CASE STUDY
Innovative Drillbit Design Increases Average On-Bottom
ROP by 39% and Saves PDC Energy 7.5 Rig Hours
Three-blade StingBlade bit with utility gauge pads improves ROP, steerability,
and toolface control in Niobrara Shale vertical and curve drilling application
CHALLENGE
Improve ROP in a vertical and curve section
drilled in soft sandstone while maintaining
toolface control and buildup rate (BUR).
SOLUTION
Deploy a three-blade StingBlade* conical
diamond element bit with utility gauge
pads to improve drilling and hydraulic
efficiency as well as stabilization.
RESULTS
■■ Increased overall on-bottom ROP
by 39.2%.
■■ Decreased average footage required
to slide by 30.6% per well.
■■ Demonstrated enhanced BUR capability
and toolface controllability compared
with the baseline drill bit.
■■ Saved PDC Energy 7.5 drilling hours.
Enhance vertical and curve drilling in soft formation
Like most operators in the Denver-Julesburg basin of northeastern Colorado, PDC Energy is drilling
horizontal wells targeting the Niobrara Shale. The formation above this target comprises sandstone
and shale with unconfined compressive strength of less than 6,000 psi [41.4 MPa]. In the soft
environment, instantaneous ROP can climb higher than 1,000 ft/h [305 m/h], and bit balling is
a common performance limiter.
In previous wells drilled in the area, PDC Energy and other operators used bits with five blades
and 19-mm PDC cutters. Regardless of the drillbit vendor, five-blade bits delivered suboptimal ROP
because the design’s high quantity of cutters limited the depth of cut and its limited open-face
volume and junk-slot area decreased formation evacuation efficiency.
The plan for PDC Energy’s well included a
12¼-in surface section, 8¾-in intermediate
vertical and curve section, and 6⅛-in lateral. The
intermediate interval was drilled in a single run
with a steerable positive displacement motor
(PDM). For the intermediate interval, PDC Energy
sought a new drillbit solution that would increase
drilling efficiency and overall ROP potential while
maintaining durability to complete the interval and
achieve the 8°/100-ft curve.
Customize a new StingBlade bit design
with enhanced features
Smith Bits engineers recognized that StingBlade The conventional five-blade PDC bit lacked the ROP
bits, which feature 3D-geometry Stinger* conical potential needed by PDC Energy to drill the Niobrara
diamond elements across the bit face, would help Shale vertical and curve section.
PDC Energy enhance bit durability without
decreasing ROP in the soft formation. To meet
PDC Energy’s ROP objectives—and to push the
boundaries of StingBlade bit performance—the
engineers designed the bit with three blades
instead of five, the standard for conventional PDC
bits commonly used in the area.
This design would increase ROP in two ways.
Fewer blades means fewer PDC cutters, which
would increase the depth of cut for a given WOB.
Additionally, the three-blade design increased
the face volume and junk-slot area for mitigating
the ball-up tendencies occurring with five-blade The new StingBlade bit design with utility gauge pads
designs at high ROP. offered the durability and stability of a five-blade bit
with the ROP capability of a three-blade bit.
Drill Bits
CASE STUDY: StingBlade bit with utility gauge pads improves ROP, steerability, and toolface control in Niobrara Shale

Successfully drilling the section with a three- 21-well-average drilled footage, ft

blade PDC bit would not have been feasible 0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000
because PDC cutters lack the durability required
Five-blade
to drill the section footage in one run. Stinger PDC bit
6,276-ft MD
elements, however, enhance bit durability
by enacting an ultrahigh-concentrated point StingBlade bit 6,248-ft MD
load to fracture the formation more efficiently
compared with conventional PDC cutters. The
elements also feature a thicker diamond layer,
21-well-average on-bottom ROP, ft/h
enhancing impact strength and wear resistance.
0 25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200
Two utility gauge pads were added to the
StingBlade bit design to enable sustained Five-blade
158 ft/h
PDC bit
steerability and drillbit control. This engineered
bit design would deliver the durability, StingBlade bit 195 ft/h
stabilization, and hole-wall contact advantages
of a bit with five blades while achieving the ROP
of a three-blade bit.
21-well-average reason pulled, %
Achieve toolface and BUR 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
capabilities while improving ROP Five-blade
The three-blade StingBlade bit with utility 20.0% 70.0% 10.0%
PDC bit
gauge pads has been run by PDC Energy on
21 wells to date. Compared with the baseline StingBlade bit 8.7% 78.3% 13.0%
conventional five-blade PDC bit runs, the
new bit has reduced interval drilling time by Bit-related Drilling Nonbit-related
failures to TD failures
10 hours on average, a 24% decrease. The
new bit has also decreased bit-related drilling Based on the average of 21 wells drilled in the Denver-Julesburg basin, the StingBlade bit
failures and increased TD rate by 11.3%. with utility gauge pads saved 10 hours, or USD 20,833, per well. Bit-related failure rate was
also decreased by 11.3%.
Two wells drilled on the same pad with the
same BHA and steerable PDM design were more
closely analyzed to quantify the performance
differential in both rotating and sliding modes.
Overall on-bottom ROP of the second well drilled
with the new bit increased by 39.2%. Average
on-bottom ROP while rotating increased by
22.6%, more than the finite-element-analysis-
based cutter-rock interaction model predicted,
because of bit-balling mitigation. Additionally,
sliding footage required per well decreased by
30.6% (275.3 ft), and average on-bottom ROP
while sliding increased to 21.4 ft/h, or 23.9%.
These metrics indicate that the BUR and
toolface capabilities of the new three-
blade StingBlade bit with utility gauge
pads are improved compared with the
baseline conventional five-blade PDC bit.

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