W. James . Hughes
SunStone Technologies
W. James Hughes has thirty years of experience in all phases of the upstream oil and gas business. His first ten years were devoted to drilling & production operations, prospect generation, and acquisitions under the tutelage of Dr David K. Davies, his first employer & mentor, who taught him extensive drilling and completion design methods using formation damage prevention techniques. Over the next ten years, Mr. Hughes developed and utilized short radius, multilateral underbalanced horizontal drilling technology (“UBHD”) as a primary completion and recompletion method to improve productivity. After several years of research and development and purchasing his own drilling rig, in 1991, Mr. Hughes, using an air hammer, drilled what is believed to be the first horizontal lateral from a short radius (25') curve. Over the next 3 years, he spent most of his time evaluating reservoirs for the recovery of by-passed reserves, using UBHD technology as a completion technique. During this time, he traveled to Oman as part of the first independent technical team invited to recommend well construction methods and to evaluate indigenous oil fields for redevelopment, using UBHD technology as a completion technique. Mr. Hughes has devoted most of the last ten years to patenting new technologies related to UBHD, including a new short radius rotary steerable BHA, an artificial lift while drilling process for MPD and UBD operations, and smart drill pipe. He currently holds eighteen patents related to UBHD and is a co-author of the IADC's recently published books titled Managed Pressure Drilling and Underbalanced Drilling: Limits and Extremes. Mr. Hughes has a BS degree in Geology from the University of Missouri and is one of two founding members of SunStone Technologies, LLC.
(03/14)
