Wells

T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Vertical Wells
From a mechanical perspective, wells may be considered vertical if deviation
is no more than ca. 50.

Advantages:
Less expensive/risky to drill.
Highest reliability of various
completion types (less risk of
poor sand control)
Easy maintenance, data
collection and remediation
(can use wireline)
Due to lower mechanical risk,
often used in multiple zone
and/or complex sand exclusion
schemes.

T&OEUpdate

Disadvantages
Higher drawdowns may
increase need for sand
control
Coning and cusping of fluids
may occur earlier and may
be more severe

Thursday,Oct

Horizontal Wells

Advantages
Reduces coning and cusping of
undesired fluids in prone
situation by reducing drawdown
The extra reservoir penetration
increases the area open to flow
The length of the wellbore may
deliver better recovery (e.g. in
cases where the oil column is
short, also can deliver higher
rates at abandonment)
Potential to connect multiple
stacked targets

T&OEUpdate

Disadvantages
Higher initial costs
Increased sensitivity to
heterogeneity and anisotropy
Potential for earlier water
breakthrough
Complicated drilling, completion
and production technologies,
complicated and expensive
stimulation
Slower and less effective cleanup
Difficult and expensive to perform
effective surveillance
Mechanically difficult/risky to run
and pull equipment (in completion,
remedial and investigative phases).

Thursday,Oct

Horizontal Injectors

Horizontal wells allow higher injectivity but can leave by-passed oil
Heterogeneity or presence of fractures may result in very poor injection profile
Presence of shales that are continuous over large areas of the bedding surfaces
and which are steeply inclined to the flow, would severly impact sweep efficiency
Well orientation may be important
Aligning well orientation perpendicular to minimum horizontal stress direction
will result in higher well injectivity (may also impact the fracture initiation
pressure.)
Presence of a preferential flow pathway related to bedding direction will also
have a very significant impact on sweep
Fracced injection in horizontal wells may allow very high injection rates
Places very high importance on the ability to control location at which fractures
initiate (used in Prudhoe Bay)
Typically, however, fracced injection would result in the use of vertical or deviated
injectors

T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Horizontal or multilateral producers

Improved productivity c.f. vertical wells, but length may need to be

limited due to dangers of premature water breakthrough.
Problems may be offset (at a cost) by application of smart wells.

Similar considerations for multilateral wells need to consider degree

of functionality required against cost.
Saih Rawl example multilaterals significantly improved early
production but after water breakthrough costly repairs needed to
fully develop reserves.

Profiling (PLT) much more expensive in horizontal wells.

Need to consider potential for future remediation needs

Lateral well uncertainty could result in some bypassed oil.

T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Vertical or Deviated Wells

Assuming that fractured injection is typically employed, vertical or

deviated wells would usually be used.

The use of S shaped wells may improve fracture geometry

Limiting deviation improves well accessibility (wireline)

In producers PLT is easier for vertical rather than horizontal wells

T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Impact of Geology

T&OEUpdate

Schiehallion contains highly

productive channel sands
Should horizontal producers be
targeted to run along the
channels to obtain maximum
productivity or should they run
across the channel?
Should injectors be targeted in
the channel to maximise
support in the channel or
should they be off-channel to
improve overall sweep?

Thursday,Oct

Well completions

Completion design is strongly linked to conformance control

requirements.

Assuming fracced injection, control on injection side is difficult (other

than limited entry perforation)

Monobore completions allow relatively cheap and easy water shut-off

Selective injectors may be needed to get allocation on a sub-reservoir

basis.

Smart wells allow improved measurement and control at a cost.

T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Options for Multi-Zone Completions

Selective
Selective
Commingled
Commingled

Dual-string
Dual-string
T&OEUpdate

Behind
Thursday,Oct
BehindPipe
PipeSelective
Selective

Selective Completions

Probably the most common type of multi-zone completion.

The distance between zones may restrict completion options, especially
sand control.
Up to 4 gravel-packed zones are set up as selectives in
Brunei/Malaysia, separated by packers (duals with 1 zone on the
short string and 3 on long string).
One waterflooded field in Argentina has wells with up to 18 zones
separated by 19 packers and 18 sleeves
Sliding sleeves may not be totally reliable for complete isolation in the
long term consider how often zonal changes may be required.

10 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Commingled Completion

This type of completion is also fairly common.

Use with caution or avoid where the value of the reserves at risk due to
uneven drainage in the zones is much greater than recompletion cost.
Inefficient drainage can be overcome by setting plugs (lower zone
drained) or straddles (upper zone drained)
Be aware of the potential for crossflow during shut-in if a pressure
differential between layers may be expected (e.g. due to preferential
flooding of one layer).

