1. The Use of Expandable Sand-Control Technology as a Step Change for Multiple-Zone SMART Well Completion - A Case Study
- Author
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Frank Lange, Walter Aldaz, Scott H. Aitken, and Jan van Saeby
- Subjects
Engineering ,Completion (oil and gas wells) ,business.industry ,Control (management) ,business ,Manufacturing engineering ,Simulation - Abstract
The Champion West (CW) field Offshore Brunei, North Borneo consists of alarge number of vertically stacked hydrocarbon bearing reservoirs where thinlayers of laterally continuous shales are sealing the different hydrocarboncolumns. Wells in CW are typically completed selectively on multiple reservoirs (3-5zones) due to contrasting reservoir pressures and fluid properties and forreservoir management purposes. Although the reservoir rock is relativelyconsolidated, sand exclusion has been installed on shallower reservoirsfollowing sand failure in offset wells. Internal Gravel Packing (IGP) has inthe past been the preferred sand exclusion technique. Due to a high deviation in the four CW Early Oil Development (EOD) wells(54-66 deg.), it was desired to incorporate remote operated smart wellequipment to minimise future well intervention requirements. As the large distance between zones would require up to four IGP operationsper well (resulting in high costs) and would not provide sufficientthrough-bore to install the smart well equipment, it was decided to useExpandable Sand Screens (ESS) for sand control purposes in the new wells. Theuse of ESS facilitates multiple zones to be completed in single installationswhilst providing a larger through-bore for the installation of smart wellequipment. The paper discusses the sand-face completion design and installationaspects. As one of the EOD wells was completed with IGP, a benchmarking (rigtime, cost, performance) of the ESS technique is also presented. Finally, recommendations are made which should enable further cost reductions in the future.
- Published
- 2001
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