Productivity Improvement Case Studies Session V...Productivity Improvement Case Studies Session V: Extended Lateral Solutions for an Extremely Difficult 2019-NAPS-5.2 Well Trajectory

Productivity Improvement Case Studies Session V:

Extended Lateral Solutions for an Extremely Difficult

Well Trajectory2019-NAPS-5.2AUTHORS: Larry Albert, Jason Booher and Anthony Wilson, Allied-Horizontal Wireline Services; Fraser Hamilton and Jason Hradecky, Impact Selector International; Dustin Dunning and Vadim Protasov, WireCo WorldGroup

DALLAS - FORT WORTH. AUGUST 5-6, 2019.

2019-NAPS-5.2 Extended Lateral Solutions for an Extremely Difficult Well Trajectory

Zones Above Reservoir Target Cause Drilling Problems

• An E&P operator planned a horizontal well in an area where zones above target cause drilling problems when trying to build angle and land lateral

• Offset Wells proved difficult; therefore, new drilling plan was devised

• New plan required drilling through target reservoir

• After reaching base at 14,000 ft., drill up at maximum of 114⁰ until reentry of target reservoir

• Maximum Dogleg Severity (DLS) 24.6o/100 ft.

• Due to faulting in area and required well direction, target reservoir was dipping up at ~10⁰ laterally toward horizontal drilling target

• The well had to be drilled at ~100⁰ deviation to 21,100 ft.

The Problem – Extremely Difficult Well Trajectory


The Problem – Extremely Difficult Well Trajectory

Well Plan


• High frictions on the wireline due to well trajectory

• Wireline tools would slide down inclined casing during and after operations

• If tool position not maintained, wireline could be entangled and result in stuck tool

• If overrun occurred next to perforating guns when detonated, wireline could be severed

Challenges for Wireline Plug & Perforating

Normal wireline plug and perforating completion operations could prove extremely difficult


Alternatives if Wireline P&P Cannot be Executed Could Be Expensive (estimated $millions)

• Abandon acreage

• Continue drilling attempts building angle above target

• Reposition surface location and drill down dip

• Reduce angle and shorten lateral in target

• Coiled tubing conveyed plug and perforating completion

Alternatives Expensive


Extended Lateral Technology

• Jacketed wireline

• Addressable separation tool

• Downhole tension tool

• Advanced risk deployment modeling

Meeting the Challenges


Challenge: Increased Friction with Standard Wireline

• Guns and plug assemblies are gravity deployed, pumped down and pulled out of hole

• Friction created by steel armor increases with changes in hole direction/deviation

• Wirelines have defined breaking strength and a maximum safe pull of 50% of breaking strength

• Wireline friction, plus vertical weight causes high surface tension

• Severe doglegs and long laterals can cause surface tensions to exceed safe working limits

• High potential for drum crush on long laterals when tools are pumped down at low surface tension and pulled out at much higher tension

Inner Conductor

Insulation


When POOH Tools Can Overrun Wireline

• Tools slide down inclined casing

• Wireline can be perforated and severed

• Assembly potentially stuck in borehole

• Complex fishing operation may result

Challenge: Wireline Overrun


Meeting the Challenge – Jacketed Wireline

• Specially formulated polymer jacket

• Eliminates grease injection

• Reduces Friction, lowers surface tension & allows higher tension to cable head

• Prevents drum crush

• Fully torque balanced

• Higher safety margins & faster running speeds

• Eliminates difference between fixed and free ends breaking strength

• Eliminates bird-caging, high stands, broken armors and crossed armors

• Stiffness helps eliminate wireline overrun

Jacketed Wireline

Insulation

Inner Conductor

PolymerJacket

Steel Armors


Modeled Jacketed vs. Standard Wireline

• Modeled surface tension • Standard: 3,000 lbs• Jacketed: 2,250 lbs.

(-25%)

Comparing Friction of Jacketed vs. Standard Wireline


Challenge – How to Release Wireline if Stuck in Well

Cable Head Weak-Point

• A method to separate the wireline from the tools is required

• If wireline is not recovered, fishing operations are substantially more complicated

• Traditional methods involve building a cable head weak-point

• Tension must be applied at, or above weak-point rating• Straight-forward for vertical wells, but becomes more

challenging as borehole deviation increases

• Surface tensions are high in long laterals with high dogleg severity, making it impossible to pull enough tension at surface to break cable head weak-point


Addressable Separation Tool

• Developed specifically for plug and perf in longer laterals

• Ballistic release and an addressable switch that can be selected and fired on command

• Can run stronger weak-point, reducing the risk for unintentional pump-offs.