11 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Behind Pipe

Recompletion may only need wireline tools.

The wireline tools used in the past include cement dump-bailed on
top of petal baskets set on wireline.
Today tools include Schlumbergers Posi-Plug which holds much
greater pressures and has a much better chance of isolating.

Initially leaving shallow intervals behind pipe may offer the benefit of a
much more efficient flood for multilatered systems.
Brent was developed via this bottoms up approach
The benefits of a more efficient flood must be weighed against the
delays in recovery for zones not initally completed
This approach has historically been easier to justify for larger fields.

12 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Dual String Completions

Multi-string wells (typically duals) were widely used in the 60s and 70s
when production constraints limited zonal production rates - two zones could
be produced simultaneously from the same wellbore at substantially reduced
costs.
Today, with production constraints not typically seen, multi-string wells are
not so widely used.
Multiple strings inside normal sized production casing limit wireline and
coiled tubing remedial work.
Gas lift in wells with multiple strings is normally much less efficient than in
single string wells.

13 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Perforation

Partial perforation
Where preferential flow pathways cause premature water
breakthrough partial perforation may improve production profiles at
the cost of some deferment
No benefit seen in Sirikit
May apply where thick sand packages occur perf at top of interval
may allow benefits through gravity segregation

14 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Lift

As waterfloods mature and watercut increases this may lead to the

need to change or introduce lift
ESPs suited to high rates and high w/cut production
Inability to exert high drawdown with gas lift may lead to cycling of
high perm layers and inability to flood remaining zones.
Need to consider data collection requirements for example ESPs
unsuited to PLT data collection unless Y-tool used.

Can consider operating at a higher reservoir pressure obviating need

for lift (Omar).

15 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Sand Control

The assumption that there will be no sand problems in injectors (even for very
unconsolidated sands) because there is no drawdown, is false.
During injection shutdowns crossflow may occur between injection layers due to pressure
differentials.
Water hammer.

Closing a valve when liquid is traveling creates a pressure pulse. Downstream

of the valve liquid goes from the initial velocity to zero, whilst further
downstream the liquid is still at the original velocity. The sudden stop of the
liquid causes a decompression of the liquid that corresponds to an effective pressure
drop.
As a consequence a pressure wave is created that travels down the system. For a Statoil
case, the amplitude of the wave generated by the closure of the valve on the system was
about 90 bar.
When the wave arrives at the formation it depressurizes very quickly and, if the sand has
sufficient porosity, it can be liquefied inone case this left sand 400 ft above the
perforations.
Water hammer effects indicate the need for operational control and good process design

16 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Dumpflood

B/C Aquifer
Sand
7.5/8
Tubing

7Stratapac screen
9.5/8Micropak screen

ESP c/w data

monitoring system

Avoids need for dedicated water

supply wells

For depleted reservoirs aquifer

strength may be sufficient to obtain
required injectivity, but often need
power assist (eg Kinabalu)

Need to consider:
Water quality requirements
Metering requirements

L injection sands package, Pressure =2800 psia. T =203deg F

17 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Dual Producer/Injector

18 T&OEUpdate

Potential to reduce costs where two

different zones need to be
produced/flooded.

Zonal isolation critically important.

Need to decide on annular

production or annular injection.

Stress loading on the completion

needs good definition.

Poor track record, although good

success for BP Wytch Farm.

Similar scheme could be applied

where need injection into two
different zones.

Thursday,Oct

Conversion from producer to injector

Very attractive since it may reduce the capital outlay required to meet
the injection demands.

However, wells released from production duty are often wells that have
performed poorly as producers.
May be OK if the well was completed too close to the oil-water
contact, and the flood will be peripheral.
If the well simply had low productivity then there is a good chance
that the well will also perform poorly in injection mode.

If the well is deemed suitable for conversion, tubing/packer integrity

calculations should be performed to ascertain the impact that the
change of service will have on packer and tubing movement

19 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Short water injection completions

Benefits may include:

Reduced well costs.
Reduced installation time.
Reduced frictional pressure loss in the injection string.

Main drivers for standard injection completions are:

Well integrity the tubing prevents injection fluids corroding well
casings. A deep set packer may also facilitate a well kill so a short
injection tubing string should only be considered in cases where the
injection zone is incapable of sustaining natural flow.

