This paper will provide a description of the benefits of the remote operations alternatives developed over a decade in the North Sea. Substantial support from Hydro/Statoil, starting in 1999, with remote data monitoring, re-manning the rig site with remote support, and the transfer of rig-based work tasks to a remote operations centre has changed the way we operate today and will also influence how automation will be integrated in the future. Reduction in personnel-on-board (POB) and alternative remote operational models implemented resulted in measurable reductions in cost and HS&E exposure. The paper will give a thorough description of how continuous high operational performance and efficiency gains to operations at different levels has been achieved and documented in the North Sea and translated to the Brazil environment. Other key areas for discussion are: improved performance and reliability, decreased NPT, standardized work processes, 24/7 technical support, real-time drilling optimization, cross-training of personnel, real-time data processing, immediate access to experts. Current remote operations models will continue to evolve by further integrating several classic service deliveries, like directional drilling, measurement and logging-while-drilling (MWD/LWD), mud logging, drilling fluids, wireline logging and other services and job functions. This integration will occur because automated advisory systems will be available, delivering advice based on a wider range of surface and downhole data as well as historical databases and best practices, replacing individual judgment and assumptions. This will significantly contribute to improved HS&E performance as well as risk mitigation. Automated systems in close combination with new cross-trained functions in the operations centers and re-manning of rig sites with reduced POB therefore will become the next step in automation of the overall drilling process.
Required safety factors in pressure activated perforating systems have in practice limited the number of independent gun sections on one run to at the most two. The Halliburton Select Fire System eliminates this limitation by allowing as many gun sections as desired to be independently activated by applying the same level of activation pressure each time. Potential cost savings derived from the system can be divided into two groups; reduced operational time due to reduced number of runs, and greater versatility of the perforating system, allowing for new approaches in planning and execution of the perforating operations. The paper reviews three different cases were the system has been used in the Greater Ekofisk Area. Introduction Pressure activated perforating systems usually rely on applying either annular or tubing pressure to shear a set of shear pins, releasing a mechanism to mechanically impact a detonator, thus activating the detonation train through the perforating system. The activation pressure window constraints for a given system are determined by hydrostatic pressure, safety factors, pressure testing of other equipment, operational pressure of other equipment, limiting casing pressure etc. This can in many situations make it difficult to find a satisfactory pressure window to activate even one pressure activated perforating system. The Greater Ekofisk Area. The Greater Ekofisk Area is located in the southern region of the Norwegian sector in the North Sea. The area includes most of the chalk fields located in the North Sea. The included fields are Ekofisk West Ekofisk, Albuskjell, Tor and Ekofisk. Some fields in the area have porosity exceeding 50%. However, the average porosity in the Ekofisk field is about 30-32% with a matrix permeability of 1 mD and a total permeability of 150 mD included the natural fractures in the reservoir rock. Most Ekofisk Area wells require acid fracturing to improve production. System Description The Halliburton Select Fire (HSF) System uses standard perforating guns and firing heads In addition to the newly developed equipment. The firing heads are protected in atmospheric chambers until they are ready for detonation. Activation of the system is accomplished by leading either tubing or annulus pressure through a control line to the gun sections. P. 449
In a Deepwater well off the Brazilian coast which presented a complex architecture with multiple drilling casings and liners, losses were expected during cement placement across a carbonate formation. This paper describes the use of a new real time monitoring and evaluation tool which takes the data acquired during the cement placement, then processes and simulates in real time to provide important job parameters such as estimation of fluid interface positions inside the casing and annular space, pressure match chart, density quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC), ECD and dynamic well security, among others. This manuscript present two cases history where the operator and the service company work together to define a decision tree for the possible contingencies related to unwanted TOC based on mud losses or unplanned cement placement. Later during the operation the new tool combines the design data with the cement unit and rig acquisition data to compare the job measured surface pressure, density, flowrate and volume with predicted data from simulations. Finally based on the information of real time estimation of the TOC outside the pipe and annulus space observed during the job execution a contingency from a decision tree is taken. The cementing service company provided real-time monitoring and evaluation tool that allowed the operator to identify the estimated TOC at the end of placement. With this information, the client was able to avoid the top of liner squeeze and save 2-3 days rig time Later a cement bond log showed that top of cement was found between the liner lap confirming the barrier element. In another case it was prevented leaving unplanned cement inside the casing with the analysis of the job and simulated pressure match trends at the end of the displacement and eliminated unexpected flat times for additional drill out time. Real-time monitoring and evaluation is a tool that can be deployed not only in Deepwater wells in Brazil, but in any section of wells being drilled around the world on land, on the shelf or in Deepwater, where the operator wants to visualize ether the deviation of job execution from job design parameters or a prompt estimation of top of cement as a first level of detection for the well barrier placement just after bumping the plug. In addition having the real time dynamic ECD will also aid in avoiding any potential well control situations (including lost circulation) during the cement operations at any time during this critical activity
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