Qualifying a New Expandable Reservoir Completion System

Abstract

Over the past decade BP's primary sand control techniques have been dominated by Frac Packs in the Gulf of Mexico and Open Hole Gravel Packs (OHGP) and Stand Alone Screens (SAS) in the rest of the world. In 2003, BP formed a collaboration agreement with Weatherford to develop a new Expandable Reservoir Completion (ERC) system. The collaboration aimed to develop a cost competitive high performance sand control system, which would provide open hole productivity with cased hole functionality in an 8 ½″ open hole. The system would be run and expanded in a single trip to ensure efficient installation, an essential requirement in making the new system competitive with more established sand control technologies in high cost environments. BP's Exploration and Production Technology Group (EPTG) together with several Business Units, supported the development of this new ERC System. Through the initial development phase from 2004 through 2006 a total of 5 installations (3 producers, 1 injector and one Stack up Test) have been completed to test the functionality of the completion equipment and associated expansion tools. This paper will describe the development of the ERC system and review some of the most significant lessons learned during the qualification testing and field trial installations. Careful documentation of all preparation and installation activities has been supplemented by focused data acquisition during installations. Recording high resolution borehole images and caliper data and critical downhole expansion parameters has allowed detailed post job analysis capability. Subsequent well performance data has also been used in evaluating completion durability and effectiveness. The complications associated with combining single trip functionality with rotary expansion and the importance of the well trajectory with respect to downhole torque will also be discussed. The data collected will show the new 7″ ERC system has to date provided comparable sand control and productivity / injectivity performance when compared to other well established sand control techniques. Introduction In early 2000, BP recognized the potential value that expandable "screen" technology could bring to its operations. In 2002 BP initiated a technology development project based around an expandable "completion", not just an expandable screen. There were three major themes surrounding the development of this technology: The technology would be required to deliver good sand control with high reliability and assured completion integrity. Productivity would have to be equal to or better than existing cased or open hole completions. Efficient deployment that matched or improved on existing sand control techniques with minimal operational risks was targeted. The expandable completion would have the ability to allow conventional reservoir surveillance. It would also incorporate the option of zonal isolation and provide the potential for integrating intelligent well technology should it be desired. This feature provides a significant benefit with respect to reservoir management.

Mechanical Testing and Characterization of a Swelling Elastomer

“…These applications are mostly aimed at water and fracture shut-off, providing new ways of increasing oil recovery [7]. Swelling elastomers have also found good use in the expandable sand screen technology [8,9].…”