3.

0 WELL KILLING AND ACTIVATION PROCEDURES:

3.1 Killing of well
All the exploratory, development and work over wells need to be subdued/ killed before taking up
any activity in the uncontrolled condition/status of well. Once the well is completed and ready for
production, the well needs to be activated for resuming production/ injection. As a standard practice,
the well are killed by the following procedure(s)
1. Higher gravity killing fluid (Mud, Brine etc.) to counter balance the reservoir pressure.
2. When the killing fluid flows back into the reservoir due to high permeability of zone or pressure
imbalance between reservoir pressure and killing fluid, knocking out of killing fluid from the well
for activation needs more time and efforts. Sometimes, the well does not come backs to its
original potential. In such wells, carbonate pills are mixed with the killing fluid and placed
opposite to the perforations so as to stop this phenomenon. In case the return permeability/
production rate is not achieved during activation, the pills are dissolved by treating zone with light
HCL acid and activation process is affected.

3.2 Well Activation:

All Exploratory, Development and Work Over wells are put for activation to acquire productivity data to prove the
presence and potential of hydrocarbons in the reservoir & produce them optimally for maximum recovery from the
well. Lot of time and money has already been spent till release of location, drilling and conventional completion of
well. Appropriate completion design keeping logical speculation for forthcoming stimulation requirement in near
future, shall result in reduced activation/ testing time in addition to correct evaluation of formation for
optimum/sustained production from the field. Unsystematic approach towards completion design for initial testing/
stimulation requirements and acquisition of intermediate and final reservoir data, may be disastrous as a field may
be lost or a sick self producer is created or an inefficient artificial lift may be installed. Similarly, inappropriate well
killing/ activation procedures may lead to similar fate of the well.
Most of the wells in matured fields are sub hydrostatic and candidate for installation of Artificial Lift even at the
initial stage of production.
For activation of wells, following methods are being adopted worldwide:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Application of high pressure air compressor:

Application of gasified liquid nitrogen gas
Temporary gas lift installn with down hole packer and application of air compressor/ nitrogen gas.
Application of CTU
Application of surge tool

3.2.1 & 3.2.2

Nitrogen gas or high-pressure air (by air Compressor) is applied in the casing. Liquids are
U-tubed and brought out through tubing on the surface. In this process, if the pressure (head) in casing
{Liquid + Air/N2} against the perforation (well bore) is higher than the reservoir pressure, a situation of reverse
flow to reservoir or No- Flow of liquid to surface may result. This is generally encountered in high permeable
reservoir. This practice is not good for health of reservoir.
In case of low permeable reservoir, the good quantity of liquid is seen on application of Air compressure/N2 at
first instance and subsequently when the gas cut/ air cut is affected, the whole annulus and tubing volumes
are discharged on the surface. The Gas/ air injection is stopped; annulus gas is flown back and discharged to

the atmosphere. This process creates high draw down at the well bore. This situation may result in sand
incursion or blockade by fine sand near the well bore. This results in reduced productivity. Application of
Nitrogen/ Air without down hole packer, the formation encounters inflow of drilling/ killing fluid from annulus
towards the formation. In case the fluid inside the annulus/ casing is not clean and having suspended
particles, the particle with flow will enter the pores and get deposited under air/ gas pressure. This will be
damaging/ reducing the flow path of the actual reservoir fluid as the deposition of unwanted materials present
in the killing fluids, may take place on rock/sand.
Poor producers take long time to load the well in tubing and casing with formation liquids. This phenomenon
results in wastage of costly rig time and uncertainty of time required for second / subsequent applications of
Nitrogen/ High pressure air.
3.2.3 Therefore, in order to avoid such losses i.e. loss of permeability/ production due to entry of
suspended material in formation, installation of Packer with gas lift system on tubing or retrievable GL mandrill
will reduce the time for rise of well liquid in the tubing and hence reduce the time interval for second/
subsequent Nitrogen application for activation of well. In cases where PI is good, the Air/N2 application may
be in continuous mode. This practice shall Tremendously reduce the rig time for activation and save on
repeated deployment and untimely application of costly inputs like high-pressure Air/N2.

Figure 3.2.3
Hydro-Frac Wells not completed with hydraulic packers & GL System: During Frac operation,
substantial quantity of liquid (about 120 Cubic Meters with Gel) is injected in the zone of interest. It
takes very long time and number of nitrogen/ air compressor applications to flow back all the
injected frac fluid. Moreover, high draw down is not at all recommended in frac well. When Frac
Wells are completed with down-hole packers but without Gas Lift Valve on the tubing string, the
activation process shall require Nitrogen gas application through Coiled Tubing and in this process
high/ uncontrolled Draw downs are faced by the reservoir. This phenomenon, in some cases, may
result in inflow of frac sand. This phenomenon damages the permeability created by frac operation
and also partial or complete blockage of the perforation intervals.
Installation of down hole packer and Gas lift valves with reverse flow check valve on the
tubing is the solution to reduce the activation time, assessment of initial productivity of well
and repeated deployment of Coil Tubing Unit and Nitrogen Pumper for activation of wells.