Well monitoring. The tubing string provides the opportunity to

incorporate nipples that may be used to hang off gauges for reservoir
monitoring

20 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

SSSV in injection wells

Shell Standard: In the light of the potential effect of oil and gas spills on the environment, it is
recommended that all new and existing wells capable of SUSTAINED NATURAL FLOW be
equipped with sub-surface safety valves
in many cases, the risks in injection wells may be reduced as a result of one or more of the
following factors:
Many floods take place in sub-hydrostatic reservoirs and, even though localized pressure
will be higher in the location of injection wells, many injection wells may have no capacity
to flow naturally or may quickly die.
The capacity for natural flow in injection wells may be constrained when compared to
production wells due to the heavier weight of the hydrostatic columns.
Injection wells completed below the oil-water contact (peripheral flood) are likely to have
the capacity to produce only water.
The water that may be produced from injection wells may in some circumstances be
relatively fresh and carry relatively small environmental concerns.
Subsea environment (hence no safety impacts, only environmental)
Although the Production Handbook recommendations must be taken as the base case, the
above factors highlight that, for many fields, a risk analysis may be valuable to determine if
SSV can be omitted in injection wells

21 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Smart Fields/Smart Wells

Smart Fields:
Bringing together capabilities*) to continuously optimize
the life cycle value of E&Ps assets
*) People Processes - Technologies

philosophy

Smart Wells:
Wells that have been installed with downhole
measurement and/or control devices

The value of smart well systems is that they are able to offer rapid
diagnosis of problems and/or immediate solutions to those problems
through changes to the completion configuration without well
intervention. These technologies are particularly relevant to waterflood
applications.

22 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

thing

Value Drivers of smart wells/fields

Reduction in well count and UTC by commingling reservoirs

Addition of reserves by connecting marginal interval
Acceleration by Optimised Sequential Production or commingled
production
Reduction of water and gas production in horizontal wells intelligent
production of oil rims
Improving Drive Processes (Water-flood and Gas Drives)
Reduced well intervention and OPEX by remote operations
Improved production allocation techniques
Increase production rate with larger tubing
Improved surveillance with continuous downhole measurements
Providing options to mitigate unexpected subsurface reality

23 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Smart Wells

Smart Wells Components

Control devices:
ICV: Inflow Control Valve
ESP: Electrical Submersible Pump
Sensor devices:
PDG: Permanent Down-hole Gauges (P or T)
DTS: Distributed Temperature Sensors
Down-hole flow-meters

Enabling equipment:
Feed-through packers
Control lines: hydraulic or electric
Tubing hanger / wellhead penetration
Surface systems

24 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Distributed Temperature Sensor

Temperature logs required for:

Detecting water/gas breakthrough
Well integrity
Gaslift optimisation
Etc.

DTS measures temperature profile:

Along the whole well path length
Using an optical fibre
Real time
Installed permanently

25 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Fibre-Optic Distributed Sensing Uses

DTS provides a temperature profile that can be used to:

Determine injection profile and fractures.
Indicate productivity along the length of long complicated horizontal wells.
Monitor steam flooding.
Indicate flow behind the casing.
Indicate water breakthrough between horizontal injector and producer.
Indicate gas influx into the well bore.
Indicate from which gas lift mandrel the well is lifting.
Etc., etc.

Future developments: DPS, DFS.

26 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Fibre-Optic Distributed Temperature Sensors (DTS)

Principal
A laser pulse is propagated along the fibre. Some light will be
scattered, and some will be scattered back into the fibres core,
allowing detection
Measures the Raman spectral band caused by thermally influenced
molecular vibrations
Has two components, Stokes and Anti-Stokes - their relative
intensities are a function of temperature at which the backscattering
occurred.
The time between launch and return identifies the location from
which the scattering is coming

27 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

DTS for water injection profile

o
Ge
al
m
er
th
ien
ad
Gr
t

Zones taking most

water warm back
more slowly during
shut in
Temperature Profile
during Injection

Warming back

28 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Permanent Downhole Gauges (PDG)

PDGs are sensors that are permanently installed in the well and are
connected by a cable to a surface read-out unit.
Advantages
Direct measurement close to bottom-hole / reservoir conditions
Improved time resolution of data, due to continuous read-out
Down hole data can be made available on office desktops for
instant analysis
No well intervention required to obtain readings
Disadvantages
Cost
Potential failures / reliability
For critical systems should sparing be applied?

