Coiled-Tubing Hybrid Open-Architecture System Enables Real-Time Downhole 360-View Camera and Production Logging Test for Increased Performance in a Challenging Gas Field

Abstract

Efficiency and effectiveness are strong influencing factors when developing rigless interventions within the current market. In the demanding industry of exploration and production (E&P), a synergy was created from strong collaborations between operator and service companies searching for solutions to provide more diagnostic capabilities, reduce overall cost of operations, and maximize well performance. The solution was found in real-time hybrid coiled tubing (CT) services, which drastically increased reliability and reduced assets and wasted time on location. Two onshore CT well interventions in the eastern foothills of Colombia where challenging conditions (i.e., high gas-production rate, high tortuosity, and dogleg severity) were overcome using a real-time hybrid CT system are discussed. To optimize the operational time to run a production logging test (PLT) and obtain downhole visual conditions, it was necessary to, in a single run, combine a flow-through, multisided, high-resolution visualization camera (first in industry) with real-time wireline services and a hybrid bottomhole assembly (BHA). The real-time hybrid integrated system includes a cable to connect any wireline tool and multiple fibers for communicating with additional sensors (i.e., tension and compression) to avoid exceeding the wireline tools’ capabilities, casing collar locator (CCL), and/or gamma ray (GR) sensor. These then correlate as a backup of the logging tool while performing operations as a PLT or injection logging test (ILT) and smarter tools (i.e., downhole multisided camera) that evaluate the perforations and fractures within the desired zones. This occurs in a single CT rig up without the need to modify the hybrid BHA, CT string, or CT connector and reduces the shut-in period of the well because CT and BHA capabilities provide more downhole insight. The hybrid flow-through sensor and camera BHA communication use the fibers installed in the CT; wireline uses the electric path for its telemetry. Because tool communication is independent, data can be evaluated simultaneously without constraints during the same run and pass, helping reduce additional operations because everything is transmitted from downhole, recorded, and displayed at surface the same time the tool senses or sees it. In an industry that demands continuous improvement during each stage of a well, increasing efficiency, reducing operational time, and developing technologies and techniques without compromising safety is no longer a request—it is now mandatory. This technology provides the benefits of fiber-optic and electric cable together and near limitless freedom to deploy multiple technologies independently or simultaneously without interference—a solution only an open architecture system can provide, establishing a step forward within the industry.