SPE-194253-MS

Mexico Operator Achieves HSE Incident Free Well Completion Program

Ahead of Time and Nine Days of Early Production Using New Generation
Polymer Encapsulated Cased Hole Wireline Cables

Serko Sarian, Schlumberger; Francisco Arismendi, Silvio Camperos, and Francisco Garza, Iberoamericana De
Hidrocarburos; Sergio Trelles and Joseph Varkey, Schlumberger

Copyright 2019, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE/ICoTA Well Intervention Conference and Exhibition held in The Woodlands, TX, USA, 26-27 March 2019.

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 have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect
any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper 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
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Abstract
New generation Polymer-filled and jacketed wireline cased hole cables eliminate all inherent bottlenecks of
traditional wireline logging cables, enabling unprecedented operational efficiency with substantial reduction
of well control risk and costly maintenance. This Technology enables a Mexico operator to deliver all their
Operator Field wells ahead of time, without any HSE or well control incident while gaining 9 days of early
production.
Recently developed Polymer encapsulation and bonding technology completely seal Wireline cables
electrical core and armors. The result is elimination of armor birdcaging (see glossary) and stranding, grease
injection and associated equipment, cable gassing-up and well fluid related armor corrosion. Total armor
torque balance and polymer outer jacket substantially reduce Chrome or glass coated completions damage,
cable friction and maintenance requirements. The result is unprecedented well control safety, grease related
environmental and reservoir damage elimination, higher operational efficiency with faster rig-up/down and
tripping speeds, reduced tractor conveyance needs with improved well access in complex completions and
proven early production gains.
Contrary to conventional Wireline cables, the new generation polymer encapsulated cables come with a
gas blocked core and a pressure balanced sealed cable termination. Potential well fluid migration through the
cable cross section is thus completely prevented. Along with the polymer jacketing, well control risk is all
but eliminated. During 2018, and for the first time in Mexico, 45 cased hole interventions, 130 descents and
more than 1,000,000 feet in the well polymer cable deployments were carried in a North Mexico gas field.
All Perforations, Production logging and other cased hole descents were completed totally free from HSE,
operational or well control issues. Logistically challenging cable maintenance trips were all but eliminated,
saving substantial time and cost to all parties involved. Compared to conventional wireline operations, time
saved using polymer encapsulated Wireline cables represented a 50% reduction in rig-up and rig-down time,
as well as 40% operational efficiency gain. With wells delivered early to production all contractual targets
were exceeded, adding 9 days of additional production of gas and condensate.
2 SPE-194253-MS

New generation Polymer encapsulated wireline cased hole cables have enabled the Mexico Operator plan
and carry out efficient, safe, cost effective, and environmentally friendly Wireline Cased Hole operations,
delivering producing wells ahead of time and exceeding contractual requirements.

Introduction
In addition to new wireline production evaluation and perforating technology development and introduction,
the present decade has seen an accelerated development of Wireline powered intervention instrumentation
and tractors to carry out precise, efficient and cost-effective well intervention and workover operations.
Setting aside pumping capabilities while performing the operations, today wireline services can carry out
most of intervention and workover operations without the need for Coiled Tubing or Slickline conveyance.
Operations such as non-explosive plug setting, sleeve shifting, ball valve milling, extended scale milling,
debris removal, plug replacement and selective perforating operations have become routine operations in
most oil and gas geography worldwide.
While downhole technology has been steadily expanding, cased hole wireline cable technology however,
the most critical component of wireline operations, has mostly remained unchanged since the first armored
logging cables were built in the 1950's.
As early as 2005 it had become clear conventional wireline cables (Figure 1) were fast becoming a
serious bottleneck, no longer able to cope with increasing operational challenges of ultradeep and Extended
reach drilling (ERD), Wireline tractoring in horizontal and high deviation laterals, increased complexity of
sensors, extensive electrical power and telemetry requirements by the new downhole sensors and highly
complex completions and well trajectories.

Figure 1—Conventional cased hole coaxial (2 conductor) cable cross section and the two-
armor structure. No polymer used for other than the electrical insulation and for core protection.

The conventional wireline cable consists of an electrical core and two sets of oppositely wound steel of
Gipps armors that ensure mechanical integrity and ability to carry its own weight and the toolstring to be
deployed. The single-conductor coaxial or seven-conductor core provides electrical power and commands
to the downhole instrumentation and carries the acquired data to a surface acquisition system. Correct
Wireline logging cable selection requires compromising between mechanical strength, weight, electrical
and telemetry properties, temperature and mainly in cased hole the outer diameter to ensure well lift forces
don't blow the tool out of the well. In cased hole conditions such as wellhead pressure (WHP), bottom
hole pressure (BHP), toolstring length and weight, surface and downhole temperatures (SHT and BHT),
completion restrictions, completion type, well geometry, composition of fluids and production rates are
among the most critical parameters to be considered in the conveyance planning phase. For instance, if the
well contains sour gases such as H2S or CO2 above a certain amount, standard steel (GIPS/GEIPS - see
glossary) armors will corrode leading to cable strength reduction and ultimately premature rupture with
potentially catastrophic consequences. Special sour gas resistant alloy materials such as HC265, MP35 and
SPE-194253-MS 3

27-7MO need to be used as armors. Often unique cables need to be developed for extreme well conditions.
Further, it is not uncommon to face unexpected downhole conditions not considered for cable selection. In
this instance cable damage or some other incident related to cable and conveyance is almost inevitable.
One of the primary source of cable related incidents is the armored design of the cable itself. For starters a
simple dual pack-off blowout preventer (BOP - used with slickline and coiled tubing) cannot seal effectively
on the uneven surface of the cable, allowing well fluids to escape above the BOP. In addition, the cable
needs to move freely in and out of the well while the BOP maintains a dynamic seal. A grease injection
head (HGT), through a series of flowtubes (see glossary) needs to be used as part of the Pressure Control
Equipment (PCE) (Figure 2).

Figure 2—Conventional grease injection head (HGT) and the associated pressure control equipment
(PCE). Additional rig-up height and deck space is required. Grease levels need to be inspected regularly.

A viscous grease is injected inside the flowtubes at higher pressure than WHP, filling-up the narrow gap
between the cable outer diameter and the flowtube inner diameter, and the voids between the armors of
the cable. This in turn establishes a pressure gradient along the flowtubes length, starting at higher than
WHP at the well connection (1.2 × higher) to atmospheric pressure at the top exit. Well fluids are contained
within the well, while free movement of the wireline cable is allowed, up to certain tripping speeds. While
effective, this system, introduce a host of HSE and operational risks that need to be prevented and mitigated:
– Environmental spill risk. Even though equipped with return lines, excessive grease injection can leak
to the environment, with increasingly severe consequences.