29 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Reliability of PDG Installations

Reliability of PDG systems for various periods of installation (source : ICON
database)
01/02

95

99/00
93/94

Survival Probability, %

85
75

87/88
89/90
91/92
93/94
95/96
97/98
99/00
01/02

91/92

97/98
95/96

65

89/90

55
45

87/88

35
1

11

30 T&OEUpdate

16

21

26

31

36

Operational Time, months

41

Thursday,Oct

46

51

56

61

Downhole Flow Control Valves

Interval control valves (ICVs) enable control of fluids into and out off the wellbore.
They are operated either by hydraulic or electrical control lines running from the valves
through wellhead penetrations to a control panel or hydraulic control station.
Suitable for frequent actuation.
Three categories:
On-Off
Step set point
Continuously variable
The valves may be isolated from each other by isolation packers which permit the valve to
control production or injection over a selected interval, between consecutive isolation packers.
Business drivers
Accelerated production
Enhanced recovery
Reduced intervention costs

31 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Inflow Control Valves

To open / close / choke downhole flow

32 T&OEUpdate

(Pictures courtesy of Well Dynamics)

Thursday,Oct

Smart Switching
ICV

Packer

Well divided into several independent intervals

Reduction of water and gas production by controlling inflow into the well
Interval closes in the event water or gas breakthrough
Allow cones to recede
Reopen intervals for next cycle

animation

33 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Control lines

34 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Packers for control lines

35 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Tubing hanger for control lines

36 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Smart waterflooding

37 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Smart waterflooding

Conventional -- no control or optimisation

1

0.9

0.9

0.9

0.9

10

0.8

10

0.8

10

0.8

10

0.8

0.7

15

0.6

20

0.5

25

0.4

30

0.3

35

0.2

40
45

0.1
5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

0.7

15

0.6

20

0.5

25

0.4

30

0.3

35

0.2

40
45

0.1
5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

0.7

15

0.6

20

0.5

25

0.4

30

0.3

35

0.2

40
45

0.1
5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

0.7

15

0.6

20

0.5

25

0.4

30

0.3

35

0.2

40
45

0.1
5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Smart operations: same production rate, 25% extra recovery

1

0.9

0.9

0.9

0.9

10

0.8

10

0.8

10

0.8

10

0.8

0.7

15

0.6

20

0.5

25

0.4

30

0.3

35

0.2

40
45

0.1
5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

0.7

15

0.6

20

0.5

25

0.4

30

0.3

35

0.2

40
45

38 T&OEUpdate

0.1
5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

0.7

15

0.6

20

0.5

25

0.4

30

0.3

35

0.2

40
45

0.1
5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Thursday,Oct

40

45

0.7

15

0.6

20

0.5

25

0.4

30

0.3

35

0.2

40
45

0.1
5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Example - Saih Rawl 108

SR 108 Production History

350

2500

2000

oil

water

250

1500

200

150

1000

100
500
50

0
Jan-01

Apr-01

Jul-01

Nov-01

Feb-02

May-02

Sep-02

Dec-02

Mar-03

Jun-03

0
Oct-03

Smart recompletion

Well Testing: Selective Legs in SR 108

SR-108: Sellective Legs Testing
2000

100

1800

90
Oil Rate (m3/d)
Water Rate (m3/d)
Water Cut

1400

80
70

Selective Water Shutoff

in PDO Carbonates
39 T&OEUpdate
Thursday,Oct

Leg 2 & 3

Leg 1

Leg 2

Leg 4

10

Leg 2 & 4

20

200
Leg 1 & 3

30

400

Leg 2 & 4

40

600

Leg 1 & 2

50

800

Leg 3 & 4

60

1000

Four Legs

1200

BSW, %

1600
Rate, m3/day

Highlights:
A 4 leg watered out multilateral producer was
recompled with a 4 valve smart completion
Selective shutoff of high BSW branches increased
production from 300 bod (95% BSW) to 1700 (71%
BSW) bod
Basic on/off functionality at injectors AND producers
may offer the highest POS of quick production gains
and increased ultimate recovery.
Very rapid payback of W/O cost (2 months)

Water rate, m3/day

Oil rate, m3/day

300

Smart Wells Summary

Combination of sensing technologies with flow control valves offers

potential to deliver continual optimisation of flood efficiency.

Remediation is quick and requires no intervention

Cost remains a barrier horses for courses

Next few slides illustrate potential value of smart wells for improved
recovery

40 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

The classic vertical well

Oil Reservoir
Vertical cross-section of the reservoir

Top view of the reservoir

The vertical well is exposed to the reservoir over only a very small vertical interval. All the oil has
to flow into the well through this interval

41 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

The horizontal well

Oil Reservoir
Vertical cross-section of the reservoir

Top view of the reservoir

The horizontal well contacts the reservoir over a much larger interval than the
vertical well. The oil can enter the well through a much larger area.

42 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

The smart well

Oil Reservoir
Vertical cross-section of the reservoir

Top view of the reservoir

Apart from the large contact area with the reservoir, the smart well has additional
benefits. The well is subdivided into a number of isolated segments that can all be
operated individually.

43 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

smart
Water-flooding
The
producing
bypassed
wells
oil
well
the
isisrepresented
experiences
most
vertical
efficient
by
Water
Although
displacement
flooding
thegive
displacement
with
very
smart
horizontal
efficient
wells
iswells
better
water
the
displacement.
red
breakthrough
color
at
aofvery
early
wells
than
and
there
for
the
is no
vertical
danger
wells,
early
early
stage.
water-breakthrough
is still
occurring.

