Real-Time Hybrid Coiled Tubing Technology: A Review of Challenges and Opportunities in Field Operations

Abstract

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.