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Arukhe, James (Saudi Aramco) | Duthie, Laurie (Saudi Aramco) | Al-Ghamdi, Saleh (Saudi Aramco) | Hanbzazah, Shadi (Saudi Aramco) | Almarri, Hamad (Saudi Aramco) | Sidle, Brian (WellTec) | Al-Khamees, Hader (WellTec)
Abstract Hydraulic coiled tubing (CT) tractors with 4.7 in. outside diameter have been employed quite effectively for superior accessibility of the CT into extended reach open hole horizontal wells of a giant carbonate field in Saudi Arabia. The use of these tractors has allowed more cost effective chemical placements and well stimulation treatments in these mega reach wells. Relatively large monobore completions (7 in. OD tubing) of water injectors in this field have been necessary for the success of the CT tractor deployment. Challenges remained to conduct similar well interventions into oil producers with hydraulic CT tractors mainly because of smaller completion sizes or restrictions in the completion. Although a smaller OD, 2.125 in. tractor existed, the pulling force of this tractor was insufficient to reliably pull the CT to total depth (TD) in many of these extended reach wells. Subsequently, the wells have not been stimulated to TD which results in reduced production and reservoir optimization. To overcome this challenge, following successful simulation runs, a special team assembled and trial tested a 2.125 in. hybrid tractor built to run in tandem configuration. New components were designed and manufactured to allow two of the 2.125 in. tractors to run in combination, simultaneously to convey CT beyond the helical lockup point. The trial was the first successful application of a 2.125 in. tandem tractor with 2 in. CT through a completion with 2.441 in. inch minimum restriction. The tractor was close to the predictions of the simulation and reached a total depth of 21,591 ft with over 4000 ft in an open hole environment and with the new tractor system pulling the CT over 1500 ft. At this depth a ball was pumped down the reel to isolate the tractor from the acid, allowing matrix stimulation treatments across the pay intervals at relatively high rates without damaging the tool. The successful deployment of the new tandem tractor in this field not only represents significant opportunity for the development of the field but has potentially far reaching global applications. The broad implications include the possibility of interventions in existing mega-reach oil producer wells with relatively small bore completions. Background Tractor interventions in well stimulation of extended reach power water injectors (PWI) in this field have been reviewed quite extensively (Arukhe, Ghamdi, Dhufairi, Duthie and Omairen, 2013). The field is the largest extended reach hydrocarbon producer project in the world. Successful OH interventions in the power water injectors have been possible through employing a 4.7 in. hydraulic CT tractor. The use of hydraulic tractors improved superior accessibility of CT in the extended reach OH horizontal wells and enabled more cost-effective chemical placements and stimulation of the PWIs. The specific intervention objectives in the power water injectors include acid stimulations, running water injection profiling tools to evaluate the reservoir injectivity after the stimulation, and to evaluate the injectivity index (II) of the well. Despite the well intervention success with 4.7 in. hydraulic tractors in water injectors, it was impossible to conduct well re-entries with 4.7 in. sized tractors in oil producers because of the 2.441 in. minimum internal diameter Y tool restrictions in the ESP completions.
- North America > United States (1.00)
- Asia > Middle East > Saudi Arabia (0.49)
Saudi Arabia's Value Adding, Record-Breaking Coiled Tubing Interventions Travel Farther than Mount Everest
Arukhe, James (Saudi Aramco) | Ghamdi, Saleh (Saudi Aramco) | Dhufairi, Mubarak (Saudi Aramco) | Duthie, Laurie (Saudi Aramco) | Almari, Abdulrahman (Saudi Aramco) | Elsherif, Tamer (Schlumberger) | Othman, Bassem (Schlumberger)
Abstract Coiled tubing (CT) deployment with hydraulic tractors in extended reach open hole horizontal wellbores has been a challenging technology in the oil industry for reasons ranging from wellbore conditions like washouts to restrictions imposed by the completions. Consequently, delivering cost-effective well interventions solutions, for example through acid treatments to enhance well performance, or production logging to understand inflow profiles in deep injector wells have been particularly demanding. The authors examine how rigorous pre-job planning and teamwork were enablers to realizing the deepest CT reach at 30,365 ft (9.26 km) measured depth (1,336 ft longer than the height of Mount Everest at 29,029 ft) in a mega-reach open hole horizontal power injector well using a CT tractor to facilitate effective stimulation in Saudi Arabia. Among the operational challenges overcome in the well was tar accumulation on the tool string including the tractor during the well intervention. The tar accumulation on the string was part of a laterally extensive high viscosity tar layer between the overlaying oil column and aquifer. From a reservoir standpoint the tar layer posed a challenge in assuring sufficient aquifer support to the oil producers because of their partial sealing nature. The author discusses how the challenges imposed by tar restrictions and other operational concerns were overcome to ensure successful acidizing. The wells showed a marked injectivity improvement from acid stimulation thus demonstrating the benefit of informed decisions from real time fiber optic distributed temperature sensing (DTS) in fluid placement. The tractor traversed a difficult down hole environment overcoming washouts and H2S environments within the wellbore conveying the CT for an industry record tractor reach for open hole CT intervention at 30,365 ft. Concrete applications of these outcomes include the ability to employ real time information for cost-effective stimulation and real time log acquisition from extended reach open hole horizontal wells.