Oil Reservoir

Oil Reservoir

Oil Reservoir

44 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Flow Control in Injectors or Producers

Downhole Flow Control - Producers vs. Injectors

(9 wells unknown)

Injector
10% (9)

Producer
90% (78)

45 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Smart Applications for Injectors

Smart applications for injectors may be considered when:

1. Active control of the water flood front profile is required to avoid water
bypassing the oil via high-permeable sections.
2. Water injection into multiple reservoirs occurs, where the relative
injection rate needs to be controlled to avoid over-injection in some
intervals.
3. Water flooding stacked reservoirs, where there are multiple paths for
the water to reach the producing well.

46 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Well Monitoring - PLT

Standard technique to monitor 3 phase flow and identify WSO

opportunities
Spinner measures flow (continuous, full bore spinner or stationary,
point profiling
Gradiomanometer measures density
Temperature and pressure
Caliper included for O/H completions or if corrosion expected to
have impacted well diameter

Hold up in high deviation/horizontal wells makes interpretation much

more difficult (and expensive) Schlumberger Flagship etc

47 T&OEUpdate

Water Hold-Up

Thursday,Oct

Monitoring Reservoir Dynamics Away from the

Wellbore - Dynamic Reservoir Drainage Imaging

Current
return

Potential

Electrodes installed in observation

well.

As water front approaches the

current lines are distorted, resulting
in a variation in electrical potentials.
This resistivity model can then be
turned into saturation profile through
a transformation such as Archie's
equation.

One drawback of the system is that

once the flood front has passed the
well then it becomes virtually
redundant

reference

electrode potential (volt)

Coated
casing

48 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Time lapse measurements

SPE 68078
EP 2002-5118

DRDI data
Month #1 - #8
M onthly e volution of s hort m onopole -m onopole
potentials until M id April

10

15

20

25

590

F-146

600

610

F-311 injector

Natih-E2

620

Natih-E3
630

F-317 producer
DRDI well

Natih -E4
640

Fig. 4-DRDI well location in

production cell

Not to
scale

650
28-Sep-99
27-Oct-99

660

28-Nov-99
28-Dec-99
03-Feb-00

670

25-Feb-00
21-Mar-00
18-A pr-00

680

49 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

RST Log Month #9

Profile modification

Good and Bad Water

Only Oil

T im e

Oil & Water

Oil & Water

BadWater

Only Water

I njector

50 T&OEUpdate

Producer

Thursday,Oct

Mechanical Shut-Off

Scab liner/bridge plug

Mechanical options are made much simpler in a monobore completion

51 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Casing Patches

Casing patches provide a permanent seal

over perforations and can be run in any
type of well including horizontal, multilateral, slim hole or monobore.
Patches are run on electric wireline, tubing
or coiled tubing and set with a pressure
setting tool (electrical, mechanical or
hydraulic).
Well interventions can be performed
whether the well is flowing or static.
Their large bores present little restriction to
flow and allow easy passage of tools.
The effectiveness of the seal is dependent
on the status of the casing and hence a
scraper run is invariably run in advance of
the patch.
Casing patches are generally reliable and
have high burst and collapse pressure
ratings.

52 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Solid Tubular Expansion

Tube expanded against perforations or other identified location by

running an expansion cone.

Elastomeric seals improve contact

53 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

EZIP

EZIP = Expandable Zonal Inflow Profiler Tool

Provides inflow profile control capability

Poor-mans Smart Well: Combining selectivity & sand control in a low

cost environment

54 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Solution: Current Vs EZIP Completion in PDO

Current Completion: WW Screens and/or PDL with open annulus

Provides No Opportunity to Measure and/or Control Inflow Profile
High

Large
Open
Annulus

BSW

Fractures/thief zones

EZIP Completion: Alternate WW Screens and EZIP+ Blanks

Closed Annulus Allows for Segmentation = Discrete Inflow Intervals
Provides for Both Initial & Subsequent Profile Control
Delivers Higher Initial Oil Rates & Improved Recovery Factors (UR)
Low
BSW

55 T&OEUpdate

Fractures/thief zones

Thursday,Oct

Closed
Annulus

Expandable Zonal Inflow Profiler What is it?

Swelling elastomer vulcanized on
standard base pipe 4-1/2 for 6-1/8 hole
Current design can swell at least up to
100%, closing an annulus just over 7 ID

+/-10000 mm

500mm Pin
end

1500mm Box end

Objective: to provide a long annular seal between the liner and the formation
Method: design the elastomer to swell when it contacts formation water.

