We are continuing an effort to quantitatively measure the influence of processing variables on the detailed structure of commercial polypropylene melt blown (MB) webs. In this paper, we report the influence of primary airflow rate on fiber entanglement, global fiber orientation and pore structure in webs. This enabled us to quantify the influence of primary airflow on web structural features as well as achieve greater understanding of the commercial MB process.

In multilayered reservoirs, major focus has been on the usage of smart well completion technologies to help improve recoveries, particularly with technological improvements and an increasing expanse of opportunities in more challenging and rewarding assets. The fundamental focus has been to design well completions that integrate several surface/subsurface sub zones and automate the flow control from each zone. In Multi zone Smart Completion Wells where significant investment is made to complete smart wells with remotely controlled inflow control valves (ICV), reservoir sweep & drain accessibilities becomes decisive when evaluating the efficiency of recovery and long-term field development strategy. Smart completion designs for multi-lateral wells present many challenges in terms of completion deployment and interventions in life of well. The complexity of operations increases with deviation, type of completion equipment, number of zones and planned interventions. In offshore, UAE a similar multilateral well was designed to be completed with 4 zone smart completion and had a mandatory requirement of accessibility to lower most drain (for future interventions) with the ability to plug the lower drain till future requirements arises. A solution is to utilize nipple & blanking plug in lower most drain, which was implemented in this well. Upon successful deployment of completion, plug was retrieved on coil tubing and lower drain accessibility was confirmed. However, during re-installation of blanking plug on coil tubing in deviated section, issues were encountered to pass through the ICV profiles. In attempts to pass through ICV profiles, blanking plug and running tool got disconnected from coil tubing, leaving the fish inside one of ICV valve. Several attempts were made to retrieve the blanking plug with rig on coil tubing without success by using thru-tubing fishing equipment options available in country. Well was suspend to work-out fishing strategy & evaluate availability of fishing equipment worldwide. Consideration was done for design and manufacture application specific fishing tools to perform workover with barge for such smart completion, as it includes a number of downhole components that makes its retrieval more challenging, and there are no standard procedure or provision in place to retrieve such complex completions in highly deviated section. A barge was mobilized with coil tubing, which performed the fishing operation as planned. Careful selection of equipment's, BHA and operational parameters resulted in successful retrieval of blanking plug & running tools. Accessibility to well was gain and confirmed. This paper presents the situation that was faced, the remedial work done to complete well, fishing operations and the subsequent factors considered for choice of equipment and operation on well. This paper concludes a detailed account of factors to consider for planning smart completions in horizontal multilateral wells & the successful fishing operation – an excellent example of how careful planning, dedicated project management, specialized design fishing tools, experienced personnel and a collaborative relationship between team's leads to a successful operation and prevented an extremely expensive workover of a high technology completion well.

The re-development of a giant offshore field in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) consists predominantly of four artificial islands requiring in most cases extremely long horizontal laterals to reach the reservoir targets. Earlier SPE technical papers (1,2) have introduced the development, testing, qualification, and deployment of the plugged liner technology using the dissolvable plugged nozzles (DPNs). The use of DPN plugged liner technology has resulted in CAPEX savings and enhanced production performance. The benefits of DPN technology are its simplicity along with its cost effectiveness. However, the dissolvable material has some limitations, such as pressure rating and dissolution time, which are fluid chemistry dependent. To overcome these limits, a new Pressure Actuated Isolation Nozzle Assembly (PAINA) was developed as an alternative to the plugged liner tool for applications where a higher pressure rating is required, as well as on demand opening. Furthermore, the new PAINA also functions as a flow control device during injection and production, enhancing acid jetting effects during bullhead stimulation and reducing brine losses during liner installation. Liners with PAINAs can be run to TD similar to blank pipe: fluids can be circulated through the inside of the liner without the need for a wash pipe. Once on bottom, non-aqueous drilling fluid is displaced to brine without actuating the isolation mechanism. When the well is ready for production or injection, pressure is applied and the isolation mechanism is activated to establish communication between well and reservoir. These tools were successfully run as flow control devices in water-alternating-gas (WAG) pilot wells. The planning and execution of the initial application will be discussed, along with the tool development, qualification testing, and lessons learned. The key advantage of this technology is in extending plugged liner applications to cases where other pressure-operated tools are included as part of the liner lower completion. Pressure can be applied to the well multiple times without activating the isolation mechanism as long as the applied pressure is below the actuation pressure.

This Extended Reach Drilling (ERD) field re-development of a giant offshore field in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) requires in most cases extremely long laterals to reach the defined reservoir targets. However, certain areas of the field show permeability and / or pressure variations along the horizontal laterals. This heterogeneity requires an inflow control device (ICD) lower completion liner to deliver the required well performance that will adequately produce and sweep the reservoir. The ICD lower completion along with the extremely long laterals means significant time is spent switching the well from reservoir drilling fluid (RDF) non-aqueous fluid (NAF) to an aqueous completion brine. To reduce the amount of rig time spent on the displacement portion of the completion phase, an innovative technology was developed to enable the ICDs to be run in hole in a closed position and enable circulating through the end of the liner. The technology uses a dissolvable material, which is installed in the ICD to temporarily plug it. The dissolvable material is inert to the RDF NAF while the ICDs are run into hole, and then dissolves in brine after the well is displaced from RDF NAF to completion brine, changing the ICDs from closed to an open position. The ability to circulate through the end of the liner, with the support of the plugged ICDs, when the lower completion is deployed and at total depth (TD), enables switching the well from RDF NAF drilling fluid to an aqueous completion brine without the associated rig time of the original displacement method. The technique eliminates the use of a dedicated inner displacement string and allows for the displacement to be performed with the liner running string, saving 4-5 days per well. An added bonus is that the unique design allowed for this feature to be retrofitted to existing standard ICDs providing improved inventory control. In this paper the authors will demonstrate the technology and system developed to perform this operation, as well as the qualification testing, field installations, and lessons learned that were required to take this solution from concept to successful performance improvement initiative.