◦ Solution – Optimize grease volumes without compromising well control using spillage control
mechanisms.
◦ If a well control incident occurs while moving the cable, stop all movement immediately, close
the rams of the main BOP against the cable and inject grease at high pressure between the rams
in order to regain seal. Proceed slowly once seal is assured.
– With alloy or sour cables specially, the grease might not be able to fill-up all the void space between
the two armors, allowing a small path for gas to find a way to above the flowtube.
4 SPE-194253-MS

◦ Solution – limit tripping speeds – typically to 6,000 ft/hr (20,000 ft/hr or more in liquids).
– If the gap is incorrect between the cable (the incorrect flowtube internal diameter - ID), well control
can be compromised if the gap is too high with excessive grease consumption or cable armor damage
and stranding can occur is the gap is too small.

◦ Solution: ensure the cable outer diameter (OD) is properly measured and the correct flowtube
is selected as per manufacturer or the service company pressure control standards.
– Stranded armors (Figure 3) – Cable torque increases with repeated descents and other downhole
conditions, loosening the outer armors and leading to increased OD of the cable. Mechanical damage
sustained at sharp-edges of the completion may also break or raise outer armor strands. Entering
restrictions such as the flowtubes, the raised armor can easily be displaced or "milked" out, leading
to a breakage of the armor at the entrance of the HGT As the broken strand ends are no longer held
within the cable structure, they will entangle a the HGT entrance and get stripped or peeled off from
the cable as the cable is moved up or down. The result is piling up of the armor(s). If this occurs at
the atmospheric side of the HGT, then it can be detected relatively early. Inside the well however,
often it is not detected for several hundred feet of cable movement until the accumulating pile is large
enough to jam the cable, creating a stuck situation. This is one of the most difficult cable incidents
to correct and can lead to well control issues if not addressed carefully.

◦ Solution. Slowly and painstakingly, the well needs to be secured, safety valves closed – if
possible, pressure bled-off and the HGT opened to gain access to the armor pile. All damaged
strands need to be removed. Even once a clean section of cable is obtained, it will be missing one
or more strands and needs to be carefully passed through the HGT to ensure a continuous outer
armor section is inside the flowtubes. Such a delicate operation is time consuming. Sometimes
"killing" of the well becomes necessary by bull heading. Needless-to-say, the complete cable
needs to be replaced before the operation can resume. The stranded cable cannot be repaired
or used for future operations.
– Flowtubes are located above the lubricators and hence occupy rig-up height, reducing the length
of lubricators and hence the length of strings that can be deployed in one descent. The number of
flowtubes is a function of WHP and can often exceed 10 ft

◦ Solution: Ensure the rig-up equipment (crane, rig mast, etc.) are high enough to accommodate
the full intended toolstring
◦ Reduce the length of the string to account for the flowtubes. This will lead to added descents
and rig time to complete the operation. In extreme cases, especially on small offshore platforms
turn around sheaves and other special set-ups will be needed to accommodate for the grease
injection system
– As toolstrings become longer with more sensors and higher electrical power requirements (such as
tractors and milling or shifting devices) and well depths increase, higher power and stronger cables
are required. Stronger cable however usually means increased cable OD. Well pressure induced lift
forces then can become a significant issue, often preventing the cable and the tool string from moving
down in the well when at surface.

◦ Solution: Add weights (interconnected – inline tungsten sections of 6 ft long each) to the
toolstring. Tool string length increases, requiring longer lubricator sections and higher reach
rig-up equipment, not always readily available.
– Downhole cable friction (metal on metal) can be as high as 0.4 in horizontal laterals, leading to
high drag forces at high angles, increasing the effort needed by the downhole tractor. Higher surface
SPE-194253-MS 5

tensions are needed to pull the cables up, thus limiting the overpull margin in tool stuck situations.
Similarly, cable drag will slow down the tool deployment in the well and often cause it to stop
prematurely in highly deviated wells.

◦Solution: increase tractor force. This in turn requires added electrical power and bigger cable,
with substantial part of the added tractor power used in the added cable drag. Often highly
conflicting well conditions necessitate the costly and time-consuming design of fit-for- purpose
cables.
– Cables "gassing" up. A common phenomenon where well gases can ingress through the cable
termination and gradually fill up the voids in the electrical core of the cable. As trapped gases
expand with pressure changes during multiple descents, they will escape slowly through the cable
termination, mainly the electrical connections. This often leads to lost electrical connections while
downhole, telemetry errors and at surface gas bubbling out of the cable, often for days, before the
cable is re-useable.

◦ Solution: Optimize the traditional cable electrical core design and remove void space by filling
it with polymer. This is a manufacturing process called cable gas core blocking. While it has
been a practice for over a decade, gas core blocked cable deployment remains minimal, due to
essentially cost increase and the relatively few incidents. Mostly standard non-gas core blocked
cables are being used globally today.
– With increased perforating gun lengths (called extended reach wireline perforation), the gun
detonation shock can have detrimental effects on cable armor integrity, especially close to the shock
area, i.e. the termination. Typically, after several consecutive perforating descents, armor sections
will come loose, leading to raised armor and stranding as described earlier.

◦Solution: Monitor the cable condition near the logging head, cut out the damaged sections, re-
terminate before resuming operations and repeat as needed. Not only this is time consuming,
cable useful length gets reduced very quickly, leading to premature retirement of the cable and
additional replacement cost.
– Completion wear and damage. It is not uncommon for wireline cables to damage completions
by cutting a groove or a path during repeated trips in the well or over time. Glass-coated and
chrome completions are especially susceptible for such damage. Operators regularly monitor such
completions for wear and tear and replace them more frequently than standard completions. It is
typical of the operator to request coating damage risk assessment from the service company.

◦ Solution: Essentially minimize wireline operations with regular inspection and replacement if
integrity is breached.
– It is very common to need both Wireline and Slickline operations during a well intervention operation.
Due to the difference in design and nature of operations, a complete surface unit, rig-up, WHE
equipment and crew swap is necessary, often more than once on the same well. These swaps are time
consuming with added HSE and operational risk. On small offshore platforms, limited deck space,
bedding availability and rigging-up options make it impossible to have both units on board at the
same time, leading to increased logistical effort, time and cost for the operator.

