More operators are seeing the production benefits of targeted horizontal annular fracturing. The most active method of annular fracturing in the USA involves ported sleeves installed with the completion and activated via an isolation packer. Initial operations were in lateral lengths of 2,000 to 3,000 ft. However, current operations are planned for accessing up to 10,000 ft laterals. Increasing lateral length results in the traditional access challenges faced by all coiled tubing (CT) operations. The traditional method of lubricant use is the primary option due to its simplicity. The second method is to use fluid hammer tools (FHT). These are industry standard for improving efficiency in composite plug milling operations, but their use in genuine extended-reach operations is not as broad. This paper briefly covers historical ported annular fracturing operations and the various methods of achieving increased lateral reach. Results from four wells with lateral reach of 7,200 to 10,277 ft are detailed in the paper. The balance of the paper details operational results and optimization from several extended-reach wells. Detailed lateral reach modelling was performed prior to all operations. This permitted the determination of the number of expected stages that would require the use of lubricant in the fracture treatment flush. Given that residual lubricant in the completion is removed by the erosion effects of the proppant in the fracture treatment, each stage would require an additional fluid flush. This gives an opportunity to modify the lubricant concentration, type, and volume in the flush. Before using fluid hammer tools (FHT) for setting the isolation packer, laboratory testing was performed to ensure the bottom-hole assembly (BHA) system compatibility. The lubricant testing and initial field results were reported previously (Livescu and Craig 2014; Livescu et al. 2014a,b). This paper provides operators with sufficient case histories of the planned use of an advanced lubricant in genuine extended-reach wells in real life situations. This knowledge can improve operator confidence in drilling longer laterals for predictable access for annular fracturing operations.
Summary More operators are seeing the production benefits of targeted, horizontal annular fracturing. The most-active method of annular fracturing in the US involves ported sleeves installed with the completion and activated by means of an isolation packer. Initial operations were in lateral lengths of 2,000 to 3,000 ft; however, current operations are planned for accessing lateral lengths up to 10,000 ft. Increasing lateral length results in the traditional access challenges faced by all coiled-tubing operations. The traditional method of lubricant use is the primary option because of its simplicity. The second method is to use fluid-hammer tools (FHTs). These are industry standard for improving efficiency in composite-plug milling operations, but their use in genuine extended-reach operations is not as broad. This paper briefly covers historical ported-annular-fracturing operations and the various methods of achieving increased lateral reach. Results from four wells that have a lateral reach of 7,200 to 10,277 ft are detailed in the paper. The balance of the paper details operational results and optimization from several extended-reach wells. Detailed lateral-reach modeling was performed before all operations. This permitted the determination of the number of expected stages that would require the use of lubricant in the fracture-treatment flush. Given that residual lubricant in the completion is removed by the erosion effects of the proppant in the fracture treatment, each stage would require an additional fluid flush. This gives an opportunity to modify the lubricant concentration, type, and volume in the flush. Before using FHTs for setting the isolation packer, laboratory testing was performed to ensure the bottomhole-assembly-system compatibility. The lubricant testing and initial field results were reported previously (Livescu and Craig 2014; Livescu et al. 2014a, 2014b). This paper provides operators with sufficient case histories of the planned use of an advanced lubricant in genuine extended-reach wells in real-life situations. This knowledge can improve operator confidence in drilling longer laterals for predictable access for annular-fracturing operations.
The current coiled tubing (CT) industry as know is changing as a major service experience shift is being experienced; the generational crew-change is ongoing; the net result is a reliance on a smaller pool of qualified personnel. From a historical root-cause analysis across a variety of industries, we can contribute the human factor to more than 50% of Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) and service delivery incidents. The solution presented in this paper highlights mitigating this potential risk by introducing several degrees of automation into CT interventions. The foundation of the human-centered automation approach revolves around a software suite that incorporates pre-job modelling, real-time operational feedback, and active control of surface equipment during CT interventions. This approach updates operational parameters, to enhance safety and efficiency, and to increase the certainty of success. This paper describes the process of bringing together the pre-job simulation with well intervention operating limits and real-time data acquisition, resulting in an automated programmable logic controllers (PLC) driven intervention that can intervene if/when deviations from job design occur. Five case histories are reviewed, and the benefits confirmed during field operations are presented. These findings outline the versatility of the automated system, resulting in the predictability of successful operations for operators.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.