Energize your mind. www.halliburton.

com J une 2007

The well-construction process allows only one chance at
designing and placing a primary cementing system. A less-than-
optimal cement sheath can reduce significantly a well's economic
value if it fails to prevent water from becoming part of the
production stream much earlier than expected, or if it requires
interrupting production altogether for costly remedial cementing
treatments. In a worst-case scenario, failure of the cement
sheath can cause a total loss of the well.
Thus, creating a cement sheath that provides zonal isolation
under any circumstance should be a primary objective in
essentially every well construction project because it facilitates
the production of oil and gas safely and economically over the
well's lifetime.
Factors that contribute to cement sheath failure can occur at any
step in the well-construction process. For example, one of the
earliest dangers - poor cement slurry placement - occurs if the
drilling team does not remove drilling fluid or drill cuttings
properly from the wellbore before pumping of the cement slurry
commences. Then during the drilling phase of well construction,
the cement sheath must withstand the continuous impact of the
drillstring. This is particularly true in directional wells.



Design and delivery of cement system to withstand well
operations from spud to abandonment.
(Click image to enlarge.)
During well completion, when lightweight completion fluid
replaces the drilling fluid, the negative pressure differential
Flow After Cementing





Ashok Santra

Senior Scientist-Chemist



Melissa Calhoun

Technical Professional
Manager


created can cause debonding at the casing-cement and/or
cement-formation interfaces. Also, the cement sheath should
withstand stresses from perforating operations and should resist
cracking under the extreme pressure events that hydraulic
fracturing operations created.
Production cycling in many HPHT wells can create extreme
pressure and temperature events that can cause cement sheath
damage and eventual casing failure. In addition, cement sheath
design should consider stresses created by the subsidence of
unconsolidated formations resulting from prolonged production.
Cementing Challenges
Challenges in constructing an effective cement sheath for long-
term zonal isolation involve both flow through unset cement and
flow through set cement.
Flow Through Unset Cement
Annular gas flow or, in deepwater cementing, shallow water flow
can cause flow through unset cement.
Annular gas flow. Annular gas flow, sometimes called gas
migration, occurs when gas channels form as the column of unset
cement loses its ability to maintain overbalance pressure on the
gas-bearing formation. Two types of gas migration are short-
term, which occurs before the cement sets, and long-term, which
develops after the cement has set.
Annular gas flow often presents itself as gas bubbles at the top of
the annulus or as inter-zonal gas flow detected by noise logs or
temperature logs. However, even before this manifestation
occurs, operators can accurately predict the potential for gas
migration and use one or a combination of treatments to help
prevent gas flow. Treatments may include:
Improving fluid-loss control
Increasing fluid density
Shortening the cement column (using stage cementing
Applying annulus pressure
Using special thixotropic or compressible (foamed) cement
slurries.
A column of cement slurry should be sufficient to maintain an
overbalance pressure on the gas-bearing formation and prevent
gas migration until the cement is set. However, unless the
cementing engineers design the slurry specifically to prevent gas
flow during setting, it may not maintain the ability to transmit full
hydrostatic pressure in a static condition. As static gel strength
(SGS) begins to develop and/or the slurry loses fluid to
permeable formations (slurry volume reduces), the probability of
gas migration increases. Whether the gas migrates to a lower-





pressure zone or to the surface, the channels it forms remain
permanently in the set cement.


Click image to enlarge
Delayed gel time is the length of time from cement slurry
placement until it begins to develop gel structure. A transition
period, during which a cement column has sufficient gel strength
to support itself (thus it cannot transmit hydrostatic pressure),
but insufficient gel strength to prevent an influx of formation fluid
should some volume loss occur as a result of fluid loss, follows.
Throughout the slurry transition time, pressure exerted on the
zone of interest decreases, allowing for the potential influx of
fluid or gas. Therefore minimizing "Transition Time" of the
cement slurry is critical for preventing water and gas flows.
Gas Channel Formation




Cement slurry placed.
Slurry behaves as a fluid.
Transmits full hydrostatic pressure.
Static gel strength development begins.
Fluid loss to formations.
Volume reduction causes pressure loss.
Click images to enlarge
To help prevent damaging gas channels from forming, operators
should consider both short "Transition Time" and minimum
reduction of slurry volume due to fluid loss. There is no single
infallible way of preventing gas migration, but research has
resulted in several techniques for estimating the severity of the
problem and for helping to achieve control.
Shallow water flow. Shallow water flow (SWF) is fluid flow that
emanates from shallow reservoirs in deepwater. Geopressured,
poorly consolidated sands located within a few thousand feet of
the mud line cause SWF.
In wells with SWF, seismic data and offset information help in
deciding which cement slurry to use. When available, this
Overbalance pressure is lost.
Fluid loss continues in lower pressure zone.
Gas enters wellbore and percolates up
annulus.
Percolation leads to gas channel formation.
Permanent channel remains after cement
sets.