◦ Solution: In addition to surface equipment limitations, wireline cables cannot be used as

slickline as they will disintegrate with repeated even basic slickline operations such as plug
replacement or jarring. Slickline on the other hand, cannot convey electrical power, excluding
powered wireline operations. The real solution is to have Wireline cables robust enough with
winches that can drive them fast enough to achieve basic slickline operations without having to
6 SPE-194253-MS

change out the wireline set-up. One single unit, rig-up, WHE and crew will be the answer. The
good news is there are such cables in testing at present to be discussed shortly.
– Armors being corroded by wellbore fluids other than sour gases. Heavy brines and high-end oil-based
muds used as completion fluids have elevated steel corroding properties. The result is embrittlement
of the armors and loss of ductility (like H2S or CO2 attack).

◦ Solution: Thorough inspection and maintenance of the cable after each job. Special armor
ductility testing is carried out by the field crew between jobs and sections of the cable (downhole
end) cut out, until the armors pass the ductility test. Cables are regularly shipped back to base
maintenance facilities to be inspected, have the torque removed, loose armors relocated (called
twisting) and corrosion protection greases applied prior to moving them back to the wellsite.
– One important HSE risk associated with conventional cables and grease injection is unintentional
release of grease at surface and ensuing environmental damage. Despite all the measure to contain the
injection grease within the well and collecting excess grease in dedicated container via return lines, it
is almost inevitable today to carry out a high -pressure wireline operation without some of the grease
ending-up where it does not belong. Even if the operation goes without unintentional spillage, quite
a bit of grease that coats the wireline cable and injected between the armors is brought back to the
wireline winch and unit, requiring thorough and elaborate cleaning process (Figure 4). In the event of
pressure equipment malfunction or loss of well control, substantial amounts of grease can spill into
the environment. With ever-tightening environmental regulations both land and especially offshore,
operators often opt not using Wireline services just to eliminate the risk of environmental spill.

Figure 3—Conventional cable stranded armor examples. On the left, broken outer armor strand has stripped and piled
up on top of the HGT while tripping in the well. If this occurs on the way out of the well below the HGT, the stranded
armor is not visible and will continue piling up until the cable is jammed and stuck inside the pressure equipment. It
can only be noticed by alarming increase in surface tension. Recovery procedure is elevated risk and time consuming.
SPE-194253-MS 7

Figure 4—Well control injection grease covered Wireline logging truck.

In summary, traditional Wireline cable operations bring tangible value to well intervention, workover and
production operations. However, they come with unique operational and HSE risk that service companies
have managed to prevent and mitigate with operating restrictions and other limiting guidelines. A cable
fundamental redesign has not taken place among manufacturers until recently.
The solution is therefore a Wireline logging cable that engineers out all or most of the above technical
limitations. True efficiency with reduction in deferred production can then be achieved with reduced HSE
and operational risk. The rest of this paper will cover the new generation polymer encapsulated and coated
wireline cables that are designed to eliminate the traditional wireline cable limitations.

Polymer Jacketed Cables - Design, testing and technology progress

Before getting into new cables, it is worth discussing the design of the traditional cable. It consists of three
main components:
– Polymer wrapped Electrical core. 3 variances constitute over 97% of all Wireline logging cables

◦ Hepta-cables with 7 conductors – one central and 6 helical – mostly used for Open hole logging
with complex power and high bandwidth data transmission requirements
◦ Mono-cables with one single conductor in the center of the core. All communication and a single
power scheme use this conductor. The steel armor is used for the electrical return. The issue
with mono cables is mainly telemetry noise and signal strength on long cables with high power
switching tractors and intervention tools. They are most suited for perforation and standard
Production Logging operations.
◦ Coax-cables with 2 conductors. One central conductor and electrical return on a copper
concentric serve. The capacitance and inductive advantage of this structure allows for reliable
communication with complex and higher bandwidth telemetry requirement sensors along with
high power switching tractors and well intervention tools. The armor is exclusively used for
mechanical strength.
Note: The electrical core cannot be used for mechanical strength and needs to be protected.
– Inner armor (steel or alloy). This is the first layer of contiguous metal strands wrapped helically
around the electrical core. There is no physical bonding of the armor to the core, so it is free to move
and rotate.
– Outer armor (steel or alloy). This is the second armor layer, also contiguous, wrapped around the
inner armor in an opposing helical pattern.
The main differences between the two armors are:
– They are wound in opposite directions (clockwise and counterclockwise)
– Since wrapped over the inner, the outer armor has more strands and as such more metal.
8 SPE-194253-MS

The source of most of the issues listed above is the design and armor structure itself. It is therefore worth
looking a bit closer to the fundamental design limitations.
First and most critical questions. Why are there two armors instead of one and why are they laid helically
opposite? A spiraling elastic wrap around a central cylinder (electrical core) is mechanically unstable and
will unwrap removing core protection. This is called inherent armor torque. In-order to achieve cable
mechanical integrity, provide the strength and protection of the electrical core, a second armor layer is
wrapped around the first one in opposing spiral direction. The second armor has also inherent torque,
however will tend to unwrap in the opposite direction, i.e. will tighten the inner armor. Thus, torque balance
and mechanical integrity is dynamically maintained always when the cable is in the well. Mechanical load
sharing between the armors as a percentage of the amount of steel is also assured, dictating effectively the
strength of the given cable.
When deployed in a well, the tool end of the cable is free to rotate. This creates a unique situation
called ends free deployment. Armors are effectively allowed to turn and continue counteracting each other
while sharing the load evenly. The outer armor remains however the higher torque component. In other
words, the inner armor is working harder than the outer to prevent it from opening-up or birdcaging. Under
normal situations, the cable will maintain its integrity for multiple descents before a maintenance trip to
the dedicated cable shop is needed. When however, downhole conditions are extreme, for instance very
high tension multiple descents, consecutive perforation runs, complex downhole completions, the balance
mentioned above can be disrupted. As a result, the armors excessively tighten, loosen, shorten and elongate,
depending on the armor and operation, and the strands begin to move from their original well- structured
positions. The result is raised or crossed armor strands, armor opening- up or birdcaging, circular shape
deformation of the cable (ovalization), and load sharing balance loss. The end-result is usually the same.
Broken strands when encountering tight restrictions such as in flowtubes or when bending over sheave
wheels or on the wireline cable drum, birdcaging or birdnesting and even broken cables. Most of these
failure points are located at surface where the tension is the highest and hence the consequences more severe.
These pinch points are where armor stranding or even cable premature breakage occur.
While the traditional wireline cable basic structure has remained essentially unchanged since 1950's, its
strength however, power carrying capacity and telemetry bandwidth have more than doubled, especially in
the last 15 years. New generation core polymers are being used with larger copper conductors and improved
electrical insulation. With higher surface logging tensions and increased loading however, the issues with
armors are amplified increasing the risk of cable related incidents, thus often preventing from wireline
carrying out increasingly complex operations.
The solution would be then to re-engineer the wireline cable. Technically speaking, locking-up both
armors together and to the core and prevent all relative movement while balancing the torque between the
two armors will address most of the challenges. Smoothing out the outer surface and protect the armors will
take care of the remainder. This however is easier said than done.
Encapsulating the entire cable in a rigid polymer structure is the obvious answer. The process dictates
however polymer to polymer and to metal seamless bonding able to withstand downhole dynamic and
extreme conditions. Advanced polymers, specially treated and coated armor packages, manufacturing
processes and procedures need to be developed first. Significant design and manufacturing challenges
needed to be overcome prior to the present version (Figure 5, Table 1).
SPE-194253-MS 9

Figure 5—The polymer-encapsulated and jacketed wireline cased hole cable cutout and its cross section. Several
layers of polymers are used to ensure complete bonding of the armor to the polymer and polymer to the outer
jacket. No void spaces are left in the cable preventing gas ingress through the jacket or tool end termination.
The electrical core itself is gas blocked with polymer material filling the copper strands of the conductor.

Table 1—Basic Polymer jacketed cable specifications (Non-alloy version)

Historically, the very first polymer encapsulated cables appeared around 2009, but had significant
challenges maintaining the jacket bond. One other showstopper was gas ingress through small voids between
the encapsulating polymer and the armor strands (Figure 6). It took a good part of the present decade and
several iterations before the technology could be matured. These challenges are briefly discussed next.
– Voids and gaps between polymer and metal. Thermal characteristics differences between polymer
and metal, lead to small voids developing between the armors and the polymer interface during the
manufacturing process. These voids, although very small in size, can extend over thousands of feet
along the cable length creating significant empty volumes enabling wellbore gas storage inside the
cable. When brought to surface this gas will expand and end up damaging the polymer, releasing
the trapped gas to the atmosphere through jacket breaches. While like the ingress of gases in the
electrical core of traditional cables, consequences are far more severe since gas can be released to
the atmosphere as the cable exists the well.
10 SPE-194253-MS

– Under wellbore induced normal operating strains and passage through restrictions, poor polymer
jacket bonding could lead to long sections of jacket being peeled off and left in the well. This
could lead to potential surface seal losses, jam the pressure equipment, lodge inside surface safety
valves and chokes, adversely affecting production and well safety. Some operators get concerned
with polymer chunks damaging the reservoir.

Figure 6—Earlier versions of the cable where small voids are visible between the inner armor and polymer
due to improper bonding. These voids would extend over long sections of the cable creating gas storage
volumes. The stored gas then would expand at surface breaching the jacket and releasing to atmosphere.

In conclusion, the new cable not only must sustain the full electro-mechanical properties of traditional
cables but also needs to exhibit exceptional bonding and gas proofing properties to ensure reliable and
seamless performance under adverse gas environments.
Since mid-2017, prototype cables (both standard and sour versions) have been deployed in several
locations for field testing and qualification. The new cables have a smooth polymer jacket completely
encapsulating and bonding the two armors, preventing all internal movement. Extensive validation, gas
permittivity (Figures 7a and 7b) and jacket cusp bonding qualifications have been carried out prior to field
deployment.
SPE-194253-MS 11

Figure 7a—Gas (Nitrogen) permittivity comparison test through the inner armors of various versions of the
polymer cable. The 2014 version containing the small voids (Figure 4), had the lowest permittivity with over 50
cc flow through the inner armor as low as 500 psi, while the 2016 "ENP" cables had no flow at over 2000 psi.

Figure 7b—Gas (Nitrogen) permittivity tests through the polymer encapsulated cable, with simulated
2 descent, changing well conditions. 6,000 psi differential pressure (simulating inside the well and
outside), temperature cycles between 300 – 180 degf, and tension changes between 0 lbs – 2000
lbs. Negligible flow was recorded through both inner and outer armor of the latest cable version.

Note a sour version or alloy armored cable is still needed, as the polymer jacket is not impermeable to
small gas particles such as hydrogen. Armor hydrogen embrittlement can still occur if H2S concentration
exceeds NACE specified levels. While gas can still ingress through the jacket, it can no longer be stored
beneath the jacket since all void volume has been eliminated. To ensure full sour gas immunity, the copper
conductor and the serve are nickel coated. Here too, the cable has been subjected to specially designed H2S
pressure vessel testing, being exposed to a 400 psi partial pressure sour gas environment for 24 hours. Post
exposure analysis shows no damage to the conductors, armors and the polymer sections. (Figure 8)
12 SPE-194253-MS

Figure 8—After 48 hour exposure to H2S gas with 2 well cycles at 1200 psi (400 psi H2S partial pressure)
and 300 degf in a custom-designed pressure vessel, the cable section was dissected and various
components evaluated for H2S induced damage. No damage to the alloy armors, conductors, the
termination or the various polymer components were observed Note, post H2S evacuation, it took another
week before H2S levels were down to safe levels before removing the samples from the test vessel.

Benefits of fully polymer encapsulated and jacketed wireline cables are multiple:
– Smooth polymer jacket instead of rippled armor structure:

◦No uneven surface or voids. Grease injection is no longer a requirement and slickline style
lubricated dual pack-offs (Figure 9) can be used. Flowtubes, grease reservoirs, pressure skids
can be eliminated, and most importantly the environmental damage risk will be negligible
◦ Significantly lower polymer friction against wellbore steel or alloy tubulars (casing, completion)
compared to metal on metal with traditional armors. Up to 40% cable friction reduction is
achieved (Figure 10). Lower drag forces improve well access, lower the force needed by the
tractor to drag the cable in highly deviated or horizontal wells (Figure 11) and reduces the
surface pull requirements when moving up the hole, thus providing additional overpull margin
compared to a standard cable.
◦ Reduced damage to tubular inner surfaces specially with glass coated or chrome completions /
casing. Lower frictions reduce the wear substantially, reducing the risk of tubular integrity
breach.
◦ Reduced armor corrosion due to non-sour but corrosive wellbore fluids exposure. Brines and
other oil-based muds can no longer encounter the armor, eliminating potential corrosion and
embrittlement
◦ Cables tripping speeds can be tripled without the risk of grease injection failure to maintain seal
or armor milking and stranding through restrictions. Alloy polymer encapsulated sour cables
can be run with speeds exceeding 20,000 ft/hr vs the 6,000 ft/hr mandatory for conventional
alloy cased hole cables through grease flowtubes.
– Fully bonded armors

◦ Elimination of birdcaging and armor stranding potential, especially in long flowtubes and other
restrictions in the well.
◦ Since armor strands can no longer move, there's no need to have them contiguous, especially
with the outer armor. The outer armor metal can be equated to the inner armor metal by reducing
the number and the diameter of the outer armor strands. Numerous benefits can be gained:
SPE-194253-MS 13

▪By having equal amount of metal, perfect torque balance can be achieved between the inner
and outer armor, eliminating torque induce armor birdcaging and other incidents. Cable shop
maintenance is also reduced to minimum with far lower frequency. Logistical transportation
and maintenance costs during the cable active life are significantly reduced.
▪ Lower overall unit weight of the cable (reduced metal), leading to a superior strength to
weight ratio with substantial increase in overpull margins at the logging tool head in tool
stuck situation.
▪ Since the armors no longer move, load sharing between the inner and outer armor never
change, thus ensuring overpull safety margin always. Conventional cables have effectively
two breaking strengths. Ends-fixed (under lab testing conditions where both ends are fixed
when pulling) and ends-free (tool end is free to rotate when deployed in the well) where load
sharing is never constant due to armor rotation as the cable is lowered and raised in the well
subject to its own and toolstring weights. In this case one armor is supporting more weight
than it should, so it will break first under overpull conditions, leading to complete cable
breakage. "Ends-Free" breaking strength is therefore always lower than the listed breaking
strength, sometimes by several thousand pounds if the torque imbalance is high. Overall
safety margins are much lower than stated when in the well. Torque-balanced and Polymer
bonded armors are always in ends fixed mode since they cannot rotate with respect to each
other. Ends-Free and end-fixed breaking strengths therefore are the same.
– Fully jacketed and polymer bonded structure

◦ Increases the mechanical integrity of the cable as respective movement of the different
components have been eliminated, giving the cable exceptional mechanical integrity impossible
to achieve in conventional cables.

▪ Perforation shock can no longer disintegrate the cable. Longer guns with heavier explosive
payloads can be conveyed in fewer descents
▪ Slickline shock induced damage is all but eliminated allowing these cables to stay intact in
repeated and accelerated mechanical and spang-jar (mechanical hammer type jar. The shock
is created like hitting a hammer onto a flat surface, both in up or down movement) operations.
Jarring shock testing has been carried out in an 800 ft test well against an anchored "fish" to
evaluate cable and termination mechanical integrity. (Figure 12).
◦ Overall reduced maintenance. Zero torque design means no torque relief needed and non-
exposed armors reduce eliminate metal wear and potential corrosion due to conventional well
fluids.
14 SPE-194253-MS

Figure 9—The complete grease head, pressure skid including pumps and grease reservoirs
can be replaced with a 4 ft dual element type pack-off (center top and right photos).

Figure 10—The graph on the left shows the conventional cable up-log (red curve) and down-log (blue curve)
tensions in an S-shaped well trajectory with a maximum deviation of around 30 deg (gray curve). Note, the
up-log tension at the bottom of the well exceeds the safe working load (5000 lbs – green horizontal line) of
the cable, leaving no overpull margin under. In the same well the equivalent strength polymer jacketed cable
trip exhibits an overall 40% reduction in friction (1000 lbs lower up-log tension and 900 lbs higher down-
log tension. Higher weight helps with well access in highly deviated wells removing the need for tractors.

Figure 11—7,500 ft Wireline tractor operation using Jacketed Polymer cables. The
40% reduction in friction helps reduce tractor effort and drag forces to below 700 lbs.
SPE-194253-MS 15

The resulting time and cost savings can then be substantiated for wireline well intervention operations,
production data collection, diagnostics in complex well trajectories or remedial work with added
perforations, sleeve shifting, wellbore cleaning, etc. With simplified surface equipment requirements and
elimination of armor stranding or birdcaging risk, polymer jacketed cables can enable future automation of
wireline cased hole surface equipment and winches.

Figure 12—Down and Up Jarring shock record with polymer jacketed cable. Downhole tension, shock,
winch speeds are recorded in both directions with over 300 jarring operations over a brief period
of time in an 800 ft test well. There were no cable or termination damage observed post testing.

Polymer Jacketed Cable Potentially New Operational and HSE Risk

Polymer jacketed cable technology engineers out some of the most fundamental technical issues with
conventional armored wireline cables. This section investigates the potential new risks stemming from the
new design itself.
– Scrapped off jacket. Since the jacket is made of polymer, it can be scrapped off when in contact with
sharp completion elements during routine downhole operations. Several potential issues can ensue.

◦ Surface Well control risk. The rubber elements in the dual pack-off are soft enough and designed
to effectively mold around the uneven surface of the cable and maintain seal. Multiple tests have
been carried out with intentionally removed jacket sections to validate the sealing capability
in the event of damaged jacket. Further, during several years and thousands of unconventional
16 SPE-194253-MS

pump down perforating operations using such cables, the issue hardly been reported as one
requiring a redesign of the cable or the dual pack-off blowout preventer.
◦ Peeling-off of the jacket from the damaged section and subsequent debris accumulation in the
well damaging the reservoir and completion components. At the early stage of technology (early
2009 – 2010) there was an issue with the jacket binding strength to the rest of the cable polymer
and steel armors. Extensive jacket bonding process improvement and qualification testing since
ensure no banana like peeling-off of the jacket. Once again, the latest generation of cables used
in pump down perforation do not exhibit this issue.
◦ Gas ingress, migration and storage through the jacket breach. As mentioned earlier, the polymer
molding and bonding have undergone several iterations to ensure no voids are left inside the
cable armor section. This way even if there's gas ingress, there are no voids to be filled and
stored with reservoir gas at bottom hole pressures.
◦ While a scrapped-off section does not pause an immediate well control or other HSE risk, it
can only progressively get worse, ultimately causing the cable to be discarded. Special jacket
repair kits have been developed to ensure repair and restoration of the jacket in the field. 40 ft of
jacket can be repaired with one kit. Cable functionality can thus be maintained and usable life
extended. It is critical to closely inspect the armor for damages if exposed following a jacket
scrape. As-long-as the armor is intact, i.e. the cable remains mechanically sound, repair should
be carried out. Otherwise the cable needs to be removed from service and ultimately discarded
as technology does not exist today to repair the damaged armor section.
◦ Unlike conventional cables, armors in the jacketed cable do not encounter the completion,
casing, wellhead or the derrick metal, all of which are electrically grounded by default. Hence the
cable armor is always at ground voltage during a continuously powered tool operation (tractors,
production logging tools, etc.). As the polymer jacket is an insulator, the armor in the cable is
no longer at ground voltage. Depending on the electrical power and voltage required by the
downhole toolstring, it can be at much higher voltage than ground whenever tool power is
applied. Following a jacket scrape, an exposed armor and a powered tool operation, an exposed
armor can exhibit several hundred volts above ground or zero volts. While not an issue inside
the well, it can be a potential spark source at surface as it is spooled in and out of the well.
This is not allowed in Zoned specified areas (Zone 1 and 2), mainly in live producing wells.
The solution here is to ensure the armor is not used as electrical power path or conductor. The
"Coaxial" cable is therefore the safer version. In such cables, there are two concentric conductors
(center stranded conductor and a stranded or meshed cylindrical serve conductor. (Figure 13).
Unlike Mono conductor cables that forcibly use the armor for electrical return, coaxial cables
have no electrical currents present on the armor during powered tool operations. It is worth
noting conventional Perforating operations do not use continuous powered tools. The only time
electrical power is applied through the cable is when stationary at the perforating depth, hence
the risk of spark during stationary operation is negligible. While this issue sounds alarming, the
actual risk of electrical discharge through the exposed armor has been calculated to be less than
1 in 500,000 descents. With mitigation measures in place (i.e. no metal contact at the well exit
point), this risk drops 1 1/500,000,000.
– Gas ingress in conventional cables most often occurs through the cable termination or rope socket.
While the jacketed cable is completely gas blocked, precautions have been taken to ensure the
termination is doubly protected. A special grease-filled and compensated pressure vessel has been
developed to ensure the cable termination itself does not encounter wellbore fluids. This has the
dual purpose of secondary gas barrier and protection of the cable electrical wiring and connections.
(Figure 14).
SPE-194253-MS 17

