Squeezing Perforations Rigless – No Pumping or Injection Required

Squeezing perforated intervals is very common in oil and gas wells, either for isolation to produce from another zone or during P&A applications. Though cement is the common material used in this application, sometimes cement is not ideal. A few of these instances are: 1. The formation is too tight to inject a high viscosity fluid like cement. 2. The temperature of the wellbore exceeds the operating temperature of cement. 3. The "void" behind the casing is too large to fill with cement. 4. Remote locations where mobilizing a rig or coil tubing unit is difficult if not impossible. There is an alternative to cement for "squeezing" perforations that addresses all of these issues, bismuth alloys. Bismuth alloys have a viscosity similar to water and require no pumping or injection into the reservoir. With operating temperatures is up to 325°F, they are suitable for the majority of wells. Unlike cement, bismuth alloys solidify rapidly near the wellbore, isolating the perforations regardless of open volume behind the casing and they are deployed on wireline (rigless).