- North America > United States (1.00)
- Asia > Middle East > Saudi Arabia (0.85)
- Information Technology > Architecture > Real Time Systems (0.96)
- Information Technology > Artificial Intelligence > Robots (0.69)
A New Solution to an Old Problem: Tractored CT Conveyed Real-Time Water Injection Profiling in Ultra Deep Wells
Arukhe, James (Saudi Aramco) | Al Ghamdi, Saleh (Saudi Aramco) | Dhufairi, Mubarak (Saudi Aramco) | Duthie, Laurie (Saudi Aramco) | Yateem, Karam (Saudi Aramco) | Almari, Abdulrahman (Saudi Aramco) | Elsherif, Tamer (Schlumberger) | Othman, Bassem (Schlumberger)
Abstract Intervention work is often necessary in field developments with deep wells to enhance well performance through acid stimulation. Acquisition of flow profile data in these wells is also vital for decision making. Deploying rigless solutions for monitoring of well enhancements and injection zones in the extended reach wells presents both technical and economic challenges given the tortuous nature of these wells, dogleg severity, considerable variations in azimuth and hole inclination, washouts and general hole conditions. Significant intervention cost savings have been observed since hydraulic tractor-aided coiled tubing (CT) intervention was introduced in ultra deep wells in the development of a Saudi Arabian field three years ago. Specific stimulation benefits include reduction to skin damage, improved drawdown, and treatment gains from injectivity increase. While tractor aided coiled tubing has largely been demonstrated as a preferred deployment technique for cost-effective acid stimulation and memory production logging in extended reach wells, the subjects of real-time evaluation of treatment effectiveness and injection zone monitoring have remained an industry challenge. The limitations of memory production logging have been compounded by spinner failure from organic residue dropouts in the wellbore while logging (which cannot be identified with the memory production logging tools until the end of the job). Apart from the lost time and loss of data, operational cost is extended beyond the allocated budget from re-runs, thereby adversely affecting development schedules. From this experience evolved a design to run real-time production logs in such challenging wells with potential for triggering data problems and delivering better quality wells. With improvements in job design, the first real-time production logging job trial was successfully performed in a 9.1 km well with a measured depth to the true vertical depth (MD/TVD) ratio greater than 3.44 in Saudi Arabia. This case study reveals how real-time information was employed to effectively stimulate and perform real-time production logs of an ultra deep well in Saudi Arabia. Practically, the work shows that effective stimulation and real-time production logging are possible in ultra deep wells. Introduction Through extended and mega reach technologies, the oil industry has been able to access reservoirs unattainable to conventional completion and drilling techniques. Blikra, Drevdal, and Aarrestad (1994) defined extended and mega-reach wells on the basis of measured depth to the true vertical depth (MD/TVD) ratio of the wells. According to the definitions offered by Blikra, Drevdal, and Aarrestad, wells with MD/TVD greater than 2.0 are extended reach wells, while the wells with MD/TVD ratio greater than 3.0 are mega-reach wells. For simplicity, extended and mega-reach wells are referred to simply as ultra deep wells in this discussion. The purpose of the tractored CT enabled real-time production logging run was to enhance the gains of coiled tubing (CT) placement and the apparent mechanical diversion of stimulation fluid treatment across the entire 6,697 ft open hole in an injector well. The reason for well stimulation was to reduce skin damage from mud filtrate and particle invasion from drilling and well completion fluids into the reservoir as well as to establish uniform contribution from the entire openhole horizontal section. Stimulating the injector wells will enhance their injectivities for a favorable waterflood during the injection scheme.
- Asia > Middle East > Saudi Arabia (1.00)
- North America (0.93)
- Energy > Oil & Gas > Upstream (1.00)
- Water & Waste Management > Water Management > Lifecycle > Disposal/Injection (0.44)
- North America > United States > Texas > Permian Basin > Midland Basin > Good Field (0.99)
- Asia > Middle East > Saudi Arabia > Arabian Gulf > Arabian Basin > Arabian Gulf Basin > Manifa Field (0.99)
- Information Technology > Artificial Intelligence > Robots (1.00)
- Information Technology > Architecture > Real Time Systems (1.00)