– Containing smaller and relatively free hydrogen molecules, sour gases such as H2S can permeate
through the jacket and attack the metal parts of the cable (armor and copper). Hence the need to
replace steel with alloy armors (see above) and nickel coat the copper conductors. The polymer itself
is however not affected by H2S, however to confirm, extensive H2S pressure vessel tests have been
carried during the technology development process.
– The polymer jacket is constantly exposed to wear and tear during multiple descents and operations.
The durability of the polymer in comparison to the armor steel can be a challenge, shortening the
usable life of such cables and hence the financial justification. Essentially polymer on steel vs steel
on steel. By default, the significantly lower polymer on steel friction will reduce wear not only of
the jacket but also of the steel in and other softer metals in different type of completions. The life
of the jacket and hence the cable is increased compared to its metal counterpart. Being in use in
North America land unconventional pump down perforations, some polymer jacketed cables have
successfully over 1000 descents before retirement.
– In the event of stuck tool, the ability to detach the cable from the stuck tool or fish is of primordial
importance. All wireline cable terminations have a built-in electrical or mechanical weakpoint (see
glossary) set to part upon electrical pulse from surface, mechanical overpull and or downhole battery
triggered actuation. Due to malfunction or incorrect selection or cable stuck situation, breaking the
weakpoint may not be possible. Very high overpulls on the cable will only cause it to break at
surface (the highest tension point), dropping thousands of feet of cable in the well, a complete fishing
nightmare. The alternative has been to use a downhole cable cutter that can be dropped from surface.
Upon reaching the tool, the cutter is actuated separating the cable from the tool leaving a clean
fishing neck for the subsequent retrieval operation. This technique works equally well with polymer
jacketed cables. To achieve zero torque balance, the overall amount of armor metal has been reduced
(Figure 15). With less metal to sever, the wireline cable cutters for a given conventional cables can
sever the equivalent size jacketed cable even easier. Several such testing has been carried out with
commercial downhole cable cutters. The same applies for surface completion safety valves and rig
blowout preventer shear rams. As it is impractical to carry out tests for all types of valves and shear
rams, prior testing with the actual equipment is an option for operators.

Figure 13—The Coaxial cable has two conductors – the center conductor and the copper
serve to complete the electrical circuit, without using the armor for electrical return. No
electrical voltage or current can be present on the armor in the event of a jacket scrape.
18 SPE-194253-MS

Figure 14—Sealed and pressure compensated cable termination as added protection against gas ingress
from the jacketed polymer cable termination. All electrical components are shielded from wellbore fluids.

Figure 15—Conventional cable has more metal than the polymer jacketed cable to be cut by conventional cable
cutters. Since the electrical cores are essentially identical, cutting through the polymer is not an issue for the cutters.

Examples of jacketed polymer cables applications:

– Sakhalin ERD wells. When the horizontal lateral exceeds 10 km or 33,000 ft, the drag forces on the
conventional cable are considerable, creating a major hurdle for any tractor to push the payload to
the bottom of the well. Similarly, the cable might not be strong enough to pull it out of the well. The
40% reduction in friction has made the jacketed cable the only viable option to successfully access
the entire length of the Sakhalin wells to perform pipe recovery operations.
– Norway offshore well intervention, production and workover operations are both space and cost
sensitive. Both Wireline and slickline operations are alternatively required at various stages of the
operation. Having a single Wireline unit with one crew and one cable to perform both electrical
and slickline operations is a highly beneficial solution not only reducing deferred production but
managing restricted space and most importantly reduce operational HSE risk significantly where
wireline – slickline unit swaps are eliminated. Such mix operations have been carried out with only
jacketed cables since 2016. Plug mechanical removal and installation, jarring operations have been
successfully performed alongside more complex and involving Wireline cased hole operations.
– US Land unconventional pump down plug and perforate operations. With laterals being completed
with over 10 stages frequently and handing the well to production as early as possible being the
primary objective, Wireline pump down plug and perforate operations need to be carried out with
utmost efficiency. Every single aspect of the operation is closely monitored and timed. Rigging up and
pressure testing of the pressure equipment, gun deployment, tripping in and out speeds, correlation
and perforation and finally shifting between wells. Operating the cable becomes the highest time-
consuming activity, with reliability related incidents inducing the highest non-productive-times. All
such activities are constantly evaluated with service companies to continually improve efficiency
by shaving off literally seconds from the various steps of the operation. Jacketed cables have been
SPE-194253-MS 19

the wireline cable of choice since the beginning of the decade. Leading up to 15% additional stages
completed per day. The production gains therefore can be substantiated and cost of running such
cables easily justified:

◦ Replacement of grease injection WHE by simple dual pack-off. This eliminates about 1 hour
per rig-up, a daily occurrence. Also allows longer guns to be deployed in the same descent.
◦ Polymer jacket is far more resistant to pump down abrasion than standard steel. As a result,
significant faster tripping speeds can be achieved without the concern of damaged cable armors
◦ Polymer jacket prevents armor stranding or birdcaging of the armors, reducing the cable
stranding in WHE risk to negligible, thus eliminating time consuming recovery operations.
◦ Cables will simply last longer, ensuing higher utilization rates saving service companies
replacement and maintenance cost. These savings are eventually transferred to the operator,
offsetting the additional cost these cables command in a very competitive market.
– Campaign or single well type intervention and workover operations. Almost in all cases, starting with
an accurate well intervention program with forecasted production gains or water shut-off results are
near impossible. The operational expense (Opex) and timing restrictions however are almost always
limited. One unforeseen situation is enough to stall the intervention operation and send it to a spiraling
sequence of diagnostics and remedial work consuming the available resources and time. Following a
broken cable or wireline fish left in the well for instance, it is not uncommon for operators to suspend
operations and return later with a more appropriate rig or equipment. Not only valuable production is
deferred, budget and resources need to be reallocated. Jacketed cables can help reduce cable damage
risk, enabling improved planning by the production engineer.
– More recently polymer jacketed gas proof cables are proving beneficial in new well completions
efficiency and early handing to asset management department, which is the topic of the Mexico case
study in the next section.

