Horizontal Gravel Packs Successfully Deployed in Trinidad's First Multilateral Well — Planning, Implementation, and Remedial Strategies

Lougheide, Delano; Lutchman, Krishna; Anthony, Elred; Waterman, Bert; Cavender, Travis; Flores, Denar; Ramsook, Vishnu

doi:10.2118/90220-ms

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 14 publications

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“…The learning curve associated with the first well will enable future heavy-oil development to be practical by reducing construction costs and drastically increasing the asset value for the customer (Lougheide et al 2004). These types of installations have been very effective at providing the desired borehole support and/or formation sand exclusion.…”

Section: Trinidad -Level-4/5 Mlt Combined With Gp Sandface Completionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multilateral Gravel-Pack Solutions for Single Wellbore Branches

Durst

2016

Day 3 Thu, March 24, 2016

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Drilling, completion, and production monitoring and control of multilateral wellbores in highly unconsolidated sandstone formations have been successfully achieved both technically and operationally in the recent past, helping to ensure that planned production rates and reserves are achieved.Gravel packing lateral branches on multilateral wells is no longer challenging. Sound isolation of the main branch can preserve the mainbore of debris when milling the window and drilling the lateral, helping ensure seamless gravelpack operations. Stable junction isolation exists to support sand placement and subsequent reverse-out gravel pack operations in the main and lateral branches.With respect to multilateral wells, one of the key factors in terms of determining whether or not a multilateral wellbore might be suitable for a given project is the size and type of sand control completion and technique that might be necessary. The use of conventional standalone screens combined with multilateral technology has a long and highly successful history. Where more sand control reliability is necessary, the use of gravel packs or frac packs in combination with multilateral wellbores, technology is now available and beginning to develop its own successful history.In its current form, when combining advanced sandface completions with multilateral completions, gravel pack operations are subsequently followed by the installation of the multilateral and upper completions. As a result of a newly developed system, the junction completion can now be interconnected with the sand control operations in a single seamless operation.

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Section: Trinidad -Level-4/5 Mlt Combined With Gp Sandface Completionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multilateral Gravel-Pack Solutions for Single Wellbore Branches

Durst

2016

Day 3 Thu, March 24, 2016

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Best Practices and Lessons Learned in Openhole Horizontal Gravel Packing Offshore Brazil: Overview of the Achievements from 72 Operations

Farias¹,

Li²,

Vilela³

et al. 2007

All Days

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The challenge of the alpha/beta waves gravel packing open hole in the Brazil offshore is how to successfully displace the proppant slurry in a large wellbore with a low fracture gradient formation, deep to ultra-deep water depths, and extended reach horizontal section. Since 2001, job data from more than 72 open hole horizontal gravel packings have been compiled into a database. This paper reviews the well information and the key gravel packing parameters: pump rate, fluid density, injection proppant concentration, inner/outer annulus area ratio, dune ratio, packing rate, packing time and packing efficiency during alpha/beta waves. The engineering implementations and challenges, the best practices and lessons learned for open hole horizontal gravel packing are also summarized. The data analysis yields a better understanding about the open hole horizontal gravel packing in the Brazil offshore and provides a good guideline for future practice. A historical review is also presented showing how the gravel packing methodology has improved packing efficiency and success rate. Case histories are provided demonstrating how to deploy the single trip system and pack the extended reach wellbore utilizing ultra-light-weight (ULW) proppant under extreme with improved packing efficiency and the success rate. Introduction Deepwater exploration and production has developed over the last decade. There is a broadening of the geographic regions for deepwater completions (figure 1). The vast majority of the deepwater reserves are concentrated in the Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, Brazil, North Sea and South East Asia. The potential to achieve significantly higher sustainable production rates, well longevity and cost reduction have been the primary drivers for pursuing most deepwater completions. There have been many different types of completions in deepwater, however, the frac-packs and open hole horizontal completions have emerged as the two dominant completions. Appropriate applications are area dependent. In Brazil, the dominant completion type is the open hole horizontal gravel packing. In the Gulf of Mexico, 60% to 70% of completions are frac-packs. In West Africa both open hole completions and frac-packs are used. Based on published references 3 to 19, open hole horizontal gravel packing envelops, in terms of depth and the hole departure, are plotted in figures 2 and 3. The latest world record horizontal gravel pack was completed in a well with the departure length of 4206m and a departure ratio of 5 in the Captain Field in the North Sea.13 The open hole horizontal gravel packing completed in the deepest well was in the Campos Basin field of Brazil with sub-sea TMD of 5093m and TVD 3855m. Typical reservoirs in Campos Basin fields are high permeability turbidite sandstones with low API gravity oil. Generally, these unconsolidated formations are not strongly water driven. A high rate injection was needed to maintain reservoir pressure on these large producers. Several fields in the Campos Basin were developed with a series of horizontal producers and injectors. More than 200 open hole horizontal gravel packings have been completed since 1998 in Brail1,2. Current gravel packing technology offers a good option for horizontal well completions where the problem is sand production. Key issues in project planning and execution of open hole horizontal gravel packing include reservoir study, shale stability study, formation integrity test, gravel pack sand sizing, gravel pack screen selection, workstring design, well displacement, and fluid loss control. The feasibility and success of gravel packing a long horizontal well depends on drilling techniques, drill-in fluids, wellbore clean-up, completions fluids, completion tools, equipment, sand control techniques, software/simulators, pumping schedules and field personnel experience.

