Intelligent Well (IW) technology has built-up several years' production experience. Numerous publications have described how remote flow control and monitoring capabilities can lead to fewer interventions, a reduced well count and improved reservoir management. Despite the maturity of IW equipment, the concept of the integrated IW as a key element in the "Digital Oil Field" still not fully developed. Today's practice is to evaluate the IW value chain in a "fit-for-purpose" manner rather than by an integrated modeling workflow. Reservoir engineers still struggle to convince their management of the IW's value, while the well engineer is only consulted immediately before completion deployment. Hardware and software interface problems result because appropriate technology was not selected.An increasing variety of real-time, downhole, monitoring and measurement systems are now available for deployment or are in development. Sensors for high resolution pressure and temperature, high frequency pressure (acoustic), multiphase flow rate, phase-cut, electric potential (electro-kinetic), seismic (accelerometers) and casing condition monitoring (strain) are all now (at least semi-) commercial; not to mention the option of installing quasi-distributed and/or distributed rather than a single point measurement. The former sensors provide a wealth of information about flow performance and in-well and nearwellbore formation conditions. However, each extra sensor increases the well's installation complexity and operational risk. A well-founded understanding of what data is actually needed; the most suitable sensor types and interfaces together with avail liability of the necessary data reconciliation and validation methodology are key factors for the success of an integrated IW project.This paper will review intelligent well monitoring systems, their availability, applicability and limitations. It will discuss data acquisition issues in-depth; e.g. resolution, data processing and reliability. Examples of fit-for-purpose sensor/data sets applicable to different IW applications will be given. This paper will guide the completion engineer to identify the appropriate set of downhole sensors for a specific, integrated, IW application.
This paper describes the challenges faced on the deployment of intelligent well completion (IWC) systems in some of the wells built in Buzios field, mostly related to heavy fluid losses that occurred during the well construction. It also presents the solutions used to overcome them. This kind of event affects not only drilling and casing cementing operations, but may also prevent a safe and efficient installation of the completion system as initially designed. The IWC design typically used in Brazilian pre-salt areas comprises cased hole wells. Perforation operations must be performed before installing the integral completion system, as it does not include a separation between upper and lower completion. Therefore, the reservoir remains communicated to the wellbore during the whole completion installation process, frequently requiring prior fluid loss control as to allow safe deployment. Rock characteristics found in this field make it difficult to effectively control losses in some of the wells, requiring the use of different well construction practices that led to the development of some new well designs. The well engineering team developed a new well concept, where a separated lower completion system is installed in open hole, delivering temporary reservoir isolation. This new well architecture not only delivers reduced drilling and completion duration and costs, but also provides the IWC features in wells with major fluid losses. This is possible by the use of multiple managed pressure drilling (MPD) techniques when required, which were considered since the initial design phase. Safe and effective construction of some wells in pre-salt fields was considered not feasible before the adoption of MPD solutions, both for drilling and completions. Other important aspects considered on the new well design are the large thickness and high productivity of Buzios field reservoirs, as well as the need of some flexibility to deal with uncertainties. Finally, the new completion project was also designed to improve performance and safety on future challenging heavy workover interventions. The well construction area has gradually obtained improved performance in Buzios field with the adoption of the new practices and well design presented in this paper. The new solutions developed for Buzios field have set a new drilling and completion philosophy for pre-salt wells, setting the grounds for future projects. The improved performance is essential to keep these deepwater projects competitive, especially in challenging oil price scenarios. One of the groundbreaking solutions used is the possibility of installing the lower completion using managed pressure drilling techniques.
