Wireless Technology in Testing Deep Water Wells: A Successful Field Experience

Abstract

In the last decades, the major oil companies have moved aggressively toward challenging targets such as deep and ultra-deep water environments to increase their hydrocarbon reserves portfolio. To deal with these new targets, attractive but located in harsh environments, technology has to improve significantly as well as the attention to be paid to operate under safe conditions. Operational daily costs are generally huge, sometime in excess of 1 million US$. As a consequence, the goal is to achieve a satisfactory balance between the value of information about the reservoir to be investigated and the ability to operate in a cost-effective manner. The option of capturing real time downhole P&T data by using electric cables when testing an exploration well is considered less and less attractive due to intrinsic safety risks. This has triggered significant developments in the wireless technology in recent years. Real time data are transmitted acoustically, removing the need for wireline operations. This wireless technology proved to be very effective increasing the test efficiency, optimizing the test sequence to acquire the well/reservoir response, minimizing costs and operating in a totally safe way. A real field application on an offshore exploration gas well is presented in this paper. The test offered the opportunity to assess both benefits and limitations of the technology.