HOUSTON, December 15, 2005 (PR News) - At Balance Americas LLC received in early December the 2005 Offshore Energy Achievement Award in the Emerging Innovation / Technology category for their Dynamic Annular Pressure Control (DAPC) system.

The DAPC system automatically controls annular surface pressure to maintain near constant bottom hole pressure. This Managed Pressure Drilling system consists of a controller, running real-time hydraulics models for single or multi-phase drilling fluids, a choke manifold, and a pump. The controller calculates the surface pressure needed for a specific gradient and operates the choke and pump to maintain any desired bottom hole pressure near constant under varying drilling conditions.

“We are excited by the results that our Dynamic Annular Pressure Control system has delivered to our customers,” said John Samuell, president and chief executive officer of At Balance. "Our system has shown it can automatically maintain bottom hole pressure within a 0.2 ppg window as deep as 17,000 feet, enabling operators to reach pay zones previously unreachable with conventionally drilled wells.”

To date At Balance has installed and operated the DAPC system on offshore and onshore rigs in the North Sea, Holland, Australia, Wyoming, and the Gulf of Mexico and successfully controlled bottom hole pressure in high angle and deep vertical wells drilled through fractured chalk, granite, and interbedded overpressured shales and depleted sands.

At Balance Americas LLC, based in Houston, Texas is the exclusive provider of the Dynamic Annular Pressure Control system, the only automatic, real time pressure control system for Managed Pressure Drilling operations.

For further information contact Paul Fredericks at paul.fredericks@atbalance.com.