe, qualified environmental directional drillers.