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Results
Deepwater Riserless Operations with Coiled Tubing in the Gulf of Mexico: An Innovative, Safe, and Efficient Plug-and-Abandonment Technique
Ottolina, Renny (Travis Gortmaker - Coil Tubing Services a Schlumberger Company) | Torres, Carlos (Travis Gortmaker - Coil Tubing Services a Schlumberger Company) | Rudnik, Alexander (Travis Gortmaker - Coil Tubing Services a Schlumberger Company)
Abstract The future of exploration and production (E&P) operations in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) is focused on deep water, that is, >5,000 ft [1,524 m] water depth. As the industry pushes the envelope to reach deeper reservoirs, subsea wells have become an important part of the offshore production. Although subsea completions may offer significant economic and environmental advantages over seafloor-founded structures, they require floating drilling or well intervention vessels to enable wellbore access should a workover operation be required to maintain production at an economic level or even to plug and abandon (P&A) the wells once they become uneconomical to produce. Interventions and P&A operations are very costly and may involve multiple services. The P&A of subsea wells represents no financial upside to the operators, other than the possible recycling of the subsea trees. Consequently, reducing costs and avoiding future environmental liability are the prerequisites for successful subsea decommissioning. Riserless subsea P&A operations are often completed by setting the plugs with drillpipe after the production tubing is removed with the rig. As part of the operational improvement process, a coiled tubing (CT) service company evaluated the option of performing this task using the riserless CT technique from a multiservice vessel (MSV) after the zonal and casing isolation packer had been successfully set and tested. This technique would allow the operator to save time to complete these operations, thus reducing the cost. Between 2010 and mid-2015, the CT service company has successfully completed 18 riserless subsea interventions at well depths ranging from 4,900 ft to 21,000 ft [1,494 m to 6,400 m] and water depths from 4,600 ft to 7,000 ft [1,402 m to 2,133 m]. Riserless wellbore access with CT has proved to be an efficient P&A method that has helped reduce operating time by up to 40% as compared to riserless workover rig-based operations. Detailed engineering and planning as well as continuous improvements have allowed implementing the CT riserless technique in accordance with the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement regulations.
- Energy > Oil & Gas > Upstream (1.00)
- Government > Regional Government > North America Government > United States Government (0.34)
2 3/8; and 2 7/8 OD Coiled Tubing Operations in Gulf of Mexico GoM Shelf: A Safe, Reliable, and Efficient Way to Prepare for Re-Entry of Wells to Conform to New BSEE Regulations
Torres, Carlos (Schlumberger Coiled Tubing Services) | Ottolina, Renny (Schlumberger Coiled Tubing Services) | Rudnik, Alexander (Schlumberger Coiled Tubing Services) | Creppel, Carl (Shell) | Bergeron, Ernest (Shell) | Broussard, Mike (Shell)
Abstract Since the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) released and implemented the updated version of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) in recent years, Operators now have the need to reenter wells that had been deemed as abandoned in the 1980’s, and perform operations to comply with the updated regulations. All of these wells have surface plugs (either cement plugs or cast iron bridge plugs) that require milling in order to access the wellbores to be abandoned. The use of a pulling unit is generally the method used for these abandonment operations. However, the risks of having pressure trapped below those surface plugs, and the ability to maintain well control during milling operations with the pulling and jacking units (PJU) poses a great concern to the Operators. Upon evaluation, Shell decided to use large outside diameter (OD) coiled tubing (CT) to mill the surface cement plugs and the cast iron bridge plugs. The use of CT enabled several operational advantages, such as the ability to handle potentially live well situations safely and efficiently, faster operations to mobilize (mob) from well to well, the use of larger bottom hole assemblies (BHA) with mills manufactured to drift the different casings 7", 9 5/8" and 10 ¾" inner diameter (ID), ensure optimal downhole motor (DHM) performance and to provide efficient removal of solids from the wellbore back to surface. This paper describes the CT operations performed on two shallow waters platforms projects in the GoM for Shell, where a total of 9 wells were intervened using 2 3/8" and 2 7/8" OD CT. The challenges encountered together with the developed solutions, equipment used, lessons learned are also discussed. Full compliance with BSSE regulations for well abandonment was the final result.