56 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Post EZIP Production in Trial Well

Post-EZIP Production in trial well

Pre-EZIP BSW: 90%

Highest Net Prod Gain After EZIP

185 m3/d @ Pump-Off Conditions

90
80
70

BSW (%)

60
Increased Pumprate

50
40
30
20
10

Pre-EZIP
Lowest Rate Net Prod ~ 17 m3/d

57 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

220
210
200 Latest BSW: 80%
190
180
170
160
150
140
130
BSW
120
Net Production
110
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Net Production (m3/d)

100

PDO: NM-524H1 Results

Nimr 524 was the first well completed with EZIP.

Water producing zones were interpreted from conventional logs.

Two suspicious zones isolated.

4 Inflow segments created.

Water cut decreased from 90% to 12%.

Oil rate increased from 25m3/d to 202m3/d.

58 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

End-Goal: ESS & EZIP combined

Possible future Clad

Screen
(ESS)

EZIP Screen
tool
(ESS)
section

EZIP
tool
section

Fracture
L

Cheap
EZip
tool

Greatly
reduced
expensiv
e ESS
length

59 T&OEUpdate

Selective Stimulation

Possible future gel or cement shut-off

Thursday,Oct

Applications

Remedial
Requires WWS to be pulled

New wells
PDO hopes to use UBD to identify points of water influx
UBD does present the problem of poor hole shape and hence the
danger that the EZIP might leak.

Limitations
Swelling capacity of elastomers limited in high salinity formation
water applications.
Laboratory testing of suitable elastomers is in progress

Later remedial shut-off requires mechanical shut-off tools e.g. Patchflex

60 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

EZIP Summary
The Zonal Isolation Profiler tool (EZIP) will allow
Initial shut-off of fractures and watered-out zones
Selective stimulation before completion
Inflow selectivity
Selective treatment at later date
Selective shut-off at later date
(Cement / chemical /mechanical)
Access to sealed-off interval
Important aspects determining EZIP application are
Bulk product instead of specialty product
Speed of swelling to provide good seal unimportant
Long seals instead of short seals

61 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Chemical Shut-Off

Total Blocking Systems

Self Selective Systems
Fracture Shut-Off While Drilling

62 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Total Blocking Systems

May be applied in both injection and production wells.

Care must be taken in fractured injection wells since fracture growth
may still allow water to enter target isolation zones.

Product must be selected with the following criteria in mind:

Permeability
Temperature
Expected pressure gradient after treatment

Products typically composed of a synthetic polymer or biopolymer and

a cross linker which forms a gel in-situ.

Other systems are also now being promoted based on inorganic

polymers (e.g. silicates) and resins (e.g. phenol/formaldehyde, epoxy).

63 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Available Systems

Maraseal (Marathon Oil technology licensed to several service

companies)
Reasonably successful but Cr (III) is used as the cross linker HSE
concerns due to high toxicity.
Depth of penetration not high with this system so some failures due
to under design.

H2Zer0, PermSEAL, Injectrol (Halliburton)

H2Zer0 better from HSE perspective and gives better depth
penetration

OrganoSEAL, PERMABLOK, DGS (Dowell Schlumberger)

Aquatrol IV, SilGEL (BJ Services)

64 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Key Success Factors

Problem diagnosis
Where is the water coming from and how will the reservoir/well respond if the
water is shut off?
Selection of a product suitable for the well and reservoir conditions
Permeability
Temperature
Pressure differential
Proper job design
Required chemical volumes of chemicals
Available pump time before gel sets and shut in time.
Temperature simulations to ensure that treatment can be pumped and to
establish the minimum shut-in time for a full set of the system (WellCat from
Landmark is an excellent package).
QC (measure the characteristics of the chemical system delivered to the well site
with the mixing water available on site)

65 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Cement

Can be successfully used for shutting off bottom perforations.

It may require several attempts before flow has been reduced or

stopped.

Special cements are now available for gravel pack shut off
SqueezeCrete (DS) and MicroMatrix (Halliburton).

Selective placement and shut off in the case of open hole completions
with slotted and perforated liners is currently done with thixotropic
cement.