Meeting the Challenge – Addressable Separation Tool


Challenge – Monitor Cable Head Tension

Prevent Pump-Offs and Stuck Tools

• Typically, wireline tension measured at surface and downhole cable head tension estimated based on depth and wireline specifications

• Works well in vertical wells, but suffers as deviation increases

• Very inefficient in horizontal wells, especially long laterals with high dogleg severity

• In long laterals, only small percentage of surface tension applied to cable head

• Difficult to position downhole tools because of lag between wireline movement at surface and tool movement downhole


Meeting the Challenge – Monitor Tension Downhole

Downhole Tension Tool

• Direct measurement of the cable head tension

• Increase RIH and POOH speed

• Mitigate risk in toe-up wells

• Downhole indication of plug set


Pre-Job Planning is Critical

• Pump down plug and perf, pumps are kicked on at kick-off point

• Tools are pumped below plug setting depth and pumps are shutdown

• Tools are pulled uphole to set plug and to shoot guns

• Long Laterals with high DLS, can be difficult to pull off bottom due to high tension

• At wellbore angles > 100°the tools will slide down the casing, potentially overrunning wireline


Meeting the Challenge – Risk Deployment Modeling

Risk Deployment Models

• For highly deviated and extended wells pre-job planning is a necessity

• Model with wireline friction coefficients• Estimates surface & downhole tensions• Determines if completion can be safely

achieved without damage to wireline• Models fluid effect & pump-rates on

tool assembly• Estimates required pump-rates to:

• Deploy tools• Maintain toe-up tool position


Meeting the Challenge – Risk Deployment

Estimating Pump-Rates

• An average of 6 bpm pump down rate required to maintain tool-string position while pulling out of the hole throughout uphill lateral

• A minimum of 2.2 bpm pump rate was calculated to maintain a balanced cable head tension, i.e. to keep the tools stationary at 114 degrees

• Should pump rate drop out, a negative cable head tension of ~100 lbs. was confirmed, enough to initiate backward movement of the tools


Meeting the Challenge – Risk Deployment Modeling

After careful analysis of wellbore modeling it was decided that job could proceed at proposed drilling trajectory and could be completed with wireline plug and perforating


Meeting the Challenge – Job Execution

Job Execution• Five cluster (3.125 in. 660) 36 holes

perforating and composite frac plug tool assembly

• Toe stages were pumped down at 12 bpm, 2100 psi and 260 fpm line speed.

• Surface tension coming off bottom to position to set plug was 2250 lbs. and downhole tension 500 lbs.

• Pump rate 6 bpm while POOH to plug set depth

• Monitored downhole tension to insure it remained above 0 lbs.

• Tools did not slide down inclined casing overrunning cable


Meeting the Challenge – Job Execution

• After the plug was set, the outside diameter of the tool assembly was reduced. To counter downward tool motion, pump rate immediately increased from 6 to 12 bpm while monitoring downhole tension

• Tools were pulled up at a constant speed while pumping 12 bpm and 5 guns were perforated at appropriate well depths

• After the last guns were shot the line speed was increased as pump rates were lowered

• Once the tools were back to depth where borehole deviation changed from toe-up (~14,000 ft.), pumps were shut down and wireline tools retrieved to surface

• Well was completed with zero failures and no issues with wireline overrun in the inclined casing


Summary and Conclusions

• Proper pre-job planning and application of Extended Lateral technology proved to be key to success on a very difficult well with an extreme trajectory

• With advanced well modeling, the pump rates for tool deployment and positioning can be determined

• Jacketed wireline with a downhole tension tool allowed a precise deployment of the tool string while pumping tools uphole at deviations as high as 114°

• Pump rates were adjusted during plug setting and perforating to keep tool-string from sliding down the inclined casing and overrunning wireline

• The use of addressable separation tool allowed running full-strength cable head weak-point, providing wireline engineer additional tension during pump-down operations without fear of pumping tools off wireline

• The ability to successfully complete this well at proposed trajectory with wireline plug and perforating operations allowed well to be drilled as planned and significantly reduced costs for the E&P operator

DALLAS - FORT WORTH. AUGUST 5-6, 2019. QUESTIONS? THANK YOU

2019-NAPS-5.2AUTHORS: Larry Albert, Jason Booher and Anthony Wilson, Allied-Horizontal Wireline Services; Fraser Hamilton and Jason Hradecky, Impact Selector International; Dustin Dunning and Vadim Protasov, WireCo WorldGroup

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Productivity Improvement Case Studies Session V...Productivity Improvement Case Studies Session V: Extended Lateral Solutions for an Extremely Difficult 2019-NAPS-5.2 Well Trajectory