show abstract

Openhole Horizontal Gravel Packing Offshore Brazil: Best Practices and Lessons Learned From 72 Operations

Farias¹,

Li²,

Vilela³

et al. 2007

Latin American &Amp; Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The challenge of the alpha/beta waves gravel packing open hole in offshore Brazil is how to successfully displace the proppant slurry in a large wellbore with a low fracture gradient formation, deep to ultra-deep water depths, and extended reach horizontal section. Since 2001, job data from more than 72 open hole horizontal gravel packings have been compiled into a database. This paper reviews the well information and the key gravel packing parameters: pump rate, fluid density, injection proppant concentration, inner/outer annulus area ratio, dune ratio, packing rate, packing time and packing efficiency during alpha/beta waves. The engineering implementations and challenges, the best practices and lessons learned for open hole horizontal gravel packing are also summarized. The data analysis yields a better understanding about the open hole horizontal gravel packing in the Brazil offshore and provides a good guideline for future practice. A historical review is also presented showing how the gravel packing methodology has improved packing efficiency and success rate. Case histories are provided demonstrating how to deploy the single trip system and pack the extended reach wellbore utilizing ultra-light-weight (ULW) proppant under extreme with improved packing efficiency and the success rate. Introduction Deepwater exploration and production has developed over the last decade. There is a broadening of the geographic regions for deepwater completions (figure 1). The vast majority of the deepwater reserves are concentrated in the Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, Brazil, North Sea and South East Asia. The potential to achieve significantly higher sustainable production rates, well longevity and cost reduction have been the primary drivers for pursuing most deepwater completions. There have been many different types of completions in deepwater, however, the frac-packs and open hole horizontal completions have emerged as the two dominant completions. Appropriate applications are area dependent. In Brazil, the dominant completion type is the open hole horizontal gravel packing. In the Gulf of Mexico, 60% to 70% of completions are frac-packs. In West Africa both open hole completions and frac-packs are used. Based on published references 3 to 19, open hole horizontal gravel packing envelops, in terms of depth and the hole departure, are plotted in figures 2 and 3. The latest world record horizontal gravel pack was completed in a well with the departure length of 4206m and a departure ratio of 5 in the Captain Field in the North Sea.13 The open hole horizontal gravel packing completed in the deepest well was in the Campos Basin field of Brazil with sub-sea TMD of 5093m and TVD 3855m. Typical reservoirs in Campos Basin fields are high permeability turbidite sandstones with low API gravity oil. Generally, these unconsolidated formations are not strongly water driven. A high rate injection was needed to maintain reservoir pressure on these large producers. Several fields in the Campos Basin were developed with a series of horizontal producers and injectors. More than 200 open hole horizontal gravel packings have been completed since 1998 in Brail 1,2. Current gravel packing technology offers a good option for horizontal well completions where the problem is sand production. Key issues in project planning and execution of open hole horizontal gravel packing include reservoir study, shale stability study, formation integrity test, gravel pack sand sizing, gravel pack screen selection, workstring design, well displacement, and fluid loss control. The feasibility and success of gravel packing a long horizontal well depends on drilling techniques, drill-in fluids, wellbore clean-up, completions fluids, completion tools, equipment, sand control techniques, software/simulators, pumping schedules and field personnel experience. Challenges that can jeopardize performance of successful open hole horizontal gravel packing are excessive fluid loss, varying hole geometry that can lead to premature pack termination, hole stability issues leading to hole collapse, and a narrow pressure window between bottomhole pressure and fracture gradient. The beta-wave placement pressure is the main factor in determining the maximum length of a horizontal gravel pack. This pressure is limited by the requirement to install the gravel pack without exceeding formation fraction pressure.

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Horizontal Gravel Packs Successfully Deployed in Trinidad's First Multilateral Well — Planning, Implementation, and Remedial Strategies

Cited by 4 publications

References 14 publications

Multilateral Gravel-Pack Solutions for Single Wellbore Branches

Multilateral Gravel-Pack Solutions for Single Wellbore Branches

Best Practices and Lessons Learned in Openhole Horizontal Gravel Packing Offshore Brazil: Overview of the Achievements from 72 Operations

Openhole Horizontal Gravel Packing Offshore Brazil: Best Practices and Lessons Learned From 72 Operations

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