information allows the engineers to determine the safe
boundaries of pore pressure, fracture gradient, and equivalent
circulating density (ECD). The cementing engineer can customize
the job based on these parameters and current information as
the well progresses.
Due to high flow potentials and low temperatures, shallow water
flows may require special slurries with very low volume reduction
due to fluid loss to formation, short "Transition Times," and
acceptable strength development. However, the latter two can be
difficult to achieve at low temperatures. The compressible nature
of a foamed cement may compensate for volume loss during
transition time and for a longer transition period because a
foamed fluid expands after it is in place, maintaining a positive
pressure against a formation. Another advantage of foam cement
for shallow water flows is that it offers the option of changing
slurry density on the job without having to retest thickening
times, fluid loss, free water and settling control again in the
laboratory. The option of making last-minute density changes is
especially important because the tops of the water flow
formations and associated gradients vary greatly from well to
well. Depending on the degree of flow, the base slurry for
foaming may simply consist of standard cement with surfactants
and accelerators, or it may consist of a specialty blend.
Cementing engineers have created special blends that exhibit the
required properties through their unique chemistries. Operators
use several such blends in different parts of the world, and
cementing engineers can customize their components to deal
with the specific idiosyncrasies of local cements.
Flow Through Set Cement
Another challenge to maintaining an effective cement sheath is
flow through set cement. Although long-term annular gas
migration can be a frequent problem, cementing engineers have
developed many solutions to help prevent and control gas flow in
set cement. By determining the flow potential factor (FPF) prior
to performing a cement job, operators can predict the gas
migration problems that may arise afterwards, the severity of
these problems, and the solutions appropriate for eliminating
them. Also, design changes can help prevent gas migration. As
usual, employing Halliburton's cementing best practices is the
first key step in any successful cementing job.
Additionally, advancements in cement slurry composition, mixing,
pumping and placement capabilities have improved the reliability
of placing the cement slurry and are prerequisites for effective
zonal isolation on a short-term basis. However, well operations
that occur after placement still greatly influence the integrity of
the cement sheath.





Moreover, chances of cement sheath failure increase
exponentially when the application involves deep, high-
pressure/high-temperature (HPHT) wells, especially in remote,
logistically challenging locations such as deepwater. Problems
involving cement sheath failure that occur as a result of
temperature- and pressure-induced stresses created by such
universal well events as pressure testing, perforating, hydraulic
fracturing, completion, production, and work over, or other
remedial treatments remain long after the cement slurry has
hydrated.
Causes for cement sheath failure include gas flow through the set
cement sheath which can be caused by flow through mud
channels, micro-annular flow or flow through unset cement.
Flow through mud channels is the primary cause of annular flow
after cementing, accounting for over 90% of cases. It usually
occurs due to poor mud displacement, which leaves mud pockets
within the cement column that lack any compressive strength.
Using an efficient/effective mud displacement technique,
expansive or insitu gas generating additives in the cement, or a
compressive cement such as a foam cement can mitigate this
type of problem.
WellLife Cementing Service: Preventing Cement Sheath
Failure
To remove the guesswork from designing and placing cementing
systems capable of achieving long-term zonal isolation in the
most demanding downhole environments, cementing engineers
recommend using an advanced cementing service. These
systems enable the design, placement and monitoring of
advanced, fit-for-purpose oilfield cementing applications by
maximizing the understanding of the unique cementing
challenges posed at each phase in the construction of a well.
One of these systems is Halliburton's WellLife cementing
service - a three-step process designed to reduce the risk of
cement sheath failure. First, operators should initiate the process
long before drilling commences. By involving the WellLife
cementing process early, Halliburton can identify potentially
problematic well components during the planning stage, thereby
altering the well design and construction program to minimize
thermal and pressure stresses created during drilling, completion,
or production operations. One of the features of the WellLife
cementing service, advanced finite element analysis, helps
determine the properties required in the cement sheath to
withstand well operations during the life of the asset.
The second step involves designing the cement slurry required to
create the specific cementing solution prescribed by the initial
comprehensive engineering analysis. Halliburton has developed a





complete selection of cement additives that can be prescribed
individually, or in combination, for specific cementing issues.
Since the cement slurry should be placed in the entire annulus to
the desired depth, Halliburton has addressed the parameters to
achieve this objective. Cementing engineers have optimized flow
rate, rheology, density and formulation of spacer, flush and
cement slurry for effective hole cleaning and cement slurry
placement.
Halliburton has input properties of the cement sheath determined
in the laboratory, such as the tensile strength, Young's modulus,
Poisson ratio, and thermal characteristics, into the WellLife
analysis to determine the integrity of the cement sheath when it
is subjected to recurring temperature and pressure cycling. The
WellLife analysis also determines the volumetric change that
occurs during cement hydration, which influences the initial
stress state of the cement sheath.
The third step of the WellLife process requires scaling up the
recommended slurry formulation to the volume required for
application in the field. At this time, Halliburton deploys the
equipment, instrumentation and controls, along with experienced
cementing engineers who properly mix, pump and place the
cement slurry in the well. They then monitor the wells during
their lifetime and update and improve the process as needed.
A key benefit of WellLife cementing service is that it is equally
adept at identifying well-construction and production scenarios
with temperature and pressure envelopes that do not require
advanced cementing systems to provide life-of-the-well zonal
isolation. This is particularly valuable for operators who want to
avoid using advanced cementing systems in applications in which
less costly conventional oilfield cements will provide optimal
performance.
Conclusion
The well-construction process allows operators but one chance to
design and place a well's primary cementing system. Therefore,
construction of a cement sheath that can provide complete zonal
isolation in any environment should be a primary objective in any
well construction project.
A less than-optimal-cement sheath can reduce significantly a
well's economic value by allowing water to be produced as part of
the production stream much earlier than expected or by requiring
the interruption of production to perform costly remedial
cementing treatments. In worst-case scenarios, failure of the
cement sheath can result in loss of the well.
During the past half century, the oilfield service industry has
developed and introduced a host of advanced cementing






strategies in an effort to overcome the obstacles that prevent the
creation of effective and long lasting cement sheaths.
The most prevalent causes of cement sheath failure are flow
through unset cement and flow through set cement. By
employing an advanced cementing service such as WellLife,
cementing engineers can manage or eliminate both challenges.
The WellLife cementing service provides unprecedented precision
and certainty for engineers who are designing custom cementing
systems that must provide long-term zonal isolation in HPHT,
deepwater, gas, steam injection, geothermal and gas storage
wells, all of which routinely exhibit temperature and pressure
variances in excess of most oil and gas producing wells.





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