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Wells drilled using slim hole techniques are reducing initial drilling costs. The technology to conduct effective petrophysical
evaluation in slim wells is available. Thus, slim hole development wells should be considered for many projects. Wells in
fields will not flow at the rates traditionally required to justify subsea producers and smaller production conduit may be
adequate.
1 Monobore completion
"A monobore completion is a completion featuring fullbore access across the pay zone, without diameter restrictions (but not
The primary difference is that the monobore completion inner diameter tapers downward with the smallest inner diameter
being the production liner (or casing) whereas the conventional completion tapers down to a minimum inner diameter,
usually located at the base of the packer tailpipe, and the production liner (or casing) is of increased inner diameter.
The emergence of slim hole drilling technology now allows hole sizes such as 4 1/8" and 4 3/4" to be drilled quickly and
reliably: These hole sizes are appropriate for 3 1/2" OD liners. Additionally, a large proportion of wells are adequately
serviced by 3 1/2" production tubing. Use of a 3 1/2" production liner, in conjunction with a 3 1/2" production tubing allows
the cost savings associated with slim wells to be achieved while maintaining an outflow system suited to a large proportion
of wells.
1.2 Advantages
The key advantage of the monobore completion is that the opportunity for low cost (rigless) well intervention is maximised.
Another major advantage is that well impairment and formation damage is mitigated because the monobore is suitable for
intervention techniques such as slick line, braided line and coiled tubing; these can safely be conducted on live wells.
The completion is simple, requiring a minimum of equipment to be installed in the well at the time of completion.
The largest possible perforating guns can be run into the production liner so that casing guns can be used where desirable.
Reliable, low expansion, selective placement tools can be used within the production liner.
Scale clean out operations of the liner are easily achieved on coiled tubing or with a snubbing unit.
1.3 Disadvantages
In many cases, a monobore completion requires more casing/liner flow than in a conventional completion. This may have
two implications:
Limited ability to circulate a well dead at the top of the productive zone. This is generally not a concern because most wells
can be bullheaded dead, and the option of placing a retrievable bridge plug in the top of the liner section and circulating the
for the liner. Also the costs of sidetracking round mechanical damage, corrosion and formation impairment have fallen
relative to workover. In many cases a sidetrack round a corroded liner may be justifiable.
If monobore plugs become stuck in the liner, it becomes necessary to mill them out compared to a conventional completion
where it may be possible to hoist tubing and retrieve a stuck plug or even to 'shoot off' or 'perforate' a packer tailpipe to
Generally, when a monobore completion is run in larger sizes, the tubing size selected is one size larger than liner size. For
instance, 5" tubing is set above a 4 1/2" production liner: this completion will tolerate scale build up in the tubing while still
facilitating full bore access to the production liner. In the 3 1/2" monobore completion, all scale build up would have to be
removed from the entire production tubing to allow full bore access to the production liner.
The limited operating history of 3 1/2" monobore tools is an issue. An extensive favourable operating history for 4 1/2", 5"
and 5 1/2" monobore operating tools is available. Indications are that the 3 1/2" tools will perform favourably but operating
experience is required.
Slip damage to the production liner arising from use of monobore tools can act as a point of initiation for corrosion. The
consequence of slip damage initiated corrosion in and adjacent to the productive interval is probably not an issue but is a
In the case of a 3 1/2" liner, flow velocities while producing and subsequent to perforating underbalanced may inadvertently
lift tools. In most cases, it is expected that this can be managed with appropriate job planning but tool lifting by flow must be
In the event of a poor primary cement job, remedial cementing in a 3 1/2" production liner is expected to be difficult.
2 Alternative well designs
Depending on the objective and particular completion considerations, an endless variety of alternative well designs is
possible. Some of the obvious alternatives, complete with respective advantages and disadvantages, are detailed below.
to set casing prior to penetrating the reservoir. Where possible, a conventional well design with 4 1/2", 5" or 5 1/2" full string
production casing will likely result in lower initial well costs. In this case, it is necessary to decide whether the advantages of
a monobore completion will more than offset the cost of setting a 3 1/2" liner.