Mexico case study

The Mexico operator had one critical challenge when completing new wells: Well completion and handing
to production department of the parent company deadlines. The contract stipulated a risk reward type of
agreement. Delays meant penalties while early deliveries commanded a bonus. Time being of essence,
wireline operations were selected as the best method of perforation and production logging operations, pre-
requisite prior to handing the well over. Sour gas precautions were taken to ensure no surprises. While
wireline operations are efficient, however alloy armored cables (H2S resistant) have an inherent design
limitation prohibiting fast tripping speeds through grease flowtubes. The alloy armor is less susceptible to
well debris and cable seasoning. It is therefore more "mobile" than in its steel counterpart. Further, unlike
the steel armored cables, the H2S cable armors do not retain or accumulate well debris with use. Hence its
inter-armor space has higher permeability to well fluids and particularly gas. Adequate amount of grease
needs to be injected to fill-up this volume to act as a proper well fluid barrier. H2S resistant cables have
the elevated risk of birdcage, raised or stranded armor, and well control loss risk. The solution is to reduce
tripping speeds to 6,000 ft/hr or less. This in turn will reduce the risk of birdcaging and ensure grease has
the time to fill all the void space between the armors. In a 20,000 ft well for example, tripping in and out
of the well alone would take close to 7 hrs. At 25,000 ft,/hr (or 4 times the speed), tripping time is reduced
to 1.6 hrs. Further, rigging up grease injection equipment (see Figure 4) would have meant additional rig-
up and rig down and testing time per well. Under stringent environmental restrictions eliminating grease
injection altogether was a convincing driver. The operator opted for the use of greaseless jacketed wireline
cable as the main conveyance method to ensure HSE and operational risk and non-productive time (NPT)
was substantially reduced. And since sour gas was expected in the reservoir, the H2S resistant or the alloy
version of the cable was selected.
20 SPE-194253-MS

With the sour gas polymer jacketed cable came a dual pack-off pressure control equipment (PCE)
eliminating the need for grease and the conventional grease injection head (HGT).
One single jacketed Wireline cable was used for all operations. Well depths being below 7,000 ft (2,100
m), an early production 15,000 ft (4,600 m) cable was sent to Mexico from the cables engineering center in
the US. A 10,000psi dual pack-off was also deployed along with the cable sealed termination, maintenance
kits and accessories. Special jacket repair kits were also supplied enabling the wireline crew to repair
the cable jacket in the event of damages or scrapes during operations. Conventional wireline cable and
equipment were on standby for contingency
All the wells were completed using the one jacketed cable with no grease or special maintenance other
than routine wellsite servicing. Further new cable termination sealed head (pressurized enclosures) was
tested to determine the life of cable termination with sour cables. With conventional sour cables a re-
termination or re-heading is necessary after 3 – 5 perforation descents. In this case one per well would
have been required. With the jacketed cable and the latest pressured enclosure (sealed torpedo) was first
inspected after 25 descents followed by a 50 descents operation prior to re-termination. Essentially a ten
to one increase in descents between servicing. With conventional cables a maintenance event would entail
cutting about 100 ft of cable prior to re-termination. In this case, the total cable length cut for the 130
descents was under 100 ft.
Finally, no cable jacket damage was recorded during the complete operation and hence no interruption
operations was deemed necessary.
During the campaign test period, the cable was successfully deployed in gas wells reaching 6,000 psi
well head pressure (WHP). 25,000 ft/hr tripping speeds were regularly achieved. There were incidents of
cable related operational or HSE failures, well control issues and more importantly environmental spills or
unintentional grease discharges. Although no H2S was observed in the wells, the fact that an H2S resistant
alloy armored cable was required, would have meant a 6,000 ft/hr speed limit. Note, the cable operated
continuously throughout the campaign, moving from well to well, without the need for advanced cable shop
maintenance trips between wells. A conventional H2S resistant alloy cable would require a full maintenance
trip back to the service company's cable shop after almost every well. In this case only routine wellsite
inspection and maintenance were carried out prior to moving to the next well. A second polymer jacketed
cable was simultaneously tested in Canada with very similar and unprecedented results (Table 2).

Table 2—2018 operational statistics with one polymer jacketed cable in Canada and Mexico each. 4 times the conventional tripping
speeds with over 1,000,000 feet over wheel in mostly gas environments have been completed without cable related incidents
or NPT and without the need or cables maintenance trips to the shop. All basic maintenance has been carried out in the field.

Mexico campaign Data and Results

Different wireline operations were carried during the period of February – July 2018. Multiple new wells
were completed in the field. To substantiate savings to the operator, operational details were recorded to
time different phases of per well operation and compared to results obtained in 2017 in the same field, using
conventional cable and HGT. The following Wireline services were run during the campaign:
SPE-194253-MS 21