66 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Gel-cement system for reversible water shut-off in

cased hole perforated completions

Applied similar to a standard cement squeeze but H 2Zer0 gel is used as the make up water
for the cement slurry.
The H2Zer0 gel penetrates the formation and after curing performs a shallow shut-off of the
matrix.
The cement in the perforation will form a hard plug and acts as the cork on the bottle.
The system is designed to hold high differential pressures (up to 3000 psi) at elevated
temperatures (up to 130C) - cf normal cement holds only 500 psi.
In a typical application the gel-cement system is placed with CT over the existing
perforations.
A squeeze pressure is applied until stable pressure and excess gel-cement is circulated
back to surface.
After curing of the cement and the gel, the zones containing the hydrocarbons are reperforated (reversible).
Two trials in Syria
Sijan big success, oil gain 2000 bopd
Saban field trial failed thought due to poor WI support well failed to produce after
treatment

67 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Gel-Cement Application

68 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Relative Permeability Modification Systems (Selfselective systems)

Applied where the water influx point cannot be identified and/or where selfselective placement cannot be used.
Designed so that water production from the water-bearing layer is reduced
substantially whilst the oil bearing layers are only marginally affected.
Past experience
Relative permeability modification systems promoted for over 10 - 15 years
by service industry
SUCCESS RATE LOW IN SHELL OUs (< 30 - 40%)
Why?
Poor insight into the chemistry
No insight into the mechanism
Poor candidate selection
The industry, together with service companies are now developing
new/novel systems

69 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Self Selective System Options

Aquacon (BJ)
Can be considered for deployment provided that proper well selection and
system design are employed
Reservoir limitations (less than 1 Darcy, reservoir temperature <100C,
formation water salinity <100,000 ppm TDS )
Applied in Obigbo North (Nigeria)
Reltreat
A polymer system with a zirconium cross-linker developed in a JV between
oil companies including Shell
Available from Clariant under licence - can be considered for deployment
provided that proper well selection and system design are employed.
Field trialled in BPs Miller field with some success.
Cost of the Reltreat system may be an order of magnitude lower than the
Aquacon system.

70 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Aquacon Application in Obigbo North

Fluid Front

900/1800 ppm Aquacon

bullheaded

20-30 ft interval

Sand body 119 ft

Well Obigbo North 33 was

producing at a BS&W of 87% what can be expected after a
successful WSO?

Polymer Front

71 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Aquacon Treatment Results Obigbo-N 33S

Well OBGN33S

Watercut
%

Total
fluid
rate b/d

Oil rate
b/d

Water
b/d

WHP
(psi)

Skin

Prejob on 72/64"

87

2346

305

2041

135

47

Post job on
26/64 (1
month)

73

460

124

336

525

123

Post job on
72/64 (2.5
months)

73

2014

544

1470

135

123

72 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Self Selective System Options (cont)

H2Red (Halliburton)
Based on polydimethylaminoethyl methacrylate (polyDMEMA) modified with 6
mole % hexadecyl bromide.
Performance claims from core flow experiments by Halliburton have not been
supported by W2V laboratory results.
STARPOL. (Institut Francais du Petrole, IFP)
Aims to overcome the limitations that are suffered by systems that react and form
in the reservoir (e.g. Aquacon, Reltreat) and hence are influenced by reservoir
conditions of temperature, salinity etc.
In the STARPOL process polymer and crosslinker are added to a solution that is
experiencing constant shear conditions; crosslinking occurs until limited by the
shear imposed.
The resulting microgels are found to be almost insensitive to reservoir conditions
and the onlu in-situ reaction required is for the gel to adsorb onto the rock surface.
May be considered in carbonate reservoirs with which the Aquacon and Reltreat
systems are not (yet) compatible

73 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Self Selective System Options (cont)

TMOS (Trimethylorthosilicate).
Developed by European research institutes in a JIP.
Field trial forthcoming in the Sandrovac field (Croatia)
Oil-soluble silicone resin system.
Currently being developed in a joint venture between Dow Corning
and SIEP.
The principle is to use a silicone resin based fluid that would form a
precipitate upon contact with the water in the formation creating a
resistance to flow.
Upon resumption of production this resistance would be removed
by oil flow but not by water flow.
Dow Corning still needs to improve the system to deliver reliable
and consistent behaviour.

74 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Self-Selective Systems Implementation

Continue Aquacon field trials and validate applicability

Implement the Zirconium-polymer system in field trials candidate wells have
already been identified in SPDC.

75 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Self-Selective Systems In-depth Profile

Modification for Sweep Efficiency Improvement

When injection water breaks through in a high permeability streak which

is isolated from the rest of the reservoir by impermeable barriers it is
possible to set mechanical or chemical plugs to seal off water at the
point of ingress
This works well if the barrier is laterally continuous.
The less continuous the barrier the less successful near wellbore
water shutoff becomes since water simply bypasses the plug and
breaks through elsewhere in the well.
When this situation exists there is a need to achieve diversion deep
within the reservoir between the injection and production wells to divert
water into poorly swept zones
Bright Water has been developed to achieve in-depth profile
modification to improve overall waterflood conformance.
Marketed by Ondeo Nalco

76 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Bright Water

Based on a polymer which can be dissolved in the injection water and

which has particle sizes sufficiently small that it is able to propagate
through the rock pores with the flood water.