The monobore completion is not particularly suited to wells where zonal selectivity is required. Where selective completions
are required, a conventional completion is likely the preferred choice. Prior to committing to a well with selectivity, one
Commingling of production with (or without) production logging to allocate production to reservoirs is an option. The value of
conventions/regulations prohibiting commingled production should be challenged. In the event that commingling is
In many low rate wells, production tubing diameters smaller than 3 1/2" tubing (typically 2 3/8" and 2 7/8") are required to
achieve vertical flow stability and allow natural flow or optimised artificial lift. The lack of availability of monobore tools and
equipment suited for use in 2 3/8" tubing or 2 7/8" tubing, will make the conventional completion an obvious alternative.
Where 2 7/8" or smaller tubing is required, coiled tubing can be used to achieve conventional (non-monobore) completions.
When pumping is the preferred artificial lift option, a conventional completion is likely to be more desirable than a monobore
style is suited to applications where no production casing annulus is required for artificial lift and the consequence of a
casing leak is minor. Although tubingless completions have predominantly been used in America in low rate wells, they are
also used in the Middle East and North Africa for very large diameter high rate completions. They may be the most cost
tubulars for initial completions and recompletions. It has become routine to install coiled tubing to serve as a velocity string in
gas wells to improve flowing tubing hydraulics. Available technology make it possible to install coiled tubing complete with
packers, subsurface safety valves, and gas lift mandrels to serve as a recompletion or initial well completion.
Ttwo types of coiled tubing completions ar eavailable: conventional and spoolable. In the conventional style, standard side
pocket mandrels are inserted into the coiled tubing string as it is run into the well: This completion style has the advantage
that conventional wireline work such as bottom hole pressure surveys can be run. In the spoolable style, concentric gas lift
mandrels and surface controlled subsurface safety valves are installed within the coiled tubing resulting in a slick OD which
can be installed/retrieved directly from/to a coiled tubing reel. This style of completion is safer to install and can be installed
3 Inflow performance
Although the effect of reduced wellbore diameter must be examined on a case by case basis, the effect is often minimal.
Skin has significant direct impact on well productivity. The skin effect, which is resultant from a pressure drop across the
Skin due to partial completion often overwhelms the other skin effects. When a monobore completion is used, one can
choose a comparatively aggressive initial completion interval and shut off perforations as required therefore mitigating the
One of the potential benefits of slim hole drilling, due to reduced mud circulating volumes, is that proportionately more
money can be spent on the mud system on a unit of volume basis and proportionately more of the mud can be processed
with solids control equipment keeping the mud in better shape. Given that better mud is used, the amount of skin damage
attributed to drilling should be proportionately less. Although unproved, this postulation warrants consideration.
If one assumes that the volume of filtrate invasion is directly proportional to the filter cake permeability and area, one can
argue that the depth of filtrate invasion (not radius of invasion) will be less as wellbore diameter is reduced. Calculations
have shown that when borehole diameter is reduced from 8 1/2" to 4 3/4", the thickness of the invaded zone is reduced by
20%.
If it is determined that the skin due to damage is positive, the formation damage can often be partially removed by an acid
treatment. As a result of a successful acid job the skin factor may be reduced to zero or even become negative.
Increasing the effective permeability (k) in the near wellbore region will directly improve a well's productivity index. This has
In certain cases, such as a steam flood of viscous heavy oil, the resulting reduction in viscosity can yield significant
increases in productivity.
Since re/rw appears as a logarithmic term, it has little influence on the PI and alteration of the ratio by, for instance,
underreaming the wellbore to increase rw, is seldom considered as a means of well stimulation.
Based on this simple argument, we can conclude that wellbore diameter has a minor direct effect on productivity index.
Wellbore diameter has little direct impact on the inflow of a well. For instance, the PI impact of reducing wellbore diameter
from 8 3/4" to 4 3/4" is comparable with reducing wellbore diameter from 12 1/4" to 8 3/4". Traditionally, a 12 1/4" wellbore
If for instance, the skin due to damage of an 8 3/4" wellbore is 4, and the estimated depth of damage is 0.105 m; then one
would predict that the relative productivity of a 4 3/4" wellbore is 0.9 times that of the base 8 3/4" wellbore. Clearly, the
productivity impact of reducing wellbore diameter for open hole completions must be carefully considered on a case by case
basis.
