The Champion West (CW) field Offshore Brunei, North Borneo consists of alarge number of vertically stacked hydrocarbon bearing reservoirs where thinlayers of laterally continuous shales are sealing the different hydrocarboncolumns. Wells in CW are typically completed selectively on multiple reservoirs (3–5zones) due to contrasting reservoir pressures and fluid properties and forreservoir management purposes. Although the reservoir rock is relativelyconsolidated, sand exclusion has been installed on shallower reservoirsfollowing sand failure in offset wells. Internal Gravel Packing (IGP) has inthe past been the preferred sand exclusion technique. Due to a high deviation in the four CW Early Oil Development (EOD) wells(54–66 deg.), it was desired to incorporate remote operated smart wellequipment to minimise future well intervention requirements. As the large distance between zones would require up to four IGP operationsper well (resulting in high costs) and would not provide sufficientthrough-bore to install the smart well equipment, it was decided to useExpandable Sand Screens (ESS) for sand control purposes in the new wells. Theuse of ESS facilitates multiple zones to be completed in single installationswhilst providing a larger through-bore for the installation of smart wellequipment. The paper discusses the sand-face completion design and installationaspects. As one of the EOD wells was completed with IGP, a benchmarking (rigtime, cost, performance) of the ESS technique is also presented. Finally, recommendations are made which should enable further cost reductions in thefuture. Introduction Champion West is situated 7 km N-NW of the Champion Main field offshoreBrunei. The field was discovered and put on production in 1975. By end 2000, some 16 wells have been drilled of which 10 are producers. An appraisal welldrilled in 1997 proved up new oil volumes and based on the results, an EarlyOil Development drilling campaign, consisting of four wells (CW-12/13/14/15), was executed during January - June 2000 to target undeveloped reserves andappraise new reservoirs. Operational Summary The CW EOD wells were drilled and completed in batch mode from splitterwellheads on an offshore well jacket. Drilling and completion details arepresented in Table 1. Each well was perforated on 3–5 zones using 4.5" TCPHSD guns under 5000 kPa drawdown. Big hole (RDX charges, 12 spf) were usedwhere sand control (ESS or IGP) was required to maximise the area open to flow.Sand control was installed and the wells were completed as single selectivemulti-zone producers using smart well technology (mini-hydraulic inflow controlvalves and permanent gauges) for reservoir management purposes and to minimisefuture well intervention requirements.

TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractThe Xijiang field lies offshore China in the South China Sea and is operated by Phillips China Inc. The reservoir is unconsolidated and requires sand-control, however conventional sand-control techniques are complex when applied to multi-lateral well completions. The expandable sand control system offers an alternative, which combines a larger final wellbore diameter and zonal isolation whilst being simpler to install in multi-lateral well completions.The field is, now mature and water-cuts have increased, making the use of horizontal well technology attractive in order to enhance the production rate, minimize drawdown and maximise the recovery by deferring water coning. Furthermore, the limited remaining reserves and drilling slot constraints meant that multi-lateral wells were the most attractive option for further development of the remaining reserves and improving ultimate recovery.

Melt ejection is the dominant material removal mechanism in long, ms, pulse laser drilling of metals, a process with applications such as the drilling of cooling holes in turbine blades. Droplets of molten material are ejected through the entrance hole and, after breakthrough, through the exit hole. High speed filming is used to study the ejected material in order to better understand how this debris may interact with material in the immediate vicinity of the drilled hole. Existing studies have quantified various aspects of melt ejection, however they usually focus on ejection through the entrance hole. This work concentrates on rear melt ejection and is relevant to issues such as rear wall impingement. A 2kW IPG 200S fibre laser is used to drill mild steel. High speed filming is combined with image analysis to characterise the rearward-ejected material. Particle size and velocity data is presented as a function of drilling parameters. It is concluded that high speed filming combined with image analysis and proper consideration of process limitations and optimisation strategies can be a powerful tool in understanding resultant debris distributions.

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fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractThis paper describes how an expandable drilling liner was used to isolate an overpressured gas zone in a well at a depth of over 13700ft. The liner was deployed for a Venezuelan operator in an onshore field. The liner was run below 9-5/8" casing and expanded from 6-5/8" to 9-5/8" thereby retaining hole size and allowing the well to be drilled to TD without a change in the original casing design.