Oil & Gas Directional Drilling — Russia Project

Client Challenge

A major Russian oil field services company was expanding directional drilling operations into deeper, hotter formations in Western Siberia. Their existing MWD (Measurement While Drilling) tools relied on magnetometer-based azimuth sensing, which suffered from magnetic interference in cased-hole sections and could not maintain accuracy at downhole temperatures exceeding 125°C.

The client needed an inertial navigation solution capable of:

• Maintaining sub-0.5° azimuth accuracy at sustained 150°C temperatures
• Surviving shock and vibration levels of 500 g / 20 g RMS during drilling
• Operating continuously for 200+ hours per run in a 44 mm OD tool envelope
• Integrating with existing mud-pulse telemetry and surface acquisition systems

Our Solution

GyroNavi delivered a custom high-temperature inertial sensor package combining our strategic-grade GN1-FOG-98 fiber optic gyroscope with the GN1-QFA-T10 high-temperature quartz accelerometer in a compact, ruggedized housing.

• GN1-FOG-98 — Strategic-grade single-axis FOG with ≤0.003°/h bias stability, factory-calibrated for 0–155°C thermal compensation
• GN1-QFA-T10 — High-temperature quartz flexure accelerometer rated to +180°C with 1 μg resolution and temperature-compensated scale factor
• Custom integration — Co-engineered mounting frame with thermal isolation, vibration-damped shock mounts, and hermetically sealed connector interface
• North-seeking algorithm — Supplied continuous north-finding firmware optimized for stationary gyrocompassing at each survey station

Results

Field validation across 12 wells in the Bazhenov formation demonstrated significant operational improvements:

Metric	Before	After (GyroNavi)
Azimuth Accuracy	±1.5° (magnetic)	±0.3° (true north)
Non-Productive Time (NPT)	18% of rig time	13.5% of rig time
Max Operating Temperature	125°C	155°C continuous
Survey Time per Station	~ 120 seconds	~ 60 seconds

Overall, drilling accuracy improved by approximately 40% and non-productive time was reduced by 25%. The client has since standardized on GyroNavi sensor packages for all high-temperature directional drilling projects in Western Siberia and the Arctic shelf.