Mteq is engineered to increase productivity and reduce operating costs in the mud pumping process in oil & gas drilling applications by rerouting abrasive fluids away from high-pressure pumps.
In conjunction with the MTeq product launch, Energy Recovery announces a partnership with Sidewinder Drilling LLC as its first early-stage partner for the solution.
MTeq utilizes Energy Recovery's innovative PXPressure Exchanger technology, currently used globally in desalination, and applies it to the upstream oil & gas drilling and mud pumping process.
MTeq protects pumping equipment in a critical process related to drilling oil and gas wells called mud pumping. During mud pumping, a drilling fluid, also known as drilling mud, is circulated from a mud pit through the borehole to remove cuttings, control formation pressures, and lubricate the drill bit. Although the mud pumping process removes most of the solids from the drilling mud, some debris and sand remains and subjects the pumps circulating the fluid to extreme wear, resulting in burdensome repair and maintenance costs. MTeq is installed as a barrier between the mud pits and the pumps, thereby allowing the pumps to process clean, particulate-free fluid, and not the particulate-laden fluid that lends to component failure.
By requiring pumping equipment to process only clean fluid, MTeq will enable a fundamental shift in drilling rig system level design, allowing for the use of centrifugal pumps, which offer greater reliability and cost efficiency to drilling service providers. Upon this shift, operators will immediately unlock value by reducing pump repair and maintenance costs, reducing planned and unplanned rig downtime, increasing overall operational safety, and decreasing mobilization cost and rig up and down time.
Importantly, Energy Recovery's early-stage partnership with Sidewinder will allow for product field testing and development, validation of the technical envelope and operational parameters, and ultimately, the definition of the path to full commercialization.
