What are Completions?

Completions are the interface between the reservoir and surface production. The role of the
completion designer is to take a well that has been drilled and convert it into a safe and
efficient production or injection conduit. This does not mean that the completion always has
tubing, a Christmas tree or any other piece of equipment. In some areas, it may, for example,
be possible to produce open hole and then up the casing. However, as we venture into more
hostile areas such as deepwater or the arctic, the challenges mount and completions, by
necessity, become more complex. Completion design is a mix of physics, chemistry,
mathematics, engineering, geology, hydraulics, material science and practical hands-on
wellsite experience. The best completion engineers will be able to balance the theoretical with
the practical. However, there is a strong role for those who prefer the more theoretical
aspects. Conversely, an engineer who can manage contracts, logistics, multiple service
companies, the detailed workings of specialised pieces of equipment and a crew of 50 is
invaluable. Some completion engineers work on contract or directly with the oil and gas
companies. Other engineers work with the service companies, and a detailed knowledge of
their own equipment is invaluable.

Safety and Environment

Safety is critical in completions; people have been killed by poorly designed or poorly
installed completions. The completion must be designed so as to be safely installed
and operated. Safe installation will need to reference hazards such as well control,
heavy lifts, chemicals and simultaneous operations. This is discussed further in Section
11.4 (Chapter 11). Safe operation is primarily about maintaining well integrity and
sufficient barriers throughout the well life. This section focuses on design safety. It is
common practice to perform risk assessments for all well operations. These should be
ingrained into the completion design. The risk assessments should not just cover the
installation procedures but also try to identify any risk to the completion that has a
safety, environmental or business impact. Once risks are identified, they are
categorised according to their impact and likelihood as shown in Figure 1.1. Most
companies have their own procedures for risk assessments, defining the impact in
terms of injuries, leak potential, cost, etc., and likelihood in terms of a defined
frequency. Mitigation methods need to be identified and put in place for any risk in the
red category and ideally for other risks. Mitigation of a risk should have a single person
assigned the responsibility and a timeline for investigation. It is easy to approach risk
assessments as a mechanical tick in the box procedure required to satisfy a company’s
policy; however, when done properly and with the right people, they are a useful tool
for thinking about risk. Sometimes, risks need to be quantified further and numerically.
Quantitative Risk Assessments (QRAs) attempt to evaluate the risk in terms of cost
versus benefit. QRAs are particularly useful for decisions regarding adding or removing
safety-related equipment. Clearly, additional expertise with completion engineering is
required for these assessments. Such expertise can assist in quantifying the effect of
leaks, fires, explosions, etc., on people, nearby facilities and the environment.
Example – annular safety valves
Annular safety valves are used to reduce the consequence of a major incident on a
platform with gas lift. They are designed to fail close and lock in a significant inventory
of lift gas in the annulus. The probability of such a major incident can be estimated, as
can the consequences of the escape of the entire annular inventory of lift gas (fire size,
duration, and impact on people and other processes). Installing annular safety valves
will not alter the probability of a major platform incident but will reduce the
consequences (smaller fire). However, annular safety valves do not shut
instantaneously, they might not always work and their installation adds both cost and
additional risks. What do you do if the annular safety valve fails in the open position?
Do you replace it (at additional cost and risk)? What do you do if the valve fails in the
(more likely) closed position? Quantifying possible outcomes can help determine the
optimum choice. Note that I am not making a stance in either direction; the decision to
install an annular safety valve depends on the probabilities and consequences. Where
both effect and probability are moderate (e.g. a deepwater subsea well), the value in
terms of safety of such a valve is considerably lower than for a densely populated
platform with multiple, deep, high-pressure gas lift wells.
Well control and barriers
Completions are usually part of the well control envelope and remain so through the
life of the well. They are part of the fundamental barrier system between the reservoir
and the environment. Although definitions will vary from company to company, a
simple rule in well control is as follows. ‘At least two tested independent barriers
between hydrocarbons in the reservoir and the environment at all times’. The barriers
do not necessarily need to be mechanical barriers such as tubing; they can include
mud whilst drilling or the off switch of a pumped well. Examples of barriers during
various phases of well construction and operation are shown in Table 1.1. The primary
barrier is defined here as the barrier that initially prevents hydrocarbons from
escaping; for example, the mud, the tubing or the Christmas tree. The secondary
barrier is defined as the backup to the primary barrier – it is not
normally in use until the primary barrier fails. The secondary barrier must be
independent of the primary barrier, that is, any event that could destroy the primary
barrier should not affect the secondary barrier. For example, when pulling the blowout
preventer (BOP), a deep-set plug and kill weight brine do not constitute two
independent barriers. The loss of integrity of the plug could cause the kill weight fluid
to leak away. This is discussed further in Section 11.4 (Chapter 11). As part of the well
design, it is worthwhile drawing the barriers at each stage of a well’s life. This is
recommended by the Norwegian standard NORSOK D-010 (Norsok D010, 2004) where
they are called well barrier schematics (WBS). An example is shown in Figure 1.2 for a
naturally flowing well. How the barriers were tested and how they are maintained
should also be included. Note that some barriers are hard to pressure test, particularly
cement behind casing. Additional assurances that cement provides an effective barrier
are the volume of cement pumped, cement bond logs and, for many platform and land
wells, annulus monitoring. For subsea wells and some tie-back wells, annulus
monitoring is not possible except for the tubing – casing annulus. Ideally, pressure
testing should be in the direction of a potential leak, for example, pressure testing the
tubing. Sometimes this is not practical. If there is anything (valve openings, corrosion,
erosion, turbulence, scale, etc.) that can affect a barrier then the barrier should be
tested periodically. This applies to the primary barriers and often to the secondary
barriers as well (e.g. safety valve).
Environmental protection
Completions affect the environment. Sometimes this is for the worse, and occasionally
for the better. The environmental impact of completion installation is covered in
Section 11.4 (Chapter 11), including waste, well clean-ups and harmful chemicals. The
design of completions has a much greater environmental effect.
1. An efficient completion improves production but also reduces the energy
consumption (and associated emissions) required to get hydrocarbons out of the
ground.
2. Well-designed completions can reduce the production of waste materials by being
able to control water or gas production.
3. Completions can be designed to handle waste product reinjection, for example drill
cuttings, produced water, non-exported gas, sulphur or sour fluids. Sometimes this
disposal can be achieved without dedicated wells. These combination wells are
covered in Section 12.6 (Chapter 12).
4. Carbon capture and sequestration will likely become a big industry. Carbon
sequestration may not be associated with oil and gas developments, for example
injection of carbon dioxide from a coal power station into a nearby saline aquifer.
Carbon sequestration may also involve active or decommissioned oil and gas
reservoirs. Regardless, sequestration requires completions. Sequestration is discussed
in Section 12.9 (Chapter 12).

