An Investigation into Current Sand Control Methodologies Taking into Account Geomechanical, Field and Laboratory Data Analysis

Sand production is one of the major issues in the development of reservoirs in poorly cemented rocks. Geomechanical modeling gives us an opportunity to calculate the reservoir stress state, a major parameter that determines the stable pressure required in the bottomhole formation zone to prevent sand production, decrease the likelihood of a well collapse and address other important challenges. Field data regarding the influence of water cut, bottomhole pressure and fluid flow rate on the amount of sand produced was compiled and analyzed. Geomechanical stress-state models and Llade’s criterion were constructed and applied to confirm the high likelihood of sanding in future wells using the Mohr–Coulomb and Mogi–Coulomb prototypes. In many applications, the destruction of the bottomhole zone cannot be solved using well mode operations. In such cases, it is necessary to perform sand retention or prepack tests in order to choose the most appropriate technology. The authors of this paper conducted a series of laboratory prepack tests and it was found that sanding is quite a dynamic process and that the most significant sand production occurs in the early stages of well operation. With time, the amount of produced sand decreases greatly—up to 20 times following the production of 6 pore volumes. Finally, the authors formulated a methodological approach to sand-free oil production.

The SMART SRP Well – Application of Edge Analytics for Automated Well Performance Control and Condition Monitoring in a Mature Brownfield Environment – A Case Study from Austria

This paper presents a holistic approach to modern oilfield and well surveillance through the inclusion of state-of-the-art edge computing applications in combination with a novel type of data transmission technology and algorithms developed in-house for automatic condition monitoring of SRP systems. The objective is to enable the responsible specialist staff to focus on the most important decisions regarding oilfield management, rather than wasting time with data collection and preparation. An own operated data communication system, based on LPWAN-technology transfers the dyno-cards, generated by an electric load cell, into the in-house developed production assistance software platform. Suitable programmed AI-algorithms enable automatic condition detection of the incoming dyno cards, including conversion and analysis of the corresponding subsurface dynamograms. A smart alarming system informs about occurring failure conditions and specifies whether an incident of rod rupture, pump-off condition, gas lock or paraffin precipitation occurred in the well. A surface mounted measuring device delivers liquid level and bottomhole pressure information automatically into the software. Based on these diverse data, the operations team plans the subsequent activities. The holistic application approach is illustrated using the case study of an SPR-operated well in an Austrian brownfield.

Successful Implementation of Managed Pressure Drilling and Managed Pressure Cementing Techniques in Fractured Carbonate Formation Prone to Total Lost Circulation in Far North Region

Drilling reservoir section in the oilfield located in Far North region is challenged with high risks of mud losses ranging from relatively minor losses to severe lost circulation. Numerous attempts to cure losses with traditional methods have been inefficient and unsuccessful. This paper describes implementation of Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) and Managed Pressure Cementing (MPC) techniques to drill 6-1/8″ hole section, run and cement 5″ liner managing bottomhole pressure and overcoming wellbore construction challenges. Application of MPD technique enabled drilling 6-1/8″ hole section with statically underbalanced mud holding constant bottom hole pressure both in static and dynamic conditions. The drilling window uncertainty made it difficult to plan for the correct mud weight (MW) to drill the section. The MW and MPD design were chosen after risk assessment and based on the decisions from drilling operator. Coriolis flowmeter proved to be essential in deciphering minor losses and allowed quick response to changing conditions. Upon reaching target depth, the well was displaced to heavier mud in MPD mode prior to open hole logging and MPC. MPD techniques allowed the client to drill thru fractured formation without losses or gains in just a couple of days as compared to the months of drilling time the wells usually took to mitigate wellbore problems, such as total losses, kicks, differential sticking, etc. This job helped the client to save time and reduce well construction costs while optimizing drilling performance. Conventional cementing was not feasible in previous wells because of risks of losses, which were eliminated with MPC technique: bottomhole pressure (BHP) was kept below expected loss zones that provided necessary height of cement and a good barrier required to complete and produce the well. Successful zonal isolation applying MPC technique was confirmed by cement bond log and casing integrity test. Throughout the project, real-time data transmission was available to the client and engineering support team in town. This provided pro-active monitoring and real-time process optimization in response to wellbore changes. MPD techniques helped the client to drill the well in record time with the lowest possible mud weight consequently reducing mud requirements. The MPD system allowed obtaining pertinent reservoir data, such as pore pressure and fracture pressure gradients in uncertain geological conditions.

Numerical Simulation of Gas Hydrate Production Using the Cyclic Depressurization Method in the Ulleung Basin of the Korea East Sea

The depressurization method is known as the most productive and effective method for successful methane recovery from hydrate deposits. However, this method can cause considerable subsidence because of the increased effective stress. Maintenance of geomechanical stability is necessary for sustainable production of gas from gas hydrate deposits. In this study, the cyclic depressurization method, which uses changing the bottomhole pressure and production time during primary and secondary depressurization stage, was utilized in order to increase stability in the Ulleung Basin of the Korea East Sea. Various case studies were conducted with alternating bottomhole pressure and production time of the primary and secondary depressurization stages over 400 days. Geomechanical stability was significantly enhanced, while cumulative gas production was relatively less reduced or nearly maintained. Specially, the cumulative gas production of the 6 MPa case was more than three times higher than that of the 9 MPa case, while vertical displacement was similar between them. Therefore, it was found that the cyclic depressurization method should be applied for the sake of geomechanical stability.

Development of Deep Transformer-Based Models for Long-Term Prediction of Transient Production of Oil Wells

We propose a novel approach to data-driven modeling of a transient production of oil wells. We apply the transformer-based neural networks trained on the multivariate time series composed of various parameters of oil wells measured during their exploitation. By tuning the machine learning models for a single well (ignoring the effect of neighboring wells) on the open-source field datasets, we demonstrate that transformer outperforms recurrent neural networks with LSTM/GRU cells in the forecasting of the bottomhole pressure dynamics. We apply the transfer learning procedure to the transformer-based surrogate model, which includes the initial training on the dataset from a certain well and additional tuning of the model's weights on the dataset from a target well. Transfer learning approach helps to improve the prediction capability of the model. Next, we generalize the single-well model based on the transformer architecture for multiple wells to simulate complex transient oilfield-level patterns. In other words, we create the global model which deals with the dataset, comprised of the production history from multiple wells, and allows for capturing the well interference resulting in more accurate prediction of the bottomhole pressure or flow rate evolutions for each well under consideration. The developed instruments for a single-well and oilfield-scale modelling can be used to optimize the production process by selecting the operating regime and submersible equipment to increase the hydrocarbon recovery. In addition, the models can be helpful to perform well-testing avoiding costly shut-in operations.

Selecting and Modifying Multiphase Correlations for Gas-Lift Wells Using Machine Learning Algorithms

In the conditions of the development of the oil fields of the Cuu Long Basin in the continental shelf of the Republic of Vietnam, in the absence of downhole gauge systems, the urgent task is improving the accuracy of the calculation of bottomhole pressure in the producing wