THE SPE IMAGE LIBRARY SPE 20959

Cementing Through Coiled Tubing and Its Influence

on Slurry Properties

20959

Vidick, B.;
Nash, F.D. and
Hartley, I.,
Dowell Schlumberger

Copyright 1990, Society of Petroleum Engineers Inc.

This paper was prepared to present at Europec 90, The Hague,

Netherlands, 22-24, October, 1990.

This paper was presented by an SPE Program Committee following review

of
Information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s).
Contents of the paper, as presented, have not been reviewed by the
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author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect
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ABSTRACT

The use of coiled tubing for cement squeezing operations presents

significant economic benefits for offshore workover operations. This
paper
demonstrates that batch mixing small volumes of slurry may. if care is
not
taken. lead to dramatic variations in slurry properties. especially
the
thickening time. A field mixing methodology based on the concept of
mixing
energy has been developed. Also. evidence gathered during this
work indicated an even more dramatic effect on thickening time while
pumping the cement through coiled tubing.

INTRODUCTION
 THE SPE IMAGE LIBRARY SPE 20959

Cementing through coiled tubing is not strictly speaking a new

technique.
In 1983 Arco Alaska pioneered the use of coiled tubing for cement
squeezing
during workover-operations in the Prudhoe Bay field (1). The
motivation for
pumping cement through coiled tubing is economic: the reduction in
workover
costs in an environment where rig mobilization and operating costs are

becoming prohibitive. There are other advantages such as the

minimisation
of potential slurry contamination during placement and improved
spotting o
small cement volumes in the zone of interest.

Nevertheless. the success rate for primary squeezes remains in the

area of
50-60% and while some of this can be attributed to mechanical problems
in
downhole execution procedures. a certain proportion appears to
arise from the design of the cement slurries themselves.

Consequently. it is accepted that compared with classical primary

cement
design. more stringent requirements have to be placed on cement slurry

properties and their verification under operational conditions.

Initially
yard tests using field mixing equipment and a coiled tubing reel were
performed in order to investigate the influence of pumping through
coiled
tubing on slurry properties. Quickly however. it became apparent that
the
initial batchmixing of small volumes of slurry greatly influences the
cement slurry properties. Therefore. careful attention was also de
voted
to investigated mixing phenomena of cement slurries before pumping
through
the coiled tubing. Results obtained from a campaign of yard tests are
presented in this paper as well as one field case history.

EXPERIMENTAL

In the yard. a 20 bbl (3.2m3) recirculating mixing tank coupled to a

pumping unit was used to mix 10 bbl (1.6m3) of slurry. The slurry was
then
pumped through approximately 14000 feet (4267m) of 1 .25" (31.8mm)
diameter
coiled tubing. The coiled tubing was spooled on an offshore reel. a
schematic diagram of the yard configuration is illustrated in Fig. 1.
The
following pumping procedure was used:

- All the additives were mixed into the water using both paddle
 THE SPE IMAGE LIBRARY SPE 20959

mixer
and centrifugal pump for circulation. The total time required
for
this operation was 20 minutes.

- Immediately after. the cement was added under the same mixing
conditions until the correct density was reached. The slurry
continued to be circulated until a time of 45 minutes had
elapsed
since the initial addition of cement.

- The centrifugal pump was stopped. agitation being maintained

with the
paddle mixer. for a further 30 minutes.

- The cement was pumped through the coiled tubing at a designed

pumping
rate of 0.5 bbl/min (0.1 m3/min). The displacement pressure was
5000
psi (2394 Pa).

P. 157