Breaking The Completions Paradigm: Delivering World Class Wells In Deepwater Angola (Russian)

White, Daniel; Whaley, Kevin J.; Price-Smith, C.; Keatinge, Patrick

doi:10.2118/115434-ru

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Subsequently, the screens are run in hole, and the SBM in the openhole section is typically displaced with a SF, water-based viscous fluid. In some applications, the cased hole is displaced to brine before gravel packing with a viscous carrier fluid (Powers et al 2006;White et al 2008), and in others, the SBM displacement from the casing/work-string annulus takes place during gravel packing (Hecker et al 2004). In the latter approach, the water-based-fluid volumes used for openhole displacement and while spotting the slurry in reverse position are adjusted such that the entire casing annulus would be displaced to water-based fluids by the end of the gravel-pack treatment (Hecker et al 2004).…”

Section: Two-trip Predrilled-liner Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This then allows the reverse out of excess gravel with brine in a wellbore that is now free of oilbased fluids. Displacement of the SBM from the openhole section also follows different procedures in these two practices (Hecker et al 2004;White et al 2008). In one case, the gravel-pack carrier fluid is spotted into the casing/work-string annulus in reverse position, and the SBM is displaced by pushing the viscous fluid down through the casing/work-string annulus, down through the washpipe, out the screens, up through the openhole/screen annulus, and up into the work string (Hecker et al 2004).…”

Section: Two-trip Predrilled-liner Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In one case, the gravel-pack carrier fluid is spotted into the casing/work-string annulus in reverse position, and the SBM is displaced by pushing the viscous fluid down through the casing/work-string annulus, down through the washpipe, out the screens, up through the openhole/screen annulus, and up into the work string (Hecker et al 2004). In the other approach, SBM is displaced in the normal gravel-pack position and direction (i.e., down through the work string, crossover ports, and openhole/screen annulus, and up through the washpipe and up into the casing/work-string annulus) (Powers et al 2006;White et al 2008). In both cases, the shunt-tube technique has been used for gravel packing (Hecker et al 2004;White et al 2008).…”

Section: Two-trip Predrilled-liner Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the other approach, SBM is displaced in the normal gravel-pack position and direction (i.e., down through the work string, crossover ports, and openhole/screen annulus, and up through the washpipe and up into the casing/work-string annulus) (Powers et al 2006;White et al 2008). In both cases, the shunt-tube technique has been used for gravel packing (Hecker et al 2004;White et al 2008). Note that this method ensures no fluid losses until after the screens are installed and the SBM displacement starts, typically at a minimal cost when screen openings are relatively large (i.e., shaker-screen openings do not have to be too small), requiring only a few hours of rig time.…”

Section: Two-trip Predrilled-liner Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A reversible SBM was selected for reservoir drilling-SBM because of reactive shales, and reversibility for proper filtercake cleanup to ensure production targets are met. The alternative-path technique was selected for gravel packing because of its track record in gravel packing of wells drilled with SBMs/OBMs (Powers et al 2006;Hecker et al 2004;White et al 2008) and the low fracturing gradient of these reservoirs.…”

Section: Field Characteristics and Project Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Openhole Gravel-Pack Case Histories Using Alternative Fluid Displacement for Synthetic-Based Mud

