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Well intervention challenges present opportunities to develop new technologies that increase operation efficiency and effectiveness. A revolutionary real-time hybrid coiled tubing (CT) service marks a new era of informed interventions. This paper highlights the results from 3 years of field operations using this real-time hybrid CT technology to improve well interventions economically, logistically, operationally, and technically by performing analysis and making decisions in real time. Previous techniques used wireline units to perform real-time operations, which often required production shut-in and multiple runs to avoid operational issues (i.e., tool lifting in wells with high production rates). CT electric line units mitigate the shut-in requirement, but reduce the pipe pulling capabilities and limit the fluids and rates to be pumped through the pipe. CT with fiber-optics technology helps eliminate the shut-in requirement and the fluids and rates restrictions, without affecting the CT pulling capabilities. However, operating time is limited because of the power source life. During the 3-year period, more than 1 million running feet of CT well interventions were performed in the eastern foothills of Colombia, where challenging conditions, such as high gas production rate, high tortuosity, and dogleg severity, were overcome using the real-time hybrid CT service. The real-time hybrid CT service includes an open architecture system that provides the capability to pump any fluid type at different rates through the CT and hybrid downhole tool. Additionally, the system is compatible with all electric and mechanical tools using a plug-and-play adapter to attach tools in a single rig up, which helps eliminate additional rig up and rig down of units to perform other types of well interventions. A continuous power supply allows operations to be performed without time or power constraints. This paper reviews previous case histories in which multiple interventions were successfully performed in a single run using real-time hybrid CT technology, including zonal isolation, well surveillance, access recovery, stimulations, production logging, injection logging, completion visualization, and perforating under extreme underbalanced conditions with extremely long bottomhole assemblies (BHAs). The flexibility of the real-time hybrid CT technology provides multiple opportunities to address new challenges in the oil industry without limits.
Well intervention challenges present opportunities to develop new technologies that increase operation efficiency and effectiveness. A revolutionary real-time hybrid coiled tubing (CT) service marks a new era of informed interventions. This paper highlights the results from 3 years of field operations using this real-time hybrid CT technology to improve well interventions economically, logistically, operationally, and technically by performing analysis and making decisions in real time. Previous techniques used wireline units to perform real-time operations, which often required production shut-in and multiple runs to avoid operational issues (i.e., tool lifting in wells with high production rates). CT electric line units mitigate the shut-in requirement, but reduce the pipe pulling capabilities and limit the fluids and rates to be pumped through the pipe. CT with fiber-optics technology helps eliminate the shut-in requirement and the fluids and rates restrictions, without affecting the CT pulling capabilities. However, operating time is limited because of the power source life. During the 3-year period, more than 1 million running feet of CT well interventions were performed in the eastern foothills of Colombia, where challenging conditions, such as high gas production rate, high tortuosity, and dogleg severity, were overcome using the real-time hybrid CT service. The real-time hybrid CT service includes an open architecture system that provides the capability to pump any fluid type at different rates through the CT and hybrid downhole tool. Additionally, the system is compatible with all electric and mechanical tools using a plug-and-play adapter to attach tools in a single rig up, which helps eliminate additional rig up and rig down of units to perform other types of well interventions. A continuous power supply allows operations to be performed without time or power constraints. This paper reviews previous case histories in which multiple interventions were successfully performed in a single run using real-time hybrid CT technology, including zonal isolation, well surveillance, access recovery, stimulations, production logging, injection logging, completion visualization, and perforating under extreme underbalanced conditions with extremely long bottomhole assemblies (BHAs). The flexibility of the real-time hybrid CT technology provides multiple opportunities to address new challenges in the oil industry without limits.
