SPE 100991
New Completion Solution for Multi Layer Gas Fields: A Case History
M.A. Arianto, SPE, Y. Susatyo, SPE, B. Srisantoso, SPE, and Sumaryanto, SPE, VICO Indonesia
Copyright 2006, Society of Petroleum Engineers
This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2006 SPE Asia Pacific Oil & Gas Conference
and Exhibition held in Adelaide, Australia, 11–13 September 2006.
This paper was selected for presentation 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 Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to
correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any
position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Papers presented at
SPE meetings are subject to publication review by Editorial Committees of the Society of
Petroleum Engineers. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper
for commercial purposes without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is
prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than
300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous
acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper was presented. Write Librarian, SPE, P.O.
Box 833836, Richardson, TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435.
Abstract
Recently an experimental completion, called “Dual
Monobore” was implemented in VICO Indonesia. The paper
will describe an implementation of this completion as a new
solution adopted in VICO to optimize both gas production and
reserves recovery from multi layer gas reservoirs. Using
monobore completion concepts, the “Dual Monobore”
completion has the flexibility to allow simultaneous but
separate production from depletion drive reservoirs and water
drive reservoirs.
Introduction
VICO Indonesia is the operator of the Sanga-Sanga PSC in
East Kalimantan (Indonesia) with four major gas fields and
production of about 600 MMSCFD of gas, 11,000 bcpd of
associate condensate and 14,000 bopd of oil. A typical field
consists of more than 500 unique reservoirs that have
permeability ranging from less than 1 md to more than 1,500
md and pay zone depths ranging from 1500 ft to 13,000 ft.
As a mature field, the reservoir management challenge is to
optimize the completion to maximize the commercial rate and
to optimize reserves recovery from even marginal reservoirs.
Typically the “long life” and low rate reservoirs are deeper,
and are characterized by low permeability (1 to 100 mD) and a
depletion drive mechanism, while the shallower and most
prolific (permeability ranging between 100 to 1000 mD)
reservoirs are characterized by a strong water drive
mechanism. Starting the completion from the deeper section
will give only a low gas rate which is less attractive for new
well performance. This needs to be commingled with several
additional zones to increase the rate to avoid liquid loading
problems. Alternatively, starting the completion from the
shallower section provides higher gas rate but can result in
severe difficulties when isolating watered out perforations and
additional difficulties when accessing the deeper reservoirs
because of mechanical restrictions (in front of the isolated
perforations) and because of sand or debris accumulation.
A new completion solution was needed to address this
issue in an economic way. This paper presents a case history
describing an implementation of an experimental completion
called “Dual Monobore”. It will discuss completion
operations, well head, cement bond log result and perforating
gun orientation.
Completion History
The completion philosophy within VICO has changed
considerably over the years. Currently (as of December 2005)
more than 600 wells have been drilled. In the early field
developments between 1970 and 1994, the philosophy was to
use conventional completions with one or two production
strings as dual/single selective completions (FIG.2). The
tubing strings were either 3-1/2” or 2-3/8” and the production
casing was either 9-5/8” or 7”. There was usually a long string
completion on the very bottom of the well, one or more
selective completions produced behind sliding sleeves and a
short string completion on the top. Typically a completion
required numbers of single packers and a dual packer, several
sliding sleeves and an on-off connector, which resulted in a lot
of sealing mechanism areas, which could be subject to leaks
and communication.
Many difficulties were encountered during the installations
of such completions, resulting in crooked tubing because of
excessive setting weights, packer failures, TCP guns not fired,
sliding sleeves not moving, wireline plug problems due to
junk and communication due to erosion and corrosion in the
tubing strings. In some cases, the completions had to be pulled
before production had even begun. The preferred perforating
method was to utilize TCP to achieve deep penetration with
underbalanced perforation. These guns were hung off both the
long and short strings, which prevented production logging
tools to be run across perforated zones for reservoir evaluation
purposes.
Regarding reservoir management issues, several problems
have been identified. The commingled zones on selective
completions could reduce the reserves recovery of the overall
commingled zones since the performance of each zone was
different (due to depleted BHP or water-out problems). It was
difficult to have individual data acquisition in commingled
zones produced behind an SSD. This led to the necessity of
developing a new completion type.
In 1997, a team was formed to review and evaluate the
drilling and completion philosophy and a simple monobore
completion program with a 4-1/2” pipe cemented from TD to
2 SPE 100991
the surface was recommended. This type of completion
resulted in drilling and completion cost savings of around
$200,000 per well down to the deepest zone at 14,000 ft. It
was mechanically simpler because there was no completion
jewellery required. Perforation could be done without
requiring a rig and it was quicker to add and isolate zones. If
additional deliverability was required, more zones could be
perforated to provide extra gas rate.
Initially for deeper low permeability sands VICO adopted a
modular gun system for safe underbalanced perforation.
Subsequent zones would be perforated using e-line with
limited underbalance.
The 4-1/2” monobore delivered a similar rate to that of
two strings of 3-1/2” tubing. However in the lower
permeability and/or depleted reservoirs, this 4-1/2” monobore
was susceptible to liquid loading problems thus reducing
reserves recovery. Adding new perforation zones helped to
solve this loading problem but later on some wells were
shown to suffer from cross flow. The problem became more
complicated if one of the commingled zones produced water
early and killed the other open zones.
In 2003, a combination of monobore on the bottom and
packer type completion on top was introduced, called
‘monobore hybrid completion’. Even though this completion
helped in optimizing reserves recovery from the marginal
zones at the bottom of the well and reduced the cost compared
to conventional completions, the risk of leaks and
communication due to the sealing mechanism still remained.
Proposed Completion
A new completion type was required that met the
following requirements: it should be packerless to reduce the
cost and complexity of rig operation; it should allow flexibility
on production strategy within a multilayer gas reservoir; it
should allow individual zones to be added or isolated; and it
should be of a smaller tubing size to avoid liquid load-up
problems.
The solution that was developed is referred to as a “Dual
Monobore” completion. This followed the monobore concept
but used dual 3-1/2” tubing cemented from TD to surface.
Some risks in implementing this experimental completion
were:
- it had never been applied in VICO Indonesia
- a stand-off mechanism between two strings to
overcome the cement isolation issue was required.
- running dual strings simultaneously and dual string
cementing practices were seen as challenging
- gun orientation could be an issue
Application
In 2005 VICO drilled three Dual Monobore wells which
delivered proven additional value to the business. Several
variations on the theme were applied, such as open hole and
casing cemented, shallow and deep well, high and low
permeability reservoir.
Field characteristic
Two of these wells were drilled on the crest of the Badak
Anticline and one was drilled on the crest of the Nilam field.
Both of the Badak wells were drilled vertically to the main
reservoir target with the first well (well X) reaching total
depth (TD) at 10,571’ TVD (targeted on the deep reservoir)
and the second well (well Y) at 6,311’ TVD (targeted on the
shallow reservoir). The Nilam well (well Z) was drilled
slightly directionally, with the kick off point at 8,500 ft and
maximum angle 15.63 degrees. The well was drilled to TD at
13,668 ft
Well Drilling & Completion
The wells were drilled early in 2005, and electrical logging
and sampling was performed for well evaluation.
Well X (FIG.3) experienced wellbore stability problems
which resulted in a drill string being left in the hole and an
abandoned lower section. The well was completed as a dual 3-
1/2” monobore cemented inside 9-5/8” casing.
Well Y (FIG.4) and well Z were completed as a dual 3-
1/2” monobores cemented in open hole.
In all cases dual pipe - surface handling equipment was
required to allow pipe reciprocation during the cementing job.
Centralizer & Cement Bond
A Dual string centralizer was installed in both open hole
and cased hole applications as a stand-off mechanism between
the two strings (FIG.5). This was required to enable both
strings to be run into the hole simultaneously instead of
individually as was the previous VICO practice. Additional
surface equipment on the rig, such as dual ram BOP, dual pipe
handling tools was also required. The cementing process was
carried out by pumping cement thru the Long String. A
through tubing cement bond evaluation was run on the Long
String for both Well Y and Z to evaluate cement bonding. In
the deeper single monobore section, the log indicated excellent
bonding on both tubing to cement and cement to formation
with average amplitude of less than 5mV. In the dual
monobore section, good bond was also recorded, despite
concern about how the tool would respond in this type of
completion.
Wellhead
This Dual Monobore completion required a different set up
for the wellhead compared to previous VICO completions
(FIG.6). A dual slip mechanism complete with pack-off was
set in the tubing head since both strings were run
simultaneously instead of the tubing hanger system that was
required previously on dual conventional completions. A tree
adapter was also required to accommodate the need for back
pressure valves. The rating of the tree was to the same VICO
standard as that in previous dual completion systems.
Orienting Perforation
Unlike a single monobore completion, the existence of
adjacent pipe was a concern during the perforation jobs.
Consequently an electric gun orientation system with magnetic
flux detection called Perforation Orientating Tool (POT) was
utilized.
A POT surface simulation was carried out for the
conditions found in Well X (dual completion inside cased
hole) and in Well Y (dual completion cemented in open hole)
with a set-up that modeled the downhole conditions. In the
cased hole situation, the maximum magnetic flux was
SPE 100991 3

measured when the tool faced the adjacent casing (in the
opposite direction to the other tubing string). This was because Nomenclature
the casing has more steel when compared to the tubing. The TCP: Tubing Convey Perforation
perforating gun phasing was configured to shoot in the POT: Perforation Orienting Tool
opposite direction to the magnetic sensor which aligned with BOP: Blow Out Preventer
the MINIMUM flux. In the open hole condition, the results mD: milli Darcy (permeability)
were the opposite, and perforation was in the direction BHP: Bottom Hole Pressure
opposite to the MAXIMUM flux (FIG.7). ID: Inner Diameter
TD: TotalDepth
Results TVD: True Vertical Depth
All wells were completed as Dual 3-1/2” Monobores
successfully without experiencing any operational issues.
Cement bond logs were run after and confirmed good cement
bond quality on both single and dual monobore sections. The References
POT was used to orient the guns according to the 1. Ismanto, B., Mike Hass, John Dyer: “New Well Architecture
recommendations of the surface simulations, and this resulted Successfully Optimizes the development of fluvio-deltaic
in perforation being carried out without impacting the adjacent Multi-layered Gas Field” paper SPE 64394
string. 2. Gunawan, R., and Dyer, G.R:”Tubing Size Optimization in Gas
Depletion Drive Reservoirs”, paper SPE 37001 presented in
The change of completion design from either dual 1996 SPE Asia Pacific Oil and Gas Conference, Adelaide,
conventional or 4-1/2” monobore to dual 3-1/2” monobore in October 28-31.
VICO does not impact the drilling of the well significantly 3. Brown, K. E., and Lea. F.:”Nodal System Analysis of Oil and
since the hole size does not change. It also allows the Gas Wells”, JPT (Oct.1985) 1751.
flexibility to change the completion to a single monobore 4. Ikoku, Chi U., Natural Gas Reservoir Engineering, John Willey &
completion if required based on the electric logging evaluation Sons (1984) 141.
results if required.
The 3-1/2” completion additionally favours the current
mature field conditions since critical flow rate is important to
overcome the liquid loading issue.
This completion design has allowed us to optimize the
policy of bottoms-up perforation in both the deep tighter sands
in the long string and the shallower more prolific water drive
sands perforated in the short string.

Cost Effective
In term of drilling and completion cost, this completion is
more economic compared with dual conventional packer type
completions since the total rig-time is reduced by 5 to 7 days.
Rig-time is similar to that of a 4-1/2” monobore completion
well, but the economics are more attractive since it is possible
to produce from both strings simultaneously.

Conclusions
1. The 3-1/2” Dual Monobore completion has been
demonstrated to be a feasible alternative for future VICO
completions in multilayer reservoirs.
2. It is economically more attractive than dual conventional
selective completion types and 4-1/2 monobores.
3. It allows the flexibility of producing from two different
strings simultaneously, reducing any requirement to
commingle production from different zones.
4. Reserves recovery is improved by allowing production to a
lower critical rate when compared with 4-1/2”
monobores.

Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the management of VICO
Indonesia and BP Migas to publish this paper. We also would
like to thanks to Ronald Gunawan, Bill Turnbull, Robert
Nikijuluw, Roberto De Mitri (Asset Team) and Drilling
Department for support and discussion.
4 SPE 100991

FIG.1. VICO Indonesia (Sanga-sanga PSC)

FIG.2. Typical Conventional Completion

SPE 100991 5

3-1/2" Tubing 3-1/2" Tubing

TOC ~ 1,800'

9-5/8" 2,315'

Perf: 5,785'-5,790' (5')

Perf: 7,117'-7,122' (5')
3-1/2" to 5,898'
Perf: 7,346'-7,361' (15')

Float Collar @ 7,466' MD

SS Tbg @ 7,491'MD
LS Tbg 7,498' MD
9-5/8"EZSV @ 7,500'MD
9-5/8"@ 7,555'MD
FISH
Perf: 6,115'-6,120' (5')

Float Collar 6,276'

3-1/2" to 6,308'
TD 10,571' MD TD 6,311' MD

FIG.3. Well X Diagram FIG.4. Well Y Diagram

6 SPE 100991

FIG.5. Dual Centralizer

SPE 100991 7

FIG.6. Wellhead

GUN
GUN
Direction
Direction
2 x 3.5 in the
2 x 3.5 inside
open hole
Min 9-5/8 casing Max

FIG.7. Gun Orienting Simulation