The VERSAFLO™ tool was deployed in deep water on a drillship in the Gulf of Mexico on behalf of a major operator. Frank’s crews ran the tool in the flowback application to land out 15,000 feet of 12 1/4-inch casing, followed by 7,600 feet of 6 5/8-inch landing string. The total run time was 30 hours from rig up of casing running tools to the time the VERSAFLO™ tool was rigged down.
The VERSAFLO™ tool is a redesign of the Frank’s Hornet® drill pipe circulation tool which is designed to receive returns from the well. In complex applications such as deepwater casing landing strings, fluid recovery is critical. The VERSAFLO™ tool answers that need, saving time by eliminating the need to repeatedly connect and disconnect the top drive of the drill string.
The design of the VERSAFLO™ tool allows the Frank’s FC-1™ casing circulation tool to attach to the lower end for running casing. This results in a seamless changeover when switching from casing to landing string, and the shorter design eliminates the need for bail swaps, providing additional time savings. In this run, an estimated 30 minutes of additional time savings resulted from the use of the VERSAFLO™ tool, as compared to the conventional operation of rigging down one casing flowback tool and rigging up a drill pipe flowback tool.
The VERSAFLO™ tool is a great addition to the Expro suite of specialty drilling tools, reflecting our value of innovation, excellence, and safety. By combining the functionalities of the drill pipe and casing circulation tools, we can help generate additional value for the customer through time savings, as well as reduce the chance for accident and injury through seamless changeovers.
