Advanced Completion Technology Creates a New Reality for Common Oilfield Myths

Abstract

Several myths have historically permeated the oil industry. These myths typically included: "I can't gain incremental production from a lateral exceeding 1500 ft", "I have to produce my well at the critical coning rate to prevent early water production", and "I have to gravel pack my well to achieve sand control and completion longevity". These myths are being conquered with the generational development and implementation of Inflow Control Technology that allows the wellbore to access and produce larger reserve volumes while eliminating the onset of early water production and/or premature gas breakthrough. Inflow Control Technology enables the prevention of water/gas breakthrough by passively controlling the inflow profile along the length of a well. An increased understanding of wellbore and reservoir fluid dynamics has been achieved through the continued research and application of this technology. To address the diversity of reservoir conditions, this understanding has spawned the integration of state of the art completion and inflow control technology to achieve well specific solutions. Optimum completion solutions should be designed to address the reservoir characteristics. Today, the industry has delivered sand control completions in lateral lengths exceeding 11,000 ft, eliminated water breakthrough in naturally fractured carbonate formations, and provided sand control without gravel packing in formations that would have otherwise required a gravel media. This paper discusses the origin of the historical myths and the case histories leading to the obsolescence of these myths. The global applications reviewed include completion installations in the UK and Norwegian North Sea Sectors, and Saudi Arabia. Advanced Completion Technology The key to increasing the Net Present Value of a reservoir is to increase recoverable reserves while denying sand influx, delaying unwanted water or gas production, reducing well count, and ensuring completion longevity. Horizontal wells can increase reservoir hydrocarbon recovery but also pose unique reservoir drainage challenges. Without proactively managing inflow, destructive erosion of the sandface or early gas or water breakthrough is likely because frictional pressure drop causes the flow to be unevenly distributed and greatest at the heel of the horizontal section. Uneven drawdown dislodges sand grains, which follow the path of least resistance to create localized problems that can disable the well, or at least precipitate a costly intervention. Consequences can be serious and include limited horizontal length and significantly shorter productive well life, both of which leave reserves in the ground. Inflow control devices (Figure 1) were developed to create a uniform production profile along the entire horizontal section of a well and to virtually eliminate annular flow.[1,2,3] This greatly reduces the risk of "hot spotting" which is the primary cause of plugging and erosion in sand control screens. By eliminating the annular flow, sand dislodged from the formation will not be transported and redistributed down the annulus. This reduces the requirement for gravel packing and increases screen life.[4,5] Figures 2 through 5 illustrate the effect that inflow control devices have on the water-oil contact and the gas-oil contact. Figure 2 shows a horizontal well with standard screens and the pre-production state of the water-oil contact and gas-oil contact. With standard screens, the inflow into the well is greatest at the heel and thus the water and gas move quickly toward the heel, Figure 3. This phenomenon results in unrecovered oil, Figure 4. A horizontal well completed with inflow control devices will create a uniform inflow profile into the well, thereby pulling the water and gas evenly toward the well, Figure 5. A completion can now be designed for maximum reservoir recovery by increasing well length and alleviating gas and water coning risks. This can also reduce the number of wells required for efficient hydrocarbon recovery in the reservoir, greatly reducing field development costs. Inflow control technology was developed to address these issues.

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The First Passive Inflow Control Device That Maximizes Productivity During Every Phase of a Well's Life

“…Previous publications [10][11][12][13][14] have shown the importance of the PICD flow performance. This section of the paper focuses on presenting the value added (based on cumulative oil and water production) by four PICD geometries: orifice, helix, hybrid ICD, and adjustable hybrid ICD.…”

World's First Gravel-Packed Inflow-Control Completion

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