Leading Magnetic Design offers a range of products addressing many of the challenges encountered whilst undertaking modern drilling operations. Each product addresses specific needs including long range communications from surface to deep underground as well as highly robust shorter-range technologies designed to operate in electrically noisy, shielded, or dynamic environments where standard radio frequency devices would struggle to transmit and receive data reliably.
GEM – Communications between Surface and Drilling BHA
GEM or Galvanic Electro-Magnetics is our standard long range EM communications platform designed to transmit data to and from the deep subsurface (reservoir depth) to surface.
GEM telemetry system encodes downhole MWD, LWD and Rotary Steerable data onto highly penetrative low frequency electromagnetic waves. The signal is transmitted from the tool through the drill pipe and formation and detected on surface as an ultra-low voltage potential between the wellhead and our remote geoelectrodes. Leading Magnetic Design developed the ability to decode and process these tiny signals using our own highly advanced signal processing and noise reduction techniques.
GEM operates in environments where existing data transmission techniques such as mud pulse may not be optimal or even possible such as with under-balanced drilling or drilling with air and foam. GEM also has significantly faster data rates than many other transmission techniques and offers the lowest power consumption and therefore the longest battery life of any commercially available EM system. Our highly efficient transceivers can also offer superior depths of transmission of >5000m MD and >3000m TVD.
GEM uses transparent bridge data encoding techniques to make it plug and play with almost all existing drilling technologies including the industry standard Tensor MWD platform.
Leading Magnetic Design is also experienced in crafting bespoke telemetry solutions, optimising the system to the customer’s application requirements.
TWIN – Parallel Communications for Absolute Data Security
Utilizing the core GEM system, Twin allows the addition of other simultaneous data transmission techniques such as a mud-pulse telemetry. A simultaneous GEM-mud pulse telemetry system offers 100% redundancy in mission critical environments where any failure and resultant down time can lead to huge financial costs.
A TWIN enabled system could drill in a discontinuous borehole fluid column and in highly resistive formations that may disrupt mud pulse and GEM transmission at any given point in time, when this happens, the other transmission system provides total communications redundancy.
TWIN systems can also be configured to provide additive data transmission, combining bandwidth rather than duplicating data streams. Additive transmission can deliver faster MLWD data-point update rates and enable more data hungry applications such as azimuthal or imaging sensors.
Today the TWIN system has been seen hundreds of thousands of hours of operating time delivering data security in North America, the Middle East and South East Asia.
Faraday-Link – Wireless Networking Across the Drilling BHA
For shorter range transmission in extremely complex transmission environments, Leading Magnetic Design provides a powerful yet efficient magnetic transmitter in combination with highly sensitive magnetic receivers which can transmit data across metallic barriers including mud motors and other key components in a drilling Bottom Hole Assembly (BHA). Standard radio frequency transmission struggles in such well shielded and electrically noisy situations.
Currently, applications use Faraday-Link to connect the Rotary Steerable Tool (RSS) and near-bit sensor package to the MWD up-hole data transmission (GEM and/or a mud pulser) hardware typically bypassing the mud motor which would be technically challenging to wire for communications.
With a range of up to 30m, Faraday-Link works in all well media and is not affected by the formation, completion or well fluids including drilling mud, brine or foams. Faraday-Link is plug and play with GEM as well as wired drillpipe telemetry allowing the construction of larger downhole communications networks. Faraday-Link uses a transparent bridge with data being transmitted and received in its native format enabling rapid tool integration for new technologies and applications.
The hardware can be supplied with a bespoke footprint to suit individual application needs and technology space constraints.
Extended Reach Repeater – Reaching New Depths
The Leading Magnetic Design Extended Reach Repeater can massively increase the already impressive range of GEM and TWIN allowing them to transmit through difficult formations such as carbonates and salts without any complicated antenna setup. Optimally placed higher up the drill-string, the Repeater’s EM signal can travel deeper and further horizontally making every well a prime EM telemetry candidate. The repeater can now be supplied as a short collar giving full bore access to BHA and other hardware below it.
