Advances inWellCompletionand stimulation during IPT's first Quarter Century

Angeles Brandon Bogor

In response to theincreasing demand and declining reserves the oil industry

hassoughtand successfully foundoil at greater depths and in more hostile
environments One of themost importantof the new developments was the
permanent type well completion reported in 1953 by Huberand Touch
In this type the tubing and wellhead ave set in place when the well is
first completed and all subsequent completion and remedial work is
donethrough the tubing with wireline tools the cost of well
compltimetion
and workover operations is considerably lessthen that of conventional
completions The authors reported
rig savings of t to 3 daysduring
completionsand or 75percentreduction in thecosts of certain types of
workovers Another advantages of permanent completions are that more
reliable and accurate reservoir information is obtained actual oiland
water contacts con be determined economically with thewell onproduction
the use of tubing extensionspermits cementing and well treating operations
without an auxiliary rig In 1985 Althouse and Fisher no stateof the art
managed to put the technology of multiple completions in perspective During
World War II the use ofmultiple completions expandedrapidly oso means
ofmaximizing production with a minimum consumption of steel Althouse
and Fisher comprehensive review of multiple completiontechnology provided
operating engineers with a votionalbasis forevaluating the applicability
of this technology totheir own needs Theirpaperdiscussed the equipment
available the generalprinciples of various types of multiple completionand
the over all economies tobe expected Despite this one of themore difficult
problems is finding o way to make subsea completions economically viable
An important stepforwardthis goal was the development of technology for
remote completion production and workover of an
underwater satellite
wellwithoutrig assistance Thefirst successful demonstration was described
by Rigg et al in 1966 Frank's introduction in 1968otan improved concentric
tubing work over technique wasan important contributionforward reducingoffshore
workover costs The technique makes useofsmall diameter tubing runinsidethe
production tubing toperformthe work over operations and is applicable in
directional holes os well os straightholes Time and reduced cost result
rig
from the elimination of theneed to refreneand return tubing and packers
Completions in deeper hotter wells andthevapidgrowth ofthermalstimulation
operations have made it increasingly important It the tubing is free
to more inside the packer changes in temperature and pressure in the
well will increase or decrease the length ofthe tubing is constrained in
the packer forces are introduced in the tubingandpacker Pipe collapse
has been observed when steam is injected intowells tensile failure has
been reported whenconstrained tubing in a deep hotwell is cooled down
byinjecting large volumes of cool treating fluid such os acid In 1962
 Angeles Brandon Bogor
Lobinski published o mathematicalmethod for predicting the forces and
pipe movement caused by these conditions taking into account the effectof
helical buckling Many laboratory studies demonstratedthat thecomposition
of o fluid flowing through o sandstone core has o radical effecton the
specific permeability to water Recognizing thegrowth concern about
informationdamage Nowak and Krueger reported in 1951 on theeffects
of various drillingfluids on formation rock under bothstatic and dynamic
conditions Usingrestorded state coves saturated withoil andinsterttal brine
they observed that permeability to oilwas also adversely affected by invasion
of fresh water andfreshwatermudfiltrotes Also an important observation isthe
the flow of oil followingwater invasion restored permeability to oil to
pra tical
levels that were usually many timesgreater than the specific
perme bility
to water In1969 Jones demonstrated that abrupt reductions in salinity con
cause permeability damage whereas gradual changesmay have little effect In
terms of Formation damage from particle invasion an importantconclusion
from thiswork wasthe interstitial invasion forms an internal mudcoke inside
porespacesThiscoke is notentirely removed during backflow andsome permanent
permeability damage remains In Check volve pone blocking
poronce Grayand
RexandKrueger who postulated that micron and submieron size fragments of
claysand other minerals are dislodgedby shearingforces on weakly bonded
mineralor doy crystals when salinity changes occur However Kruger showed
that the effects of water sensitivity con bedrastically reduced bylow velocity
