OREANDA-NEWS. May 08, 2013. Greka Drilling (LON:GDL) has successfully completed and handed over the first well in a contract for the China National Petroleum Corporation. Targeting coal bed methane on the Zhengzhuang Block of the Qinshui Basin, in the People’s Republic, it set new records for measured and true vertical depth. Greka used its LiFaBriC technology, which is an adaptation of the horizontal drilling methods traditionally used for coal seam reservoirs.

It is designed to provide a precise and high quality completions technique. It was aided by its SCADA system, which uses satellite communication to guide the work. The exploration drilling took 88 days from spud to completion, slightly better than previous company guidance of 90 days. The lateral section of the well had a measured depth of 1917 metres (compared with a previous record of 1801 metres) and a total vertical depth of 1036 metres (compared with a previous record of 755 metres). Chairman and chief executive Randeep Grewal said: "Successfully executing third party contracts is validation of the drilling fleet's capability and the knowledge of the geologists and engineers present in the company.

“Importantly, this well was drilled in a new terrain, albeit in the Qinshui Basin. “The remote access afforded by the SCADA systems installed on the rigs allowed for the trained Chinese workforce to execute the drilling, overseen by experienced supervision, from a location some 150 km away in Zhengzhou.” The CNPC completion provides validation it can carry out these third party contracts separate from the work it does for Green Dragon Gas, the company from which it was demerged in 2011.

Its rigs are currently contracted to carry out more drilling for CNPC and the giant Sinopec will also use Greka units. “The sheer size of the block, drilled to date only by traditional oil drilling rigs capable of drilling vertical wells that are later fracked, illustrates the vast opportunity that these third party contracts represent for Greka Drilling's business,” said Grewal.

“We look forward to our customer evaluating the higher gas production potential with our environmentally progressive LiFaBriC wells compared to the traditional vertical and fracked ones. We continue to actively discuss further drilling assignments with CNPC."