Air-powered Well Drill Achieves Mud Rotary Speed

CHESAPEAKE GEOSYSTEMS INC (CGI), focused on large commercial projects anywhere east of the Mississippi, from Texas to Maine, weathered the geothermal market crash during 2012 using their preferred air-powered well drill: the Schramm 450GT. They purchased 20-plus of these rigs during a 20-year span. 

“We had gotten used to the equipment and found it to be the perfect package for what we were doing. Schramm stopped producing them shortly after we bought our last one in 2017,” Chris Blanchet, owner, said. “After exploring other manufacturers, we could not find one that could meet our needs. So we went on hiatus of purchasing rigs.”

Recent legislation bringing geothermal energy tax credits on par with solar and wind energy has generated increased commercial geothermal demand. To keep up with the surging commercial geothermal drilling market, they’ve been refurbishing their aging air-powered well drill fleet of 450GTs.

“With the geothermal market coming back stronger than ever, we are looking to expand our fleet with new rigs to keep up with the customer demand,” Blanchet said. “HVAC systems account for a large percentage of the energy demand on a building. Geothermal is a more universal fit for reducing energy costs because you have your own system that you control unlike solar and wind, which is controlled by the utility company.”

While refurbishing rigs through the Geoprobe^® East Coast Service Center, Blanchet became acquainted with Tom Omli, president, and some of the Geoprobe^® engineers. During his search for a 450GT replacement, he had owned a 2012 legacy DRILLMAX^® but wasn't a fan of the tooling handling. So when he heard about the DM650 air-powered well drill, he had hope it could be the answer to his rig woes.

“I’d built some trust with Tom and Donnie [Wood, product line manager] and knew a little of what I could expect from DRILLMAX^®,” Blanchet said. “I figured with Geoprobe^® leading the charge on manufacturing and engineering, there would be improvements.”

Air-powered Well Drill Performance on Commercial Geothermal Site

Their DM650 was delivered straight to their job at Appalachian State (North Carolina) College in January. The commercial geothermal job involved installing 90 loops to 800 feet.

“It was one of the more complicated, difficult jobs coming out these days,” Blanchet said. “Once we put the DM650 on the job, it was keeping up with all our other rigs.”

They’d never had anything keep up with their beloved 450GT.

“If you strictly look at the numbers, the DM650 should have less performance. But it ended up drilling as fast as our tried-and-true rig,” Blanchet said. “Over the years our rigs have been pinned up against every manufacturer in the market and outperformed them.”

Having fine-tuned their operating costs, the DM650 air-powered well drill production has Blanchet seeing dollar signs — in a positive way. 

“When I average out our numbers, it’s about $3.5 million per year per rig. If we can average increased production at 5% over the year, that’s tremendous. That would bring in an extra $150,000 of revenue,” Blanchet said. 

The DM650  increased performance comes with easy operation.

“The guy running it has run lot of different rigs,” Blanchet said. “With the DM650, he just stepped into it without a lot of difficulty. It’s easy to learn.”

Those watching it on the first commercial geothermal job were also quite impressed. 

“Historically, our rig operators have been opposed to change. Every time we purchased a non-Schramm rig, there was something they didn't like about the operator's console,” Blanchet said. "So far there have been no complaints and only compliments, a first in CGI history."

And no one talks poorly about the rig’s appearance. He describes the DM650 air-powered well drill rig as a “stout,” good-looking rig.

“It looks like it will make it 20,000 hours without major repairs,” Blanchet said. “It’s maybe even overbuilt, but well within restrictions of driving a truck rig down the road.”

While they experienced some initial but expected downtime when receiving the rig, to Blanchet the service more than made up for the inconvenience.

“In this industry, it’s hard to get people off the brand of rig they’ve always used. A lot of times when there’s change, there’s failures. So they go back to what they know,” Blanchet said. “I’ve lost money trying new stuff. But to advance the industry, you have to take some risk. We’re excited to see how the DM650 continues to perform.”