– GR-CCL (Gamma Ray – Casing collar locator) flowing well finetune the location of perforation and
plug setting depths.
– CBL + Perfo (Cement Bond Log and Perforation) descents to determine casing to cement and cement
to formation bond integrity prior to perforation, followed by well perforation operation with using 2"
and 2 ½" guns of different lengths deployed on Wireline.
– BP + Perfo (bridge plug and Perforation) descents to enable completion strings landing in conjunction
with perforation operations to ensure well fluids production soon after landing the completion string
– PT build-up. 72-hour average Pressure and Temperature build-up well testing descents with Wireline
production logging tools to achieve early well productivity and other production testing requirements.
– Incomplete Operations. These are wireline descents that could not be completed due to wellbore
conditions unrelated to operations or equipment used. There are several reasons a Wireline descent
cannot reach the target depth in a cased hole, through completions operations. Obstructions are
very common for example caused by scale build-up, partially open ball valves, buckling tubing
(temperature effect), oversize tool selection due to incorrectly documented diameter restrictions.
Solutions to incomplete operations can range from a simple use of slimmer tool strings to complete
workover rig-based operation to change the tubing, milling scale or a partially stuck ball valve.
45 wellsite trips were completed with over 130 jacketed cable descents performing the above services.
Typical well depths were in the range of 2000 m (6,600 ft). A per well operating time comparison was
established during the February – July 2018 campaign between jacketed cable operations and the 2017
operations using conventional cables and HGT with grease injection.
On average 5 hrs 45 min were saved per well. Total time savings including non-productive time (well
access issue) was validated by the operator at 220 hrs or more than 9 days during the evaluation period.
With the time savings, the parent operator added 9 days of early production, while the operating company
was rewarded with the early well delivery bonus.
The service company boasted its own savings in grease, pressure equipment, spare parts, logistics and
general maintenance cost reductions. Since the data acquisition was ongoing at this paper submission time
it is estimated that as high as 15% savings per well trip would be possible.
While the operational efficiency gain was the primary driver for the operator to use this new technology,
HSE risk reduction played a central role in the decision process. Although armor stranding and other cable
related operational incidents have not been a major issue for this operator in the past, incident free operation
was critical for the production engineers and the planning process to justify the adoption of new wireline
cable technology to management. Based on the service company historical data, operational statistics
predicted 3.1% cable related incidents (cable gassing-up, stranded armor, torque related cable premature
breakage and well control issues due to well fluids ingress through the cable armors) in cased hole wireline
descents, with a corresponding 7.5 hrs of non-productive time per incident average. Of those incidents,
only a small percentage actually results in well control HSE situation, mitigated swiftly thanks to industry
established mitigating and preventative measures. While these measures are highly effective minimizing
cable related well control incidents, they do however come at a price. The prevention and mitigation process
is technique and time consuming, negatively impacting overall operational efficiency. Due to information
availability, deferred production losses cannot be readily estimated. In the Mexico operator case, all of the
130 descents were completed without any cable incident related delayed production, achieving the main
objective of on time or early well delivery to the asset owner (Graphs 1&2, Table 3)
22 SPE-194253-MS

Graph 1—Monthly Polymer Jacketed sour cable services descent summary from February to July 2018. 45
total trips and 130 wireline cased hole descents were completed, broken down per type of service performed.

Graph 2—Monthly rig-up rig down time (hours) saved using Polymer jacketed cables without grease
injection compared to conventional rig-up operation using grease injection equipment and testing.
SPE-194253-MS 23

Table 3—Polymer jacketed cable operations average time savings per well for critical
operation including rig-up, rig-down and tripping times. Conventional equipment times
are averages obtained from the pre-polymer jacketed cable phase of the same campaign.

Conclusions
Following the successful completion of the test period, the Mexico operator has decided to adopt the new
polymer jacketed technology as the standard wireline cable for its operations in Mexico. At the time of this
paper submission, the operator is expanding the cable use to other fields and reservoirs in Mexico. Two
additional cables have been deployed coming to 2018 end.
Polymer jacketed, encapsulated and torque balanced wireline cased hole cables can substantiate tangible
cost savings and operational HSE benefits in almost all cased hole wireline operation, ranging from
complex and extreme environments to high volume campaign type routine operations such as pump down
perforation plugging. By engineering out conventional wireline cable limitations, not only well control
and environmental spill risk is reduced but Wireline operational envelope can be expanded to previously
uncharted or even wireline exclusive and complex well intervention and workover operations. Service
companies have been investing heavily in smart instrumented well intervention tools and services. Polymer
jacketed cables will be the main enablers. Overall production cost and deferred production reductions
can be effectively achieved with the combined effect of increased operational efficiency, well control and
environmental risk, and cost of services reduction.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Mexico operator participating in the systematic evaluation of operational
and HSE benefits brought by polymer jacketed wireline cables and allowing data to be published. The
authors also would like to thank the Schlumberger Cables Engineering team for sharing the cable design
and test data.

Acronym and Definitions Glossary

Birdcaging/ Opening-up of wireline cable helically wound armor strands, loosening of the armor
birdsnesting strands. Cable mechanical integrity is decreased and armor strands breakage will usually
follow
BHP Bottom hole or reservoir pressure at the target depth – flowing or shut-in
BHT Bottom hole or reservoir temperature at the target depth
BOP Wireline Blowout Preventer – Used as part of the WHE as secondary well control barrier
ERD Extended reach drilling
Flowtube A hollow center high pressure grease tube, with a slightly larger inner diameter than
the wireline cable used for the operation. High viscosity grease is injected inside the
flowtube, filling the small volume around the cable at higher pressure than the well head
24 SPE-194253-MS

pressure. The grease coats and penetrates the armors of the conventional cable, serving
the dual purpose of a pressure barrier against well fluids from atmospheric environment
and a low friction medium where the wireline cable can move freely.
GIPS/GEIPS Galvanized (extra) improved Plowed steel – used for manufacturing wireline cable armors
HGT Hydraulic Grease Injection Tool-head - used for well control with moving wireline cable
– used as the primary barrier for well control during wireline operations
NACE National Association of Corrosion Engineers. Used as reference for sour gas
corrosiveness
PCE Surface Wireline pressure control equipment consisting of Blowout preventer, grease
tubes and other accessories such as stuffing box, tool trap, grease pumps
SHT Surface hole temperature
Weakpoint A mechanically or electrically released device, typically located at the downhole end of
the wireline cable. It enables the controlled release of the cable from the stuck toolstring
and intact retrieval prior to a specialized retrieval operation.
WHE Well Head equipment (Wireline pressure control)
WHP Well head pressure – flowing or shut-in

References
No direct references have been cited in this paper since this is the first publication. However, several SPE publications
include information on Wireline polymer cables with wireline tractors, Powered Well intervention instrumentation and
extended reach Wireline perforation operations. These papers are cited below as additional information for similar
wireline cable technology already in use in the industry.
Sarian, S., Varkey, J., Protasov, V., Turner, J., 2012, Polymer-Locked Crush-Free Wireline Composite Cables Reduce Tool
Sticking and HSE Risk. SPE-164762-MS
Akue, M., Delaval, F., de Crevoisier, L., Hermes, A., Tchieji, Y., Sarian, S., Bozzolan, P., Reid, M., Bahmudov, K., 2014,
Openhole Tractor And High Tension Conveyance Package Reduces HSE Risk And Saves 3 Days of Rig Time For
Formation Sampling In A Highly Deviated Well. SPE-170565-MS
Bradford, C., Guedes, C.E., Baumann, C., Pour, H., Sarian, S., Aboelnaga, S., Smart, M., 2019, Perforating Conveyance
Technology Achieves a World Record In Maximizing Operational Efficiency. SPE-19428