Lucas is a major drilling service provider to Australia's coal and coal seam gas (CSG) sectors and a leader in innovation and advanced drilling services.
We work with leading resources companies to discover, map, core, extract and deliver coal seam gas; explore for minerals; drain dangerous coal mine methane; carry out environmental remediation and establish geothermal energy projects.
Our services range from the straightforward provision of a drilling rig and crew, right through to engineered drilling on large and technically demanding projects.
Our equipment is the best available. Our crews are experienced. They deliver safely, on time and on budget.
Our range of drilling services is among the country's most complete:
Lucas Drilling is a vertically integrated business built on first class equipment and people. We offer turn-key solutions through alternative and advanced drilling with a focus on safety, training, regulatory compliance, engineering, innovation and efficiency.
We have a large team of experienced and expert people, and can offer them a true career path in drilling.
Lucas services all the major coal and CSG basins in Queensland and NSW: Bowen Basin, Surat Basin, Sydney Basin, Hunter Valley and Gunnedah Basin with coinciding satellite offices, workshops and supporting infrastructure in Moranbah, Rockhampton, Wyong, Minto and Caroona.
Lucas focuses on our clients' objectives and works in partnership to achieve them. This can save months of design and pre-drill planning, delivering technically demanding projects ahead of schedule and at a reduced cost.
Lucas is in partnership under long term contracts with diverse, blue-chip clients:
- Coal producers such as BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA), Xstrata, Centennial and Anglo Coal; and
- Gas producers such as Arrow Energy, Eastern Star, AGL, Santos, Sydney Gas and Lucas Energy.
Lucas offers clients:
- A proactive safety, quality, community and environmental work culture
- A sound understanding of risks and hazards (both business and operating)
- The drilling expertise and experience needed by major CSG/CMM companies
- Understanding of the issues and drivers for successful CSG production and CMM extraction
- A leading engineer and contractor in natural gas and water infrastructure
- The rigs and the experience: 56 drilling spreads across NSW and Queensland and trained crews with the versatility to offer more than standard drilling operations.
Our services include:
Coal seam gas production wells
Lucas has led the industry with innovation and adaption of existing oil and gas drilling techniques to make them technically and financially effective for different hole completion techniques:
- Open-hole completions – without casing of the hole
- Screens and gravel packs – casing of the hole at the top of the coal seam and inserting slotted casing
- Cased and perforated – drilling, casing and perforation of the casing at the target reservoir
- Hydraulic-fracture stimulation – “fraccing” to increase the fracture density of the seam and stimulate increased gas flow
- Cavitation – injection of high pressure air into the seam
- Wide diameter hole with pre-slotted casing
- Wide diameter hole with under-reamed coal intervals.
Lucas rigs are capable of drilling vertical and deviated gas production wells to depths of up to 1,500 m and diameters 100 mm to 400 mm. Production wells are pre-designed by Lucas using various hole completion techniques depending on the coal seam gas resource characteristics such as access, depth, coal thickness, gas content, gas saturation and permeability.
Vertical exploration drilling – for minerals and coal seam gas
With over 35 years of vertical exploration drilling experience, Lucas is one of the most experienced operators in the country offering modern specialised drilling rigs for a range of applications such as:
- NQ, HQ and PQ wireline diamond coring to a depth of 1,500m
- HMLC, 100mm and 200mm conventional tungsten coring to a depth of 500m
- Rotary open hole drilling (PCD/hammer/blade) to a depth of 1,000m
- Mud drilling to a depth of 1,500m
- LOX drilling to a depth of 100m
- Mine service hole drilling to a depth of 600m
- Large diameter goaf drainage holes to a depth of over 400 metres and up to 450 mm diameter
- Reverse circulation drilling
- R.A.B. (rotary air blast) drilling.
Underground drilling – for mine exploration & coal mine methane drainage
Directional drilling is used in underground coal mines for two distinct purposes:
- To investigate geological and mining conditions in advance of mining operations (“exploration work”), and
- Drilling within the seam and surrounding rocks to provide paths for draining methane from blocks of coal to be mined (“gas drainage work”).
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Surface to in-seam drilling
Lucas introduced horizontal directional drilling to Australia and has pioneered its application across a number of different sectors. In 1995 Andrew Lukas recognised the resource potential of coal seam gas (CSG) and, in conjunction with BHP, Lucas was the first to begin development of SIS and TRD, now recognised as an effective CSG extraction technique. We are:
- the most technically advanced SIS drilling provider in Australia
- holder of the world record for distance drilled inseam (2,872 metres)
- holder of the record for designing, engineering, drilling and completing the deepest SIS well
- driller of Australia’s highest gas flow production using SIS drilling
- the most experienced SIS team and drilling crews in Australia
- a provider of total turnkey solutions to both coal and gas producers, from design to completion to maintenance.
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Geotechnical and environmental investigation
Activities include:
- Conventional core drilling
- Auger / solid and hollow flight
- Standard penetration tests (SPT)
- Undisturbed samples (U50/U75)
- Casing advancing tools
- Contamination sampling
- Piezometer installations
- Inclinometer installations
- Difficult access rigs
- Fly-in rigs
- Certified geotechnical and environmental drillers
Steering & drilling services
Lucas differentiates itself from other drillers through its expertise in design, extended reach MRD, underbalanced drilling, directional downhole instrumentation, real time data analysis and collection, plus other technology advancements offered by Lucas Directional Services.
Lucas has developed its own Lucas Steering System (LSS) with the highest number of measured parameters in Australia. It is the leader in the field for data rates, data quality and data accuracy.
Lucas offers the following services:
Field rental equipment
- EM measure while drilling (MWD) tool rental
- Pressure while drilling (PWD) real time and memory tool hire
- Down hole wireline MWD tool rental
- AC surface ranging beacon hire
- TruTrak surface ranging equipment hire
- Macktrack vertical well ranging equipment hire.
Field personnel
- Technicians to operate the above systems
- Technicians for coal bed methane directional drilling (internal and external)
- Technicians for civil applications of horizontal directional drilling (internal and external)
- Technicians for vertical and deviated production wells
- Drilling engineers for real time logging and evaluation of drilling curves against torque and drag models
- Supervisors and trainers for the above field activities.
Engineering services
Internal and external services provided by drilling engineers and inhouse geologists include:
- Reservoir development studies
- Drilling feasibility and detailed drilling engineering studies
- Torque and drag modelling – tubular running, casing, drilling and product pipe installation
- Product pipe stress calculation and design
- Hydraulic modelling – single phase and multi phase flow regimes
- Underbalanced drilling simulation and engineering
- PWD data interpretation
- Reservoir modelling
- Geological interpretations
- Geological model development – logging, coring and seismic interpretation and formation evaluation
- Geological and mine model development and upkeep
- Well engineering and design (casing, geometry, cementing)
- Bottom hole assembly (BHA) analysis, design, optimisation.
Well services
- Lucas assists its clients with the design, procurement and installation of coal bed methane equipment in both CMM and CBM applications in QLD and NSW
- Assist client with a range of service industries including monitoring of gas wells, construction of surface facilities for underground gas drainage
- Monitoring of gas production equipment and commissioning of control and automation systems
- Implementation and compliance with gas drainage models and production drawdown curves
- Design, procurement and installation of tubular and electric submersible pumps for coal seam dewatering which initiates gas flows
- Design, procurement and installation of gas gathering lines and flare construction
- Installation and maintenance of down hole production pumping equipment
- Flushing of lateral drainage holes in which flow is impaired to increase gas production
- Cleaning out of vertical production wells in which frac sand has impeded the flow of gas into the wellbore by the use of reverse circulation technology.