In order to combat with the above problems encountered during activation, the following
actions are advised to complete the well for achieving prolonged and sustained production
from the low producers as well sand prone wells:
The tubing shoe should be above the top of and close to perforation.
1.
2.

3.

4.

5.

Hydraulic packer must be installed one tubing above the tubing shoe.
Gas lift valves and mandrels must be installed considering Air compressors
maximum pressure generating capability. Last- bottom most mandrel must be
installed with reverse flow check valve (without gas lift valve) to act as circulation
valve. First/ top valve, known as unloading valve to be as per available maximum
pressure generating capacity of Air compressor and killing liquid and Air specific
gravities. The gas lift design must be of Continuous Lift Mode. However, while
unloading the well, a correct time interval may be evaluated for second application if
the flow of liquid from the well stops and only gas/ air outflow is seen. This implies
that the continuous mode gas lift design may be converted in to intermittent flow
pattern even without pulling out/ running in of completion string with packer and gas
lift valves etc.
In cases when productivity of the wells/ reservoirs is low, the inflow of liquid will be
less than the liquid requirement/ lifted by continuous gas lift design. The situation
shall come when only air will be coming out of the tubing and no liquid is seen. At this
stage, the air injection must be stopped and suitable tools must be lowered in the
well to acquire data like SBHP, Build up curve etc so that PI values are evaluated to
decide mode of Artificial Lift (SRP or Gas Lift) and its size (design parameters) to
produce the well optimally for longer period and improved recovery factor.
In case there are indications of presence of potential hydrocarbons during the
process of Air application during activation of the well, the air injection must be
stopped and the air bled off. Nitrogen must be applied in place of Air for safety
reasons.
Once the parameters are evaluated, the desired mode of lift may be designed and
installed on the well either now when rig is at location or subsequently when other
infra structure requirements for putting the well on artificial lift i.e. electrical supply
line or gas injection line as the case may be, are created/ completed to save on
costly rig time and also the well could be put on production immediately after
installation of Artificial Lift with optimum production rates.

The suggested completion shall avoid back flow of killing fluid in the formation safeguard the
reservoir against stresses arising due to compression and sudden evacuation during the process
of compressor application and unloading/ Activation of the well. There will be a uniform draw down
and some head against the well bore which will avoid the vacuum, chances of sand incursion and
control the liberation of gas from oil inside the reservoir itself. The correct PI values shall help in
deciding and designing of correct mode and size of artificial lift. This will give trouble free,
prolonged and sustained production.

3.2.4

In case, the well completion is equipped with down-hole hydraulic packer but without gas
lift valves, the activation is done with the application of Coiled Tubing and Nitrogen application thru
CTU. The unloaded quantity is only the tubing volume in one application. Though the rise in level in
the tubing will be faster as compared to when well is completed without Packer, these units (CTU
and N2 Pumper) have to wait at site till the well is ready for second application as the Rate of liquid
inflow is not certain and these units are to attend other rigs/locations also.

Fig 3.2.4

3.2.5

WELL ACTIVATION USING BACK SURGE TOOL

Various methods of well activation have been used in development wells

with mixed results. Activation of highly deviated wells such as ERD wells
or horizontal wells poses challenges that require special tools or
innovative ideas to successfully activate or stimulate these wells.
Some of the methods of activation in these types of wells are:
1

Matrix acidization job

Nitrifi ed MAJ

Acid spotting with CTU

Acidization through CTU

However, the results from the application of these techniques were not
very encouraging.
Recently, many such wells have been activated through use of Back surge
tool (Figure 2.26) with excellent results and most of wells so activated
have not required stimulation jobs.
The formation surge tool provides an instantaneous draw down across the
formation that assists in the removal of debris from the area around the
perforated tunnel.
The tool is run on a lock mandrel to an appropriate landing nipple profi le.
Precisely rated shear screws are used to set the tool to activate at a
predetermined draw down pressure starting from 500 psi to 4000 psi.
Activation of the tool is achieved in a number of ways:
Bleeding off above the tool
Circulating out well contents to nitrogen above the tool
Pre-pressurizing the formation and bleeding off above the tool.

Figure 3.2.5 Back pressure surge

tool