Gravel Pack a 500 ft High Permeability Cased Hole Well: Case Study, Gulf of Suez, Egypt

Abstract

Sand production has always been a challenge for oil operators worldwide. Several parameters can lead to sand production, including poor cementing material in the reservoir, high production rates, and high drawdown applied to an unstable zone. The subject field consists of 105 wells; 90 of these wells are oil producing wells, 11 are water injection wells, two are dump flood wells, and two are water source wells. The primary challenge was to perform a gravel pack job on a high permeability water source well to deliver a planned rate of 25,000 bwpd. A study for the formation, the area, and the history of gravel packing in the operator fields was made to provide the optimum solution for the target well. The well was categorized as a critical well because of the various challenges and because of its importance to the operator in supplying the field with the injection water, which was down for months. The completion specifications, sizes, and the pumping techniques were agreed upon with the operator and the critical well review team. The well suffered from high losses resulting from the high permeability and long interval. The fluid losses had to be controlled before running in with the completion equipment and pumping the gravel pack treatment to avoid premature screenout. After perforating the pay zone, the well, as expected, suffered from high losses. These losses were controlled by pumping several non-damaging fluid loss pills until the losses were suitable for running the gravel pack assembly in the hole. The treatment was pumped in alternating stages of clean fluid and slurry fluid to aid in the displacement of the proppant in the annular space and to minimize the risk of bridging. Premium screens (6-5/8 in. with 175 micron filter) were used along with a 40/60 proppant. A 5-in. wash pipe was used to force the majority of the fluid in the slurry to remain in the casing/screen annulus to maximize sand transport, rather than leaking off through the screen and into the screen base pipe/wash pipe annulus. The treatment was successfully pumped, covering the 500 ft of screens and leaving excess volume of sand covering the blanks. The well was completed with an electrical submersible pump (ESP) and is producing 11,500 bwpd with no reported issues. The injection in the field is now online after being down for five months as a result of shutting down the well.

Investigating the impact of completion parameters on gravel-packed oil well

“…The productivity of a gravel-packed well depends on the permeability of the gravel-pack sand and how it is placed. To ensure maximum well productivity, one should use high-quality gravel-pack sand (Khaled et al, 2017). The analysis of the productivity of cased-hole and openhole gravel packs (Penberthy and Cope, 1980) has shown that cased-hole gravel packs result in well productivities far below the productivity of open-hole packs while maintaining the significance of perforation diameter and sot density.…”