No abstract

The multiple zone water injection project (MZWIP) was initiated to deliver the following key objectives: deliver zonal injection with conformance control and reliable sand management across the major layered sands of the Balakhany unconsolidated reservoirs in the BP operated Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) fields in Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea. Three years after MZWIP implementation, six wells with a total of 14 zones are injecting at required rates with zonal rate live-reporting. To achieve this multizone injection facility, the requirement for a standard ACG sand-control injector design was discounted and a non-standard sand management control technique developed using a cased & perforated (C&P) and downhole flow-control system (DHFC). During this program, BP ACG has successfully installed the world's first 10kpsi three-zone inline variable-choke DHFC wells with distributed temperature sensors (DTS) across all target injection zones. The choking DHFC provides flexibility in operations and delivers the right rates to the right zones. The DTS provides conformance surveillance, fracture assessment, caprock integrity and sand ingress monitoring capability. A customized topside logic control system provides an automatic shutin of interval control valves (ICVs) during planned or unplanned shutins to stop crossflow and sand ingress and is the primary method of effectively managing sanded annuli. The development of this MZWI solution has significantly changed the Balakhany development plan and has been quickly expanded across five ACG platforms. Accessing 2nd and 3rd zones in the same wellbore, this C&P DHFC well design is accelerating major oil volumes and will significantly reduce future development costs, maximizing wellbore utility in a slot-constrained platform.