Extended reach wells with thousands of feet of open hole reservoir contact and multilateral wells with 8-10 laterals are becoming common practice as the industry develops tight and difficult reservoirs. Over the years, drilling and well construction technologies have made significant advances in the field of geosteering, multilateral junctions, etc. to make these complicated wells a reality and commonplace. The industry has recently introduced several new well completion technologies for the downhole monitoring and control inflow of these extended reach and multilateral wells. Over the last 10 years Saudi Aramco has drilled and completed hundreds of multilateral wells with intelligent completions for real-time downhole monitoring and remote valve operation to control inflow from each laterals. These technologies have improved well performance and reduced well intervention. The paper presents the case study for the design, planning, installation, and operation of Saudi Aramco's first intelligent completion that is operated with combined electro-hydraulic control system. New technologies like these are expected to improve the operation and inflow from the new generation multi-compartment wells. Conventional intelligent completion systems uses downhole valves that are operated by hydraulic pressure and the pressure is supplied from surface through dedicated hydraulic lines to each of the downhole valves. The wellhead and operations equipment has a maximum limit of eight downhole lines and this limits the number of downhole valves in a completion to five. The system in this case study uses a electro hydraulic control module at each of the downhole valves and can control of up to 12 intelligent completion tools with the use of only two hydraulic lines and one electrical line from surface. Technologies like these allow inflow control from each of the laterals and enhance the performance of the completion.

Energy consumption and demand are steadily increasing. Hydrocarbons have been an important energy provider for several decades, but production from mature oil and gas producers is declining. Great effort is put into improving oil and gas reservoir recovery to meet this rise in energy demand. In the subject reservoir where the pay zone is a thick, multi-layered limestone, characterized by low-permeability; conventional techniques yield lower than expected production results. To improve production and the ultimate recovery of the field, extended-reach drilling (ERD) wells with long horizontal multilaterals (Quad and Penta-laterals well types) were drilled to attain maximum reservoir contact (MRC), ranging from 10 to 14 Km. These wells equipped with intelligent completions, enable uniform contribution along the extended horizontal intervals. This contribution is achieved through better flow management of the different sections of reservoir contact, reducing operational drawdown pressures, and delaying gas and water breakthrough. The result is high well potentials, improved long-term performance of sweep and recovery, and increasing net worth of the drilling investment. This paper presents the lessons learned from hundreds of ERD multilateral wells drilled in the field, including integrated operations, progressive approaches and innovative applications, improved drilling practices on a continuous basis, and the tools and techniques used to drill and complete the wells safely and efficiently. These efforts achieved a milestone record rate of penetration (ROP) in the Middle East of 5,000 feet per day, and as a direct result contributed to minimizing well delivery time by 35 % and average 25% reduction in well cost in an always challenging drilling environment. The design approach, job execution and evaluation of drilling performance are presented in this paper; as well as key technical challenges and risks encountered during planning and execution stages and how these were mitigated and overcome for MRC improvement and optimization. Well construction was challenged to meet the complex multi-lateral with long cantilever sections. The MRC optimization schemes applied in the field resulted in dramatically reduced days of drilling operations that led to millions of dollars in project savings and the achievement of world class drilling records.

