Using a Patriot 60 hammer by Numa, Clearwater is experiencing a boost in efficiency. What used to take a full day to drill now takes much less time and at an overall lower cost due to savings from fuel consumption and additional total footage being drilled.

The Patriot's compact design allows for the transfer of drilling energy to the bit quickly and efficiently to promote faster drilling speeds and allows drillers to complete more wells in less time.

Previously, Clearwater was drilling 300 feet per day in hard granite but once they switched to their new hammer, they have seen a jump up to 400 feet per day. This is equivalent to a 25 percent increase in penetration and total drilled footage. All drilling was conducted on a new Jaswell 1200 rig with a 1050/350 cfm/psi (495 l/sec/23.8 bar) compressor.

The Patriot 60, with only eight major parts, is a simplified hammer design that was accomplished by eliminating several internal components. It is designed to attach the feed tube assembly directly to the backhead of the hammer to provide true alignment of all hammer parts.

With a more efficient design, Clearwater has realized a whopping 33-percent reduction in its overall fuel consumption.

It is not uncommon in this region to drill against 60 to 100 gallons of water in the hole at any given time. Because Clearwater is drilling so rapidly, it needs to inject 10 gpm to 15 gpm in order to clean the hole.

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