When assessing the effect of reduced wellbore radius on inflow performance, one must remember that:
1.Critical rate limitations may limit well production rates making loss in PI due to reduced wellbore radius insignificant.
2.Some slim hole drilling techniques, such as the Shell/Eastman system, making the incremental cost of drilling a horizontal
3.Use of a monobore well completion style allows more aggressive initial perforated intervals to be selected resulting in less
geometric skin.
Also, on perforating, in a cased through and perforated completion, the effectiveness of the perforations has an
overwhelming effect on well inflow performance and wellbore radius is thereby insignificant.
4 Perforating
The fundamental objective of well completion design is to maximise the economic contribution of wells over their life time
with due consideration for all factors such as reliability, safety, operating and reservoir and mechanical considerations. In the
context of perforating a cased well completion, this objective will generally be met if the perforations maximise productivity
interval is partially perforated to avoid water, gas or other production problems, or when the wellbore penetrates the pay
In general, the geometric skin (Sc+q), associated with partial completion and drift angle is not significantly different between
4.75" and 8.75" wellbore diameters. No specific consideration of geometrical effects is warranted when planning perforation
Spare depth of penetration into the formation, shot density, shot phasing and perforation diameter.
For a 3 1/2" perforated liner, significant gains in well productivity can be achieved as phasing is increased from 0° to 90°. A
Benefits that can be achieved by high shot densities, particularly in highly anisotropic formations.
Perforation diameter has a relatively minor role in determining productivity in non-gravel packed wells. For most oil wells,
perforation diameters of 0.3" are generally adequate. (Perforation diameter is an important parameter in certain specific
types of completions, e.g. internal gravel packs and high rate gas wells).
forced to compromise between perforation charge size, perforation gun type and performance, drawdown and the risk of
One problem that occurred when wireline perforating a 3 1/2" production liner underbalanced, was that the perforating guns
were blown up the hole and then got stuck. It is important to ensure that enough sinker bar is run to overcome the effects of
drawdown.
Another problem when perforating underbalanced is the influx of formation into the annulus between the production liner and
the perforating guns causing the guns to become 'sanded in'. Local experience, with regard to formation sand influx, must be
considered in designing a slim hole perforating job. If large (massive) sand production is associated with underbalanced
perforating, one should consider perforating at or near balance followed by perforation washing or acidisation (if required).
the lack of containment of rogue charge energy and the consequent detrimental effect on the casing, and
Modern strip guns utilise high strength charge housings which should prevent damage to casing.
Schlumberger's Enerjet guns utilise a solid carrier bar in an effort to mitigate the probability of parting guns resulting in
retrieval problems. The JRC strip guns are of a two wire construction which can lead to problems in conventional
tubing/packer completions, especially if only one wire breaks (which if failure occurs, is usually the case). This results in a
fish hook which is particularly difficult to pull up into a packer tailpipe: Re-entry into a packer tailpipe is not an issue in a
monobore completion so the risk of difficulty in retrieving strip guns is smaller in these circumstances.
The problem of debris generated by strip guns still remains. For instance, JRC's Dyna-Cap gun with 21 gm charges
generates debris weighing 180 gm and having a volume of 6.9 cc per charge.
Although testing has not been conducted on the various perforating guns, the JRC 2.13" Multiphase Dyna-Cap appears to
be a good compromise and is currently available. It incorporates large (21 gm) charges, 4 SPF, approximate 90° phasing.
Although shot densities of 4 SPF are adequate in many isotropic formations, higher shot densities will yield benefit in
anisotropic formations.
Initial gun developments should emphasise perforation depth once shot diameters of 0.3" have been achieved.
Guns for perforating 3 1/2" liners in monobore wells are currently available.
Further gun developments is carried out by the service industry in response to industry demand.