Thermal trigger
After injection the polymer will gradually warm towards the reservoir
temperature. As it heats up, the polymer expands, blocking pore
throats and diverting water following behind it (the expansion factor
is 4 for seawater and 10 for fresh water).
Photomicrographs of Polymer Particles

77 T&OEUpdate

X10
Before Expansion
(Scale is 500 nM)

X1

Thursday,Oct
After Expansion
(Scale is 5 uM)

Mechanism

Requirements for success - Reservoir zones in communication but with

permeability contrast

Cost does the cost of the plug the incremental oil volume?

Water
Injector

Produce
Poorly swept
-rich
oil layer (low permeability)
Hot reservoir

Target Block
Cool injection water
Injection
Cool
injection
waterwater
mainly
mainly
area
Floods high
-perm layers
Water
Injector

Produc
Poorly swept
-rich
oil layer (low permeability)
Areaofimprovedsweep
Hot reservoir

Target Block
Cool injection water mainly
area
Floods high
-perm layers
Cool injection water

78 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Water shut-off for fractured reservoirs

In fractured reservoirs, the production behaviour may be influenced by

fractures becoming conductive paths connecting injection wells and
aquifers with the production well.

Dedicated fracture shut-off in the drilling phase leading to optimised

production would circumvent this problem.

Shut-offs need to consider whether water is likely to find another route

back to the wellbore if a shallow shut-off is performed

79 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Simulation of completion scenarios affecting

fracture behaviour

MoReS simulation of horizontal well intersected by 3 widely

spaced vertical fracs connected to an aquifer. Conclusions:
Natural fractures will control the production behaviour when
open to the well. Early water breakthrough occurs if
connected to aquifer
The two key reservoir parameters in fracture shut-off are the
capillary pressure regime and the kv/kh ratio.
For water-wet conditions and a large kv/kh ratio the ideal well
completion is an open hole well with shallow fracture shut-off
treatments. The treatment blocks fracture-wellbore
communication and production occurs through the matrix
although the fracs remain as conductive pathways for fluid
flow (see figure)
For mixed-wet conditions or a small kv/kh ratio the ideal well
completion is an open hole completion with a deep fracture
shut-off treatment. With a deep shut-off fluid flows through the
frac until it reaches the treatment at which point it flows
through the matrix.

Saturationprofilesafter7yearsproduction

80 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Water shut-off for fractured reservoirs Fahud

simulation

1. Expandable in injection well

Successful in combating mud losses
Water injection still occurred via fractures
Clearly a need for deep water shut off for this application

2. Expandable in production well

Successful in combating mud losses
Not effective for pressure support
Need a deep water shut-off in an injection well

81 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

Field Studies

Lekhwair: fso treatments in injection wells (2001) enhanced insight

into expected field response due to fso treatment; offset wells showed
improved oil production
Standard approach in Lekhwair is to shut-off loss zones through
use of scab liners Experience shows scab liner must extent 30-50
m away from the feature to prevent short circuits.
Fahud also found to require deep shut-off

Al Huwaisah, however, (aquifer drive) found that shallow shut-off using

expandables was effective.

82 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

AH-22H2 Expandable Shut off (March 2002)

1807.12m

Seal

1828.00m

1876.61m

1884.89m
plug

Horizontal Well
Expandable Clad

20.88m

8.28m
Fracture

Oil bearing fracture

All distances are AH depth in metres

83 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

1,000

1.0

900

0.9

800

0.8

700

0.7

600

0.6

500
400
300

0.5

Historical Gross liquid rate

Historical oil rate
Historical BSW

0.4
0.3

Shut off
200

0.2

100

0.1

0
2001.2

2001.4

2001.6

2001.8

2002.0

2002.2

2002.4

Year

84 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct

2002.6

2002.8

0.0
2003.0

BSW

Rate [m3/d]

AH-22H2 Production Profile

Candidate Selection and Design Tool

Reservoir Details

Completion Details

Ranked Solutions

Link to design
tool
Store for Future
Reference

Available on: http://sww.siep.shell.com/water_2_value/knowledgebase/

85
T&OEUpdate
Thursday,Oct
References
to field trials

WSO Summary

Water is needed to recover oil but it is often important to recognise

which water is delivering oil and which is not.
Mechanical and chemical shut-off complement each other
Successful treatments may or may not reduce the water-cut drastically
Good understanding / insight into reservoir performance and well
design impacts are needed to determine impact on water-cut and oil
production and to select the appropriate shut-off technology for a given
application

86 T&OEUpdate

Thursday,Oct