5 Essential Tools for Successful Well Intervention
A critical component of a successful health intervention is ensuring accurate communication between the intervention service company and the production operations crew. Miscommunication and delayed repairs can lead to severe consequences for the well and its operator.
In the past, planning and recording data from suitable interventions was a manual process. It was often time-consuming and prone to miscommunication, resulting in operation delays.
Wellbore Stimulation
Stimulation in a well is a process designed to increase the flow of oil and gas from a drilled well. This is achieved by opening up channels in the formation, allowing for better fluid passage.
The most common forms of stimulation involve injecting acids into the formation to dissolve minerals and calcareous deposits that would otherwise impede oil or gas flow. These acids enlarge the formation’s porosity, increasing the flow path and permeability.
Well, stimulation is a complex discipline that consists of many different methods and techniques. Some of the most popular are acid injection, hydraulic fracturing, and in situ oil combustion.
Coiled Tubing
Coiled Tubing (CT) is a long strand of metal pipe that can be taken inside boreholes to depths greater than 20,000 feet. It is commonly used as a conduit for fluids and tools in well interventions like subsea well intervention, cleanouts, and sand control.
CT is a much safer and usually more time-efficient alternative to service rigs that use the jointed pipe. Because a coiled tubing operation is one continuous metal pipe, there’s no need to stop and attach another piece of pipe each time it needs to be run in or out of the hole.
Well Completion
Completion of wells is a critical part of the oil and gas production process. How a well is completed will affect the speed and rate of hydrocarbon extraction from the reservoir.
Completing a well like a rigless well intervention, for instance, involves casing, temperature and pressure evaluation, and installing equipment allowing gas or oil drilling. This includes the installation of a downhole safety valve (DSV) and a production packer placed just above the casing to prevent fluid movement between productive zones in multiple reservoirs.
There are various types of well completions, including open-hole and permanent completions. Using permanent completions allows E&Ps to drill many wells per acre, compared to hand-built wells.
Well Stimulation Software
The planning and execution of well-stimulation treatments is a complex process that requires knowledge of basic rock mechanics and reservoir properties. These are the critical factors in predicting and maximizing production.
Stimulation software can help those in this industry learn to make better decisions and ensure optimum results. This includes well engineers, drilling and completion engineers, and field personnel.
The stimulation design software integrates reservoir petrophysical and treatment fluid chemical data to optimize matrix treatments using acid or nonreactive fluids. Engineers can optimize treatment fluid volumes by adjusting pumping and diversion schedules and delivery through the tubing, coiled tubing (CT), or other flow paths.
Well Intervention Software
Intervention software enables operators to perform well diagnostics, design, and deliver health interventions. It supports the development of intervention solutions for slackline, wireline, coiled tubing, and hydraulic workover.
Light good intervention, called workovers, involves lowering tools or sensors into a live well while pressure is contained at the surface. This allows technicians to collect downhole temperature and pressure data.
Heavy, good intervention- well completions- involves removing the wellhead and other pressure barriers from the well to allow full access. This can include replacing or adding equipment, such as pumps and tubing strings, that cannot be retrieved through light interventions.
Some engineering model enables users to create solutions for their intervention challenges. It provides a robust modeling tool to help align operational expectations and execution strategies with service providers, increasing the reliability of a proposed operation.