First Highly Deviated Openhole Gravel Pack Jobs in the Mediterranean with Alternate Path Technology

Abstract

Sand control, particularly gravel packing, is a common practice in the Mediterranean Sea due to the presence of poorly consolidated sandstone reservoirs. Open Hole Gravel Packs (OHGP) in highly deviated wells present an additional challenge due to the risk of sand bridging during the alpha wave propagation. The risk of bridging is escalated further in low fracture gradient environments where the pumping rate is reduced to avoid inducing losses. A major operator in Egypt has performed the first highly deviated OHGP jobs in the Mediterranean using Alternate Path screens. A series of qualification work was performed by the service provider during the planning phase for the 2 wells. Planning work included fluid rheology tests, flow loop testing, modeling full scale tests to achieve desired accuracy with gravel transport equations, pretreatment numerical simulations and post-treatment comparison of simulated data to actual data. Moreover, a lightweight proppant (LWP) product was qualified and successfully pumped on the second well where the fracture gradient was particularly low due to reservoir depletion. This paper discusses the planning, execution and post-job review work that was performed for these wells to produce two successful sand control jobs. Recommendations and lessons learnt for the future wells are also included. With the Industry and specifically the Mediterranean Basin moving towards more challenging wells requiring sand control in ever higher deviations and significantly depleted sands these highly deviated gravel packs with high overbalances are becoming increasingly important to unlock resources and maintain field plateau. The paper will detail the simulated results based on flow loop testing and how they compare with the actual job data. Successful sand control integrity was achieved with amount of gravel pumped exceeding 100% of the theoretical volume and sand free production achieved on both wells. Individual well performance with estimated skin values will also be shared.