Gravel-packing of open-hole highly-deviated or horizontal wells is increasingly becoming a common practice, especially in deep water and sub-sea completion environments where production rates may reach up to 50,000 BOPD or 250 MMSCFD. In these wells, reliability of the sand face completion, in addition to other factors, is of utmost importance due to the prohibitively high cost of intervention or side-tracking and the very high hydrocarbon recoveries required per well. To date the norm in gravel-packing such wells is water-packing or shunt-packing with water-based fluids. With both techniques, filter-cake removal treatments are conventionally done through coiled tubing after gravel packing, pulling out of the hole with the service tool and running in with the production/injection tubing. Furthermore, because conventional gravel-pack carrier fluids are water-based (brine or viscous fluids), water-based drilling fluids are traditionally used to drill the reservoir section to ensure compatibility and improve wellbore cleanup, even if the upper hole is drilled with a synthetic/oil-based drilling fluid. In this paper, we discuss several novel techniques that can substantially improve return on investment in gravel packing of open-hole horizontal completions, through reduced cost and process time, improved fluid management practices, increased productivity and/or reduced risk of future interventions, so mitigating against the risk of sand face completion failure or under-performance. The proposed techniques include:Simultaneous gravel-packing and filter-cake removal with water-based carrier fluids when the reservoir is drilled with a water-based drilling fluid: laboratory data relevant to gravel-packing are given and field case histories are discussed in detail.Simultaneous gravel-packing and cake cleanup with either water or a synthetic/oil-based carrier fluid when the reservoir is drilled with a synthetic/oil-based drilling fluid: laboratory data on cake removal while gravel packing are presented for both water-based and oil-based carrier fluids along with data on kinetics of cake removal.a new service tool that utilizes wash-pipe as continuous tubing and thus allows spotting of breaker treatments immediately after gravel packing: detailed description of the tool and its operation is given.Gravel-packing of highly-deviated or horizontal wells above fracturing pressure. Benefits offered by each of the proposed techniques are discussed in detail along with their current limitations. Introduction A great majority of the highly-deviated and horizontal wells are being completed as open holes, primarily because of their much higher damage tolerance, higher well productivities at high mobilities (kh/µ) and lower cost compared to cased holes. Although most of these wells in areas requiring sand control have been completed with standalone screens, a rapidly increasing fraction of them are now being gravel packed, particularly in deep water, high production rate and/or sub-sea completion environments (currently ca. 40%, and projected to be ca. 60% by 2003/2004). The major drivers for this current trend are the prohibitively high cost of intervention and much higher reliability associated with gravel packs.1,2

Iron sulfide is a common scale-formation in sour-gas wells that restricts tubular diameter, reducing well productivity. Compared to other scales, iron sulfide has unique risks associated with chemical removal. For example, due to the corrosiveness of hydrochloric acid (the most common chemical agent for both sulfide and carbonate scale removal), damage to the completion metallurgy at elevated temperature limits its applicability. Another main concern related to the use of acid for iron sulfide removal is the rapid generation of H 2 S byproduct and the risks associated with production of this toxic gas to the surface.Owing to H 2 S toxicity and the resultant elevated corrosion risk, new chemical solutions are needed for high-temperature FeS scale dissolution with low H 2 S generation. This study describes the development and characterization of a powerful noncorrosive solution for iron sulfide removal based on a chelating agent. Testing shows the fluid dissolution capacity under varied temperatures, scale-surface area, treatment fluid volume, and exposure time. Tests are also included showing the comparative benefits in dissolution capacity compared to other commercially used products such as diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) and Tetrakis (hydroxymethyl) phosphonium sulfate (THPS). Finally, the mild-pH of the new chemical solution provides significantly lower corrosion rate.This work describes an altogether new family of chemicals for sulfide scale, providing high dissolution capacity, low corrosion rates, and limited generation of toxic H 2 S.