5 Sand control
The sand control options for slim hole wells are listed below with a discussion of their respective merits and drawbacks. In
principle, most forms of sand control can be applied in slim hole wells. The effect of smaller diameter on overall productivity,
compared to conventionally sized completions, has been shown to be low. Thus, for slim hole wells, the issue of low
impairment during the completion phase is just as critical as for conventionally sized wells.
hole section. Where there is only one completion interval, and the risk of formation failure is considered small, this option
should be considered as the initial productivity could be quite high. However, depending on the prepack selected and the
formation particle size distribution, there is the danger that the prepacked screen will plug as the formation packs around it,
potentially reducing productivity. Also, there is no scope for zonal isolation in this type of completion.
Normally, when a well has sand exclusion applied, there is a reduction in productivity. This technique is rapidly losing favour
due to its poor productivity. Several new gravel packing techniques are currently being tested but none has led to substantial
improvement in productivity yet. Slim hole IGPs are successfully installed, using 1" wire wrapped screens (WWS). They are
In conventionally sized completions, an external gravel pack would be more productive than the IGP, due in part to the
absence of perforations. In the slim hole case, the under-reamed hole diameter from a 4 1/8" pilot hole would be ± 8". If
casing has to be milled, prior to under-reaming, the external pack tends to be more expensive than the internal one.
The Auger gravel pack screen from Baker Sand Control offers an alternative to Internal Gravel Packs (IGP) and External
Gravel Packs (EGP). In this case, the perforations or open hole are initially prepacked, before the Auger screen is screwed
into place. This should minimise impairment as the gravel is placed when the perforations or open hole are at their cleanest.
Generally, it is accepted that gravel packs control sand production most effectively, and are the preferred option in cases
where no sand production can be tolerated at all or where the cost of remedial work would be excessive, e.g. subsea
completions.
The last technique which also leaves a screen in the wellbore is the fracpack. The main advantage of this technique is that
the fracture extends beyond any damaged zone and so stimulates the well, potentially giving very high PI.
However, all these techniques leave a screen in the hole. The small ID of these completions means that access below or
logging across these intervals will not be readily possible. This may significantly increase the life cycle costs of the well.
Thus, the preferred scenario would be to leave an unobstructed wellbore, so that the intervals can be individually selected, if
required.
the higher side, but the main drawback is that only relatively short intervals can be treated at one time. To overcome this, a
straddle packer can be used to selectively treat multiple zones in one trip. Up facing wash cups ensure that the upper zones
do not sustain losses while the lower zones are being treated.
An extension of this technique has been a one trip system, where the zones were perforated and consolidated in one trip.
This minimises the exposure of the formation to wellbore fluids, in the time between perforating and consolidation. The
technique also saves rig time, which should reduce costs. Experience with sand consolidation shows that some sand
production may occur when the well is initially opened. Afterwards, the sand rate drops back to low levels.
prepacking with resin coated gravel. Usually, there is excess gravel in the wellbore, which has to be drilled out. The
disadvantage of this type of approach is that the formation remains loose and so material may flow into the gravel prepack
If chemical sand consolidation is carried out when cavities are present, the chemicals may not be uniformly injected around
the cavity walls, into the formation. Also, the formation around the cavities, may be dilated with few contact points between
the sand grains, which would lead to poor consolidation strength after treatment. Thus, the cavities should be prepacked
prior to a chemical consolidation treatment. The resin would then consolidate not only the prepacked gravel, but also the
formation around the cavity, stopping this material from flowing into the prepack. This prepacking-consolidation technique
could also be applied to new zones, if excessive fill has been seen after perforating or when perforations have been washed.
Similarly, a fracpack could be completed without a screen in place and subsequently consolidated. Resin coated proppant
has been used in the past to try to control proppant back production from massive hydraulic fractures. Unfortunately, there
have been a number of cases where the resin coated proppant has been produced back. The failures could be due to the
resin interacting with the frac fluid, which could degrade the resin properties. Alternatively, the proppant may be too poorly
packed together to yield a good consolidation perhaps because the fractures close more slowly than the resin cure rate.