Telemetry systems with coiled tubing (CT) have been extensively used in the last decade for many types of operations, such as stimulation and logging. Many studies, reporting improved safety, and efficiency and reduced cost, have been published about using CT-conveyed telemetry systems with electrical wires, optical fibers, and, in the last year, hybrid wire-optical fiber tubes. In this paper, a new telemetry system consisting of multiple single-point sensors in the bottom hole assembly (BHA) and CT-conveyed electrical wire is reported to help optimize matrix acidizing stimulation in real time. While distributed temperature sensing (DTS) and distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) with CT-enabled optical fiber telemetry systems have been traditionally used for improving the treatment placement during matrix acidizing operations, they have several limitations. Firstly, the optical fiber is placed inside CT. Thus, the distributed data is acquired over several-hour-long periods with the CT stationary in the well, after pumping has stopped. Secondly, the mathematical models published in literature to convert the distributed data into flow rates along the CT length are very complex. All distributed data is qualitatively visualized in the CT cabin and interpreted by the personnel on location. Quantitative data interpretation is usually performed after the operation was completed. These two limitations can be overcome by using multiple single-point temperature sensors in the BHA, that are in direct contact with the wellbore fluids. The results from two matrix acidizing operations performed in the Middle East in 2020 with two different CT-conveyed telemetry systems are discussed and compared. The first telemetry system used an optical fiber inside the CT. DTS data was used to qualitatively visualize the temperature profile during several hours after bullheading the treatment. The second telemetry system used an electrical wire and three single-point temperature sensors located in the BHA to qualitatively visualize the temperature profile along the BHA while pumping the treatment through the CT and jetting it radially through the BHA. The advantage of the optical fiber system was that distributed temperature data was acquired along the entire CT length. The advantage of the multiple single-point sensors system was that the temperature data was acquired in real time, promptly helping the personnel on location decide to adjust the treatment pumping schedule on the fly. This is the first study available in literature consisting of field data acquired by using two different CT-conveyed telemetry systems during two matrix acidizing operations. Temperature data and learnings from the two telemetry systems are explicitly compared, helping the industry understand how the matrix acidizing operations can be improved by placing the optimum volume of acid at the required depth for best post-stimulation well productivity and lowest stimulation cost.
Water production has always afflicted mature fields due to the uneconomical nature of high water cut (WC) wells and the high cost of water management. Rigless coiled tubing (CT) interventions with increasingly articulated operating procedures are the key to a successful water reduction. In the scenario presented in this paper, high technological through tubing water shut off (WSO) for a long horizontal open hole (OH) well in a naturally fractured carbonate reservoir leads the way to new opportunities of production optimization. Engineering phase included sealant fluid re-design: the peculiar well architecture and fracture systems led to the customization of a sealant gel by modifying its rheological properties through laboratory tests, to improve effectiveness of worksite operations. A new ad-hoc procedure was defined, with a new selective pumping and testing technique tailored to each drain fracture. The use of Real-Time Hybrid Coiled Tubing Services (CT with fiber optic system coupled with real time capabilities of an electric cable) made it possible to optimize intervention reliability. Details of the operating procedure are given, with the aim of ensuring a successful outcome of the overall treatment Sealing gels are effective in plugging the formation, but in fractured environments the risk of losing the product before it starts to build viscosity is high. The success of the water shut off job has been obtained by using specific gel with thixotropic properties for an effective placement. In addition, the pumping has been performed in steps, each followed by a pressure test to assess the effectiveness of the plugging. Results are compared to two past interventions with equal scope in the same well: a first one with high volume of gel and an unoptimized pumping technique through CT and a second where a water reactive product was pumped by bullheading. The selective and repetitive approach pumping multiple batches of sealant system with CT stationary in front of a single fracture provided the best results from all three techniques. The real-time bottom hole data reading capability provided by hybrid CT allowed the placement of thru tubing bridge plugs (BP) with high accuracy and confidence with the ability to set electrically, therefore reducing risks related to hydraulic setting tools (i.e. premature setting). This also allows continual pumping during the run in hole (RIH) to clean up the zone prior to setting the BP. The combination of this innovative pumping technique and customization of the sealant fluid made it possible to achieve unprecedented water reduction in the field. The high technology CT supported the operation by providing continuous power and telemetry to the bottom hole assembly (BHA) for real time (RT) downhole diagnostics. Moreover, the operating procedures offer basic guidelines to successfully perform water shut off jobs in any other reservoir independent of its geological nature and structure.
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