Maintaining zonal isolation is vital to well economics and productive life. Well integrity is becoming more challenging with the drilling of deeper, highly deviated, and horizontal wells worldwide. Oil companies are focused on to enhance the well productivity during drilling long horizontal wells in a harsh environment by achieving maximum accessible reservoir contact. These wellbore geometries incorporate additional challenges to design and deliver a dependable barrier. In this paper, a case study about cementing the longest liner across Khuff-C reservoir has been presented discussing the main challenges, engineering considerations, field implementation, results, and conclusions.
The well was drilled horizontally across Khuff-C carbonates using oil-based drilling fluid. The 5-7/8-in open hole section was planned to be cemented in single stage, utilizing 8370 ft of a 4-1/2-in liner. Careful attention was paid to estimate the bottom hole circulating temperature, using the temperature modeling simulator. A 118-lbm/ft3 slurry was designed to keep the equivalent circulation density intact. Gas migration control additives were included in the slurry design to lower the slurry's transition time, in order to reduce the chances of gas migration through the cement slurry. The slurry was batch-mixed to ensure the homogeneity of the final slurry mixture. A reactive spacer was designed to improve the cement bonding from long term zonal isolation perspective. Additionally, the spacer was loaded with optimum amounts of surfactant package to serve as an aid to remove the mud and to water-wet the formation and pipe for better cement bonding. Centralizers placement plan was optimized to allow around 63% average standoff around the pipe, staying within the torque and drag (T&D) limits. The cement treatment was performed as designed and met all zonal isolation objectives.
The process of cementing horizontal liners comes with unique procedures. There are several challenges associated with carrying out wellbore zonal isolation for primary cementing of horizontal liners, therefore, a unique level of attention is required during the design and execution stages. The slurry design requires careful formulation to achieve the desired specifications while ensuring its easy deployment and placement in the liner annulus. By planning in advance and following proven techniques, many of the problems associated with the running and cementing of deep and long horizontal liners can be alleviated.
This paper highlights the necessary laboratory testing, field execution procedures, and treatment evaluation methods so that this technique can be a key resource for such operations in the future. The paper describes the process used to design the liner cement job and how its application was significant to the success of the job.