Saudi Aramco and Schlumberger recently embarked on a phased field implementation to build "Extreme Reservoir Contact" wells (ERC). The paper presents the experiences on a recent trial well that deployed an intelligent completion through a multilateral junction in an open hole lateral. We present the conceptual design, tools, techniques and learnings associated with this test. The application of this technology lies in the construction of ERC well infrastructure to actively control segmented lateral inflow and improve reservoir sweep. A key stumbling block in realizing this vision is to branch the lateral junction with power and communication. The well trial demonstrated the ability to deploy a completion assembly with umbilical to the bottom of an openhole lateral. The major design and operational steps discussed herein include: Installing and cementing an umbilical behind casing Milling the junction window without causing damage to the umbilical Drilling, clean out and fluids used in the lateral to reduce drag Dressing and drifting of the junction Installation and retrieval of a dummy lateral completion assembly with umbilical through a window and without rotation "Extreme Reservoir Contact" is one of the key technologies in Saudi Aramco's vision of increasing recovery factors from their fields. They differ from the current "Maximum Reservoir Contact" (MRC) practice in further increasing reservoir contact, while also increasing well compartmentalization with individual compartment control. Laterals can be instrumented with enhanced sensor systems to efficiently monitor hydrocarbon reserve drainage. The reliable deployment of remote control valves and sensing devices through milled junction windows is a key step in realizing this vision. The full benefit in drilling these downhole well structures demands pro-active control of reservoir fluid production and the mitigation of early water or gas breakthrough. Bringing emerging new intelligent completion technology into the laterals will significantly impact the industry in this regard.

The paper presents the evolution of reservoir management strategies that supported a recently drilled penta-lateral producer, which set a company record of total reservoir contact in a major greenfield in the Middle East. This paper will investigate the maximum reservoir contact (MRC) evolution in the field, the design phase of this game-changing producer, lessons learned and future implications.The reservoir management objective for this producer was to capture oil reserves in tight layers (less than 10 md) in a gas cap driven carbonate reservoir while delaying gas breakthrough. This design was employed to push the MRC application to new limits of more than 16 kilometers to deliver more production at reduced well requirements while honoring best-in-class reservoir management practices.In the design phase, a very high resolution reservoir simulation model was used to model the performance of this producer. Several sensitivity cases were conducted testing various well designs in terms of lateral spacing and completion depths. Subsequently, this producer was drilled with smallest lateral spacing (62 meter) closer to the oil-water contact (OWC).The drilling of five laterals in 6 ⅛" slimhole was a challenging task that posed hole cleaning threats across the horizontal sections and risked tight hole turning to stuck pipe. Through careful planning and team collaboration between various departments, the well was completed successfully with minor problems. In addition, the well was completed with two permanent downhole monitoring system (PDHMS) gauges and inflow control valves (ICVs) to manage water/gas movement and to ensure lateral clean-up.

One of the core focus areas in Saudi Aramco's effort to increase hydrocarbon recovery is in the application of extreme reservoir contact (ERC) wells. These wells with upwards of 20km of reservoir contact are needed to ensure fluid off-take points are distributed throughout the reservoir efficiently. Accurate sensing and control are crucial to the efficient sweep of heterogeneous formations. This paper describes a recent multilateral (ML) well trial that validated a number of core technologies and methods required to make ERC a reality: Well construction and deployment practices to allow electrical umbilicals to be reliably deployed in openhole laterals Deployment and testing of revolutionary low-power, infinitely positioned electric flow control valves (FCV) designed to be deployed in each compartment in an openhole segmented lateral completion Validation of the fully integrated onboard production monitoring system providing direct downhole measurements of pressures, temperatures, flow rates, and water cut for each controlled compartment Integration of the surface acquisition and monitoring system to the production supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system to provide real-time downhole production information, as well as valuable system health status data that can ensure operational integrity during the life cycle of the well. A multilateral well close to the oil-water contact point was allocated to validate the functionality of two prototype systems installed and has now been providing valuable reservoir data for over a full year of production. The well trial successfully demonstrated the ability to install and retrieve an umbilical completion from a 10,000ft horizontal lateral. The ability to control downhole flow to within a few barrels per day measured at the reservoir face is proving revolutionary to the way the operator will approach future reservoir management. The sensing system will be capable of delivering continuous compartment productivity. The SCADA integration allows for a real-time management function where the compartment can be controlled to a target offtake rate directly, without resorting to the use of traditional well system models for estimating control settings. This paper highlights the objectives, installation, validation, and functional aspects of this new ERC well system, as well as identifying some of the immediate production impacts emerging from this level of visibility and control at the formation face.