Open-hole horizontal wells are increasingly used to improve reservoir exploitation and production rates by targeting specific zones and maximizing reservoir exposure. The drilling fluid of choice in many of these wells is "oil based" due to enhanced drilling rates with minimized friction as well as improved wellbore stability. However, in horizontal wells requiring gravel packs, the industry in general has been reluctant to use OB reservoir drilling fluids (RDF) for various reasons. Because the gravel pack (GP) carrier fluids that have been successfully used to date are all water-based and the use of OB-RDF would necessitate displacement of open hole to WB fluids prior to GP, the practice has been to switch to WB-RDF once in the reservoir section. This was due to concerns as to adverse fluid-fluid interactions resulting in sludging and difficulty in maintaining filtercake integrity while displacing OB-RDF in the open hole, leading to complex fluid management issues. An additional factor has been the perception that WB-RDF filtercakes are easier to remove should it be necessary, since most commonly used cleanup chemicals are water-based and the weighting/bridging agents used in the RDF are also water-wet if the RDF is water-based. In this paper, we present results from experiments conducted with OB-RDFs in the presence of gravel packs. We investigate two scenarios:the gravel pack carrier fluid is water-based, andthe gravel-pack carrier fluid is oil-based. In the first case, provided that no sludges are formed during displacement to water-based fluids, the retained permeabilities are comparable to or better than those obtained with WB-RDFs, although values lower than 0.04% can be expected in the presence of sludging. Another issue relevant to gravel packing wells drilled with OB-RDFs is the yield strength of their filtercakes in comparison to WB-RDFs. It is found through yield stress measurements of various RDF cakes that OB-RDFs have several orders of magnitude lower yield strength than their WB counterparts. This finding is consistent with the reported lower flow initiation pressures for OB-RDFs, and indicates that cake erosion during gravel packing is more likely with OB-RDFs. In order to optimize the sequence of fluids to obtain a good displacement of the RDF at field scale, we use a purpose-built numerical simulator. This simulator is a fluids mechanics code that can accurately calculate displacement fronts in field conditions: eccentric deviated annulus with as many fluids as necessary. Its main use is to detect unstable displacements such as channeling of the displacing fluid on the wide side of the annulus or slumping in horizontal portions. Furthermore, we provide data on a new oil-based gravel pack carrier fluid that can be used to eliminate fluid incompatibility and fluid management issues associated with the switch from OB to WB fluids. The laboratory and large-scale yard test results are presented, addressing critical considerations for oil-based GP carrier fluids. It is found that such emulsion systems can thicken or break (depending on the emulsifier concentration) at high shear rates unless the emulsion is made at the highest shear that it will be exposed to. The implications of these results on field practices are discussed along with recommendations on avoiding damage in gravel packed wells drilled with oil-based RDFs.

TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractIn this paper, we present a novel approach for drilling and completing open hole horizontal wells with a fully compatible synthetic/oil-based fluid system utilizing shunt tube technology. The proposed RDF is a synthetic/oil-external emulsion that is reversible through exposure to a fluid of pH less than 7. A surfactant package included in the RDF waterwets the bridging/weighting agents (e.g., CaCO 3 ) upon reversal of the emulsion. The synthetic/oil external emulsion developed for gravel packing typically contains 50-75% by volume aqueous phase as the internal phase and is completely solids-free. The internal phase can either be brine or a pHreducer as well as a fit for purpose dissolver for the bridging agents. The pH-reducing property of the internal phase provides the required break mechanism for the S/OB-RDF emulsion remaining in the RDF filtercake under leakoff conditions allowing the bridging agents and drill solids to be water-wet, ensuring dissolution of the bridging agents.Laboratory data are provided for filtercake removal kinetics as a function of temperature, overbalance during gravel packing, gravel mesh size, and drill solids concentration in the RDF. Rheological data are given. Retained permeabilities and flow initiation pressures measured with the combined core and gravel-pack system are presented. Implications of the laboratory results on field practice are discussed.

No abstract