formation cleanup and damaged well productivitycon sometimes be improved
substantially byor backflush followed by restricteddrawdownPerforation
plugging results in lowwell productivity failure ofsqueezing cementing and
sand control treatments and many otheroperating problems Theway to
preventtheseproblems a clean solids free fluid with low filtrationrate
andcontrollable density is required
Cementing
Cementing was first introduced to the industry in 1903 In the early 1900s
construction cementand high early strength cement were used for
cementing wells In 1939 Farris developed o laboratory device for
measuring thickening time under both
downhole temperature andpressure
his results quantized thot bothhigh pressureand temperature wouldaccelerate
the stiffening and setting of cement During the decodeof theforties the
basisfor turbulent placementof cement use of scratchers or jetsand
cement filtrationcontrol was established Retorders accelerators density
modifiers fluid losscontrollers moddecontaminants all are important
controls over downhole conditions In studies of squeeze procedures water
or acid was or more effective breakdown agentthan drilling mudand slow
pumping of cement resultedun higherfinal squeeze pressure with smaller
volumes ofcementpumped In December of 1932 the first downhole perforator
gun
was used in Oil Co of California well en Montebello field Since thattime gun
 Angeles BrandonBogor
perforation has become the most widely used completionmethod because of
advantages of wireline operationsandthe selective perforationandproduction
of a givenzone An important characteristic is that theshotdensity is more
importantthanthe depth Many factors influence perforador performance
dow hole
therefore thefollowing investigations were made Hydraulicjet perforating
wasintroduced in 1960byPitman penetration isachievedbypumping obras u laden
throughtubingandthengetting it horizontally through a nozzle In wells completed in
shallow recent sediments sound production is omejor cause of wellbore plugging
production r duced
anderosionof mechanical productionequipmentSlottedlinersand
wire wrapped screens are used successfully when formationstability is notasevere
problemOpenholegravel packingusually underreaming theproductive inter
ingles
vol settingo slotted liner or screen and I sacking the annuluswith gravel
Theeffectiveness ofgravel packingforsand controldependscritically uponthe
rel tionship
of formation sandsize togravel size In 1951Westdescribed o methodof
isolating individual zonesandcontrollingtheproducing depth in a gravelpack To
minimizeproductivity damage gravel should be carefully selected to retain
the finest formationgroin sizes and itshould beofhighquality Plastic consolidation
has become a widely used method ofsandcontrol forthin producing intervals Hall
and Hourisberger have presented o fundamental studyof the mechanical process of
failure of thesand structure around the wellboreand the factorsthataffect the
stability ofthe formation theyconcludedthatthetwo conditions required for
stability of an arch ofsand are dlatency and cohesiveness Now acidezing
usually occurs in natural or hydraulically created fractures In most cases
deep penetration of acid through fractures is desirable to ache ve large
productivity increases However in 1965 Smith and Hendrickson discussed
thereactivity and kinetics of hydrofluoric acid Animportant outgrowth
of this work was the use of tapered acid treatmentdesigns involving
hydrochloricacid spearheads and toil ins to inhibit deposition of plugging
reaction products During the trip down hole acid dissolves metallic iron
and iron scaleand after leaving thepipe attacks iron compoundpresent in
the formation The precipitation of iron hydroxide or other iron containing
compounds conseriously damage theflowchannels openedbyacid reaction In
1968 Smith provided o publication withbasis forevaluatingpotentialformation
plugging problems intheiroperationsandwith methodsof avoidingor minimizingthem In
rata Clarkintroducedtheindustry theconceptof pumping o viscousfluiddownhole
ortohighvote to build o pressureturupturetherockwhich is Hydraulic fracturing
After this HubbertandWillis concluded thatwhenpressure isappliedin aborehole the
fractures created should be approximately perpendicular tothe axis ofleststress
regardless ofthetypeoffluidused Lagrange and Romussen reportedin 1963 the
development of diverting techniqueTheprocedure involveslimitingthenumber of
perforations in the selected intervals sothatat thedesign pumpvote thevestirte
flow capacity of theperforationsautomatically causes the fluid to divert
through outthe interval Thismethod is limited to thin tones