The 'Hawk'

Parker Drilling Company's "Yastreb" drilling rig working off the east coast of Russia in the Sakhalin Islands is a mama-jama of a rig. This rig has set more records for extended reach drilling (ERD) than any other land rig in the world.

Sakhalin Islands,

Sea of Okhotsk; Eastern Russia

ERD wells from Rig Yastreb into Chayvo Field generally have TVD's of 8,350 feet and horizontal legs of 33,000 plus feet. 7 mile TMD wells in the Sakhalin area are now fairly common and bottom hole locations can be steered into Micoene targets the size of 55 gallon drums. Next time you take a drive, set your trip odometer and see how long 7 miles actually is.

The Yastreb has shock absorbers and is totally earthquake proof; it is warm and cozy to work the floor on even when it is 40 degrees below stinking zero. It walks and when it does it carries both its front and back porches with it, including a 9,000 barrel mud system and a neat, enclosed pipe barn. It works on a big rubber diaper, all drilling wastes are processed and immediately re-injected below ground and a lot of wells are steered from Exxon headquarters in Houston. Its six diesel generators provide 3,000HP to the draw works, tapered drill strings often employ use of 5 7/8ths OD drill pipe and its derrick has 1.5 million pounds of hook load capacity, sufficient to set 20 inch OD casing strings. Its top drive will provide 94,000 foot pounds of torque, enough to twist just about anything known to man plum in two.

Imagine circulating 20 lb. per gallon drilling mud at TMD of 38,000 feet. To do that requires pumps bigger than the high school I went to when I was a kid; four pumps in fact, with 7,500 PSI of working pressure each.

Total estimated expenditures for the Exxon operated Sakhalin project is $12-14 billion dollars and from four different fields is expected to produce 2.3G BO. For some perspective, the US shale oil phenomena has recovered 8.9G BO (2009 thru July 2018) from over 61,000 wells having an estimated total cost of $649 billion.

Due mostly to economic sanctions placed against Russia by the US and EU, there is a big chicken fight now between Exxon and Rosneft, the later having recently filed a $1.4 billion dollar law suit over mineral trespass, reservoir drainage issues between Sakhalin District fields operated by Exxon and Rosneft's North Chayvo Field. Rosneft's platform in N. Chayvo, Orlan, seen above, now holds the current ERD record of 49,212 TMD. That's 9.3 miles. If you live in Houston, imagine being rigged up in the Galleria shopping mall on Westheimer and 610 and the TD of your well being down in Missouri City.

Native Sakhalin Islanders playing caribou polo.

Parker Drilling, Rig Yastreb

Yastreb in Russian means, "hawk."