IADC DEC Tech Forum – “Great Drilling Debate – Drilling Dynamics”

Meeting & Venue Details

All times listed are central (17:00 Houston)

IADC DEC Q3 2025 Tech Forum, “Great Drilling Debate – Drilling Dynamics”

Tuesday, 7 October, 2-5pm, followed by happy hour 5-7pm

Venue: The Brass Tap, 7109 Katy-Gaston Rd Ste 1100, Richmond, TX 77406

As Drilling Engineers, we measure and are measured in performance. Some of us have applied exceptional focus to improving drilling performance across all environments. This is no easy task. We work in a complex and highly variable system where the path to improvement is often defined at each step. The performance contribution of people, processes, equipment and rock can be difficult to quantify, much less improve.

Drilling efficiency is a useful improvement tool for quantifying performance results in terms of the energy used to get it. One measure of the energy expended removing a unit volume of rock is known as Mechanical Specific Energy. Improvement efforts have used this measure differently to improve system performance and there is debate about its relevance to modern drilling systems.

Join our pub-based debate with leading experts of our industry about the role of mechanical specific energy as we explore drilling mechanics and the world of drilling improvement methods. Hear firsthand perspectives from the pioneers of modern improvement efforts. Each has gained perspective from tremendous experiences in different organizations, supporting operations all around the world.  This fun debate is intended to challenge our beliefs and will allow the audience to hear, learn, question and decide how they will advance the next generation of Drilling Performance.

Debate team members:

• Fred Dupriest
• Paul Pastusek
• Graham Mensa-Wilmot
• John Macpherson

Helpful references for the debate:

IADC/SPE-212508-MS: Facts, Fallacies and Pitfalls of Using Mechanical Specific Energy (MSE) – Part 1

Robello Samuel, Halliburton; Graham Mensa-Wilmot, XCIDrill Technology

IADC/SPE-217727-MS Mechanical Specific Energy (MSE): Claims and Implications – Facts, Fallacies, and Pitfalls (Part-2)

Graham Mensa-Wilmot, XCIDRILL Technology; Robello Samuel, Halliburton

SPE/IADC-223707-MS Mechanical Specific Energy: Derivation, Understanding and Relationship to Formation Strength

John D. Macpherson, Baker Hughes, The Woodlands, Texas, USA

IADC/SPE-208777-MS Standardization of Mechanical Specific Energy Equations and Nomenclature

Fred Dupriest, Texas A&M University; Paul Pastusek, ExxonMobil Upstream Integrated Solutions Company; Stephen Lai and Bob Best, Pason Systems; Michael Behounek, Apache Corporation; Bryan Cook, National Oilwell Varco; Wendell Basarath, Contractor; Chris Cutts, K&M Technology Group; Jared Collins, Occidental; Mohammadreza Kamyab, Corva; Dennis Moore, Marathon Oil Ret; Eric Pulpan, Marathon Oil; Austin Jeske and JJ Wilson, Pioneer Natural Resources; Jamie Sheets, Ensign Energy

For more information, contact Linda Hsieh, linda.hsieh@iadc.org, +1-713-292-1945, ext 219.

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General Committee meetings are open to participants from all categories of IADC membership. The Chairman may invite non-members to attend when it furthers the interests of the Committee. At the discretion of the Chairman and IADC staff, the meeting or portions of the meeting may be exclusively reserved for drilling contractor members. Meetings will be held at such times and locations as may be selected by the Chairman with the advice of the Committee. For any questions, please contact the IADC Committee Coordinator. IADC Technical Committee meetings are not open to the Press.