The Role of the Completion Engineer

Completion engineers must function as part of a team. Although a field
development team will consist of many people, some of the critical
interactions are identified in Figure 1.3. I have placed completion engineers
at the centre of this diagram, not because they are more important than
anyone else but because they probably need to interact with more people.
As completions are the interface between reservoir and facilities,
completion engineers need to understand both. Many teams are further
subdivided into a subsurface team, a facilities team and a drilling team.
Which subteam the completions engineers are part of varies. Completion
engineers are often part of the drilling team. In some companies,
completion design is not a separate discipline but a role performed by
drilling engineers. In some other companies, it is part of a petroleum
engineering discipline sub-group that includes reservoir engineering,
petrophysics and well operations. To a large extent, how the overall field
development team is split up does not really matter, so long as the tasks
are done in a timely manner and issues are communicated between
disciplines. The timing of completion engineering involvement does matter
– in particular, they need to be involved early in the field development plan.
Completion design can have a large effect on facilities design (e.g. artificial
lift requirements such as power). Completions have a large effect on the
drilling design (e.g. hole and casing size and well trajectory). They also
influence well numbers, well locations and production profiles.
Unfortunately, in my experience, completion designers are brought into the
planning of fields at too late a stage. A field development team involved at
the starting point comprises a geologist, geophysicist, reservoir engineer,
drilling engineer and facilities engineer. By the time a completion engineer
joins a team (along with many others), well locations and casing sizes are
already decided and some aspects of the facilities agreed upon, such as
throughput, processing and export routes. So all a completion engineer has
to do is fit the completion into the casing and produce the fluid to a given
surface pressure. Many opportunities for improvement are lost this way. A
vital role of completion engineers is to work with the service sector. The
service sector will normally supply the drilling rig, services (wireline,
filtration, etc.), equipment (tubing, completion equipment, etc.),
consumables (brine, proppant, chemicals, etc.) and rental equipment.
Importantly, the service sector will provide the majority of people who do
the actual work. Inevitably, there will be multiple service companies
involved, all hopefully fully conversant with their own products. A critical
role of the completion engineer is to identify and manage these interfaces
personally, and not to leave it to others. For small projects, a single
completion engineer supported by service companies and specialists is
often sufficient. Ideally, the completion engineer designs the completion,
coordinates equipment and services and then goes to the wellsite to
oversee the completion installation. The engineer then writes the post-job
report. If one individual designs the completion and another installs it, then
a good interface is needed between these engineers. A recipe for a poor
outcome is a completion designer with little operational experience and a
completion installer who only gets involved at the last minute. For large
projects, the completion design may be distributed to more than one
engineer. There may be an engineer concentrating on the reservoir
completion (e.g. sand control), another concentrating on the upper
completion (e.g. artificial lift) and possibly a number of them concentrating
on installing the completion. Such an arrangement is fine so long as
someone is coordinating efforts and looking at the wider issues. A point of
debate in many teams employing dedicated completion engineers is where
the drilling ends and completions begin. This frequently depends on the
type of completion. My recommendations are:
 For cased and perforated wells, the completion begins once the
casing/liner has been cemented. This means that the completion
engineer is responsible for the mud displacement and wellbore
clean-out – with the assistance of the drilling engineer.
 For open hole completions, the completion begins once the reservoir
section has been drilled and the drill string pulled out. The overlap
such as mud conditioning or displacement must be carefully
managed.