Ripa¹,

Rossi²,

Staltari³

et al. 2011

SPE Drilling &Amp; Completion

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Openhole gravel packing is one of the popular completion techniques in challenging, high-transmissibility reservoirs. Many of such wells are drilled with synthetic fluids and completed with either a single-or a two-trip technique.In single-trip approaches, the entire wellbore is displaced to water-based fluids before running screens and subsequent gravel packing. Although successful in some cases, this technique has been problematic in reactive-shale environments because of problems in screen installation to target depth, resulting from shale swelling and/or collapse. Such problems led operators to a twotrip approach in which a predrilled liner is installed in syntheticbased mud (SBM), displacements are performed to water-based fluids, and the screens are run in a solids-free (SF) water-basedfluids environment, followed by gravel packing. In recent years, another approach was introduced, in which the displacements to water-based fluids are performed after the screens are installed in conditioned mud and the packer is set, followed by gravel packing with a water-based fluid. Although this approach eliminates the difficulties associated with screen installation as well as allowing a single-trip completion (no predrilled liner), it cannot be used in cases where conditioning is impractical.In this paper, we present case histories where screens were installed after the open hole was displaced to a solids-free SBM and the cased hole was displaced to completion brine, and gravel packing was performed using a water-based carrier fluid. This approach provides a cost-effective alternative to displacement of the entire wellbore to SF-SBM as well as eliminating the risk of screen plugging, and it was implemented successfully on two oil producers in Oyo field. Details of design, execution, and evaluation for drilling and completion stages, as well as well productivity measures, are provided. Review of the Practices to DateMany of the deepwater developments in West Africa use SBMs for both upper hole and reservoir drilling, and almost all of them require some form of sand control, openhole gravel packing being one of the widely used techniques. Gravel packing in SBM environments evolved substantially over the years, with a variety of options that can be categorized on the basis of the type of carrier fluid used for gravel packing [note that the terms SBM and oil-based mud (OBM) are used interchangeably in the context of this paper].Oil-Based Carrier Fluid. In this approach, the screens are necessarily installed with oil-based fl uids in the entire wellbore, where the wellbore fl uids can be any combination of (a) conditioned SBM, (b) fresh SBM (no cuttings), and (c) SF-SBM or oil-based carrier fl uid. The conditioned-SBM approach requires that the mud be passed through shaker-screens of suffi ciently small openings to prevent plugging of sand-control screens during installation and subsequent operations. As such, the type of screens used in the completion (wire-wrap or premium/metal-mesh) and the size of screen openings, and t...

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Section: Two-trip Predrilled-liner Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Two-trip Predrilled-liner Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Two-trip Predrilled-liner Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Two-trip Predrilled-liner Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Field Characteristics and Project Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Openhole Gravel-Pack Case Histories Using Alternative Fluid Displacement for Synthetic-Based Mud

Ripa¹,

Rossi²,

Staltari³

et al. 2011

SPE Drilling &Amp; Completion

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

A new method to optimize the fracture geometry of a frac-packed well in unconsolidated sandstone heavy oil reservoirs

Bian

Zhang

et al. 2012

Sci. China Technol. Sci.

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Openhole Gravel-Pack Case Histories in Wells Drilled With a Synthetic Mud: Successful Implementation of an Alternative Method in Oyo Field, Nigeria

Ripa

Rossi²,

Staltari

et al. 2010

All Days

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Openhole gravel packing is a popular completion technique in challenging, high transmissibility reservoirs. Many of such wells are drilled with synthetic fluids and completed with either a single- or a two-trip technique. In single trip approaches, the entire wellbore is displaced to water-base fluids before running screens and subsequent gravel packing. Although successful in some cases, this technique has been problematic in reactive shale environments, due to problems in screen installation to target depth, resulting from shale swelling and/or collapse. Such problems led operators to a two-trip approach, where a predrilled liner is installed in synthetic-base mud (SBM), displacements performed to water-base fluids and the screens are run in solids-free water-base fluids environment, followed by gravel packing. In recent years, another approach was introduced, in which the displacements to water-base fluids are performed after the screens are installed in conditioned mud and the packer is set, followed by gravel packing with a water-base fluid. Although this approach eliminates the difficulties associated with screen installation as well as allowing a single-trip completion (no predrilled liner), it cannot be used in cases where conditioning is impractical. In this paper, we present case histories, where screens were installed after the openhole was displaced to a solids-free SBM and cased hole to completion brine, and gravel packing was performed using a water-base carrier fluid. This approach provides a cost-effective alternative to displacement of the entire wellbore to solids-free SBM as well as eliminating the risk of screen plugging, and was successfully implemented on two oil producers in Oyo field. Details of design, execution and evaluation for drilling and completion stages, as well as well productivity measures are provided, along with a discussion of a continuous circulation device successfully used during drilling.

show abstract

Breaking The Completions Paradigm: Delivering World Class Wells In Deepwater Angola (Russian)

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Openhole Gravel-Pack Case Histories Using Alternative Fluid Displacement for Synthetic-Based Mud

Openhole Gravel-Pack Case Histories Using Alternative Fluid Displacement for Synthetic-Based Mud

A new method to optimize the fracture geometry of a frac-packed well in unconsolidated sandstone heavy oil reservoirs

Openhole Gravel-Pack Case Histories in Wells Drilled With a Synthetic Mud: Successful Implementation of an Alternative Method in Oyo Field, Nigeria

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