The advantage of carrying out a chemical consolidation after fracturing, would be that the treatment could be carried out,
after the frac had closed. Also, the epoxy resins used for chemical consolidation, are more robust and durable than the
phenolic and furan resins used for coating proppant. Phenolic and furan based resins have been shown to degrade during
stress cycling, due to their brittleness. Epoxy resins are much more flexible than the phenolics and furans and hence should
Mechanical options, where a screen is left in the wellbore afterwards, limit the possibilities for future workover or remedial
action, which may increase life cycle costs. Large reductions in productivity are seen when gravel packs are installed using
The use of chemical consolidation allows the wellbore to remain unobstructed, while productivity remains high. Also, deep
Alternatively, in the case of cavities or remedial sand control, prepacking or fracpacking without a screen in place, followed
Other options, which could be applied for longer intervals, involve using resin coated gravel/proppant for fracpacks or for
prepacking, but these should be considered when the reliability of the resin coated systems improves.
been perforated with deep penetrating charges. The maximum perforated interval would be 3 m or less to allow reliable
treatment of each zone and to allow access for remedial action if required (e.g. water shut-off). The tools are available for
carrying out multiple sand consolidations so completions can be readily achieved with a series of 3 m perforated sections all
It is widely recognised that tubing size must be optimised on a case by case basis in consideration of well inflow potential, oil
Tubing outflow in the case of 3 1/2" tubing, can achieve production rates of 4000-6000 b/d at the start of production (0%
BSW). At 90% BSW, production rates of approximately 1500 b/d are possible.
7 Artificial lift
7.1 Introduction
In principle, all forms of artificial lift commonly used in oil wells can be applied in slim hole wells. Options available include
gas lift, coiled tubing gas lift, electric submersible pumps, rod pumps, Moineau pumps, jet pumps and hydraulic pumps. The
casing and completion scheme must be compatible with the required artificial lift system. In general, pumping systems must
be set in the casing above a 3 1/2" liner, so one must ensure that head loss below the pump is economically acceptable.
Installation of artificial lift systems, other than gas lift will generally preclude operating the well as a "monobore".
Ccoiled tubing equipped with gas lift valves can be used to effect gas lift in monobore wells. The obvious drawback of this
system is that the coiled tubing must be removed prior to conducting any through tubing workoversMonobore> =
65/8"31/2"WL retrievable gas lift valve (side pocket mandrel).All common vendors are able to provide side pocket mandrels
which will accommodate 1" gas lift valves and still offer a 2.813" drift diameter.Non-Monobore51/2"27/8"Otis and other
vendors can supply side pocket mandrels which will accommodate a 1" gas lift valve and offer a 2.347" drift diameter. This
system may be suitable in cases where monobore completions are not warranted and 2 7/8" production tubing is desired
e.g. Centrilift now offers their 338 series pumping systems for use in 4 1/2" casing suitable for lifting production rates of 550
to 1700 bbl/d. If 5 1/2" casing is used, pumps such as Centrilift's 400 series are available which are suitable for lifting rates
If an ESP is used, the well will no longer be a 'monobore' as through tubing workovers cannot be conducted through the
ESP. The ESP would have to be located in the casing above the liner.
exist:
1. a conventional tubing or insert pump set in the tubing above the liner,
In most rod pumping applications, it is advisable to have an open annulus to allow gas to be produced up the annulus
thereby precluding pump problems. Also, the annulus acts as a buffer to collect oil while the pump is on a down stroke. An
open annulus can be achieved with both a pump in the tubing or in a tubing stinger.
A casing pump should only be considered as an option when the PI of the well is very high and pump capacity is limiting well
deliverability.
The primary drive with slim hole wells is to achieve cost benefits associated with slim hole drilling.
It is possible to complete slim hole wells with 3 1/2" production liners. A wide range of tools and equipment is available which
The benefit of drilling cost savings must be compared to potential adverse affects in terms of well productivity and
operability. There is probably a range of well applications, such as the Gbaran wells, where well cost savings during drilling
and completion will overwhelm any adverse affects associated with producing and operating slim hole wells. Clearly, the
Specific operating experience and continued commitment is required to maximise the benefits of slim hole development
wells.