Well construction and maintenance represent most of the costs of a deepwater offshore field exploitation. Planning and execution times in this scenario are normally impacted by geological and operational uncertainties leading to deviation on the actual times and consequently costs. Intelligent wells have been used to face the geological uncertainties for heterogeneous reservoirs with multiple pay zones in Brazil's Pre-Salt reservoirs. Robust diagnostic and prognostic of abnormal operational situations have not been addressed completely up to now even with real-time data available from the Intelligent Wells. The completion design, cost and reliability are the basis for the identification of all sensors needed to provide a rich data set for a fit for purpose application using a system view. Even though these are permanent sensors, the idea is suitable for coiled tubing and e-line operations where additional sensing options are available, but without the capability to capture the dynamic behavior. Data quality methods as well as integrated modeling simulation are all at a very early stage. This challenge is aggravated by the huge amounts of data coming from an Intelligent Well which is far greater than the data flow that the petroleum industry normally has to deal with. Additionally, the increased complexity of the completion affects the coupled well-reservoir modeling used in today's analysis. The evaluation of the well equipment degradation is also vital to prevent future complications that will lead to unexpected well shut-ins. Flow control, well integrity, artificial lift, and their related equipment are all targets for tuning the maintenance practices. In this paper, we propose a framework which includes:real-time data quality control;non-isothermal coupled well-reservoir modeling taking into account completion equipment;appropriate analysis tools. The aim is to simultaneously optimize well completion operations and maintenance practices. We focus our strategy on: initial well completion design; formation evaluation; stimulation, and equipment reliability, discussing applications that support our proposition. Introduction One of the most representative recent oil discoveries worldwide is the Santos Basin Pre-Salt Cluster (Moczydlower et al, 2012), offshore Brazil. Considering the importance of the reserves and intending to accelerate cash flow, Petrobras and its associates decided to fast track its development. Several subsurface uncertainties resulted from this choice which leaded to a mix of classical strategies (information, flexibility and robustness) for the development plan. IW (Intelligent Well), in this context, was identified as an extra flexibility that was worth investing in. Fast response to unexpected events and better production system behavior prediction were the main issues to address.
Pre-salt heterogeneous carbonate reservoirs typically present long net pays, high production/injection rates and some flow assurance risks. This paper presents general information, results and lessons learned regarding the installation of Intelligent Well Completion (IWC) in Santos Basin Pre-Salt Cluster (SBPSC) wells. It also presents some important improvements to be introduced in the future IWC systems specification and qualification based on the lessons learnt in these projects, setting some new challenges to the industry. The benefits expected with the use of IWC are achieved at the expense of challenging well engineering, since well completion design becomes more complex and well construction risks increase. Detailed and integrated planning is essential for the success of the operations, starting at the earliest phases of the well design and continued through detailed execution plans. The use of standardized practices and procedures has led to significant increases on installation performance. On the other hand, an open mind and a constant search for improvements allowed new solutions and procedures to be developed throughout the years. Regarding the system integration, a flexible and standardized control architecture was developed to allow combining different IWC providers and subsea vendors, which proved to be a successful approach. The most important improvement in IWC installation was the anticipation of the acid stimulation, nowadays performed before the vertical Wet Christmas Tree (WCT) installation. In order to achieve this goal some crucial improvements were gradually implemented in the stimulation practices, such as, an initial injectivity increase solution and some new acid diversion solutions, which allowed eliminating the use of coiled tubing and, as a consequence, the need of a subsea test tree. The well design team conducted an integrated risk assessment to properly evaluate the new practices and establish some actions to reduce the risks. Intense communication between production zones was observed during the acid job in some of the initial wells, ruining the gains of the IWC. After a comprehensive analysis, some possible causes were identified and with the new stimulation practices this issue was eliminated. Over the years, with the introduction of several improvements, some of them presented in this paper, the well completion duration was reduced to less than 50% of the one observed in the initial wells. This major performance increase has been essential to keep this deepwater projects feasible, especially in the oil scenario seen in recent years. Some of the new practices and lessons learned in this 100 wells equipped with IWC has set groundbreaking practices for Brazilian pre-salt fields development and may stand as a reference for the industry in similar deepwater projects. Additional requirements for future systems are expected to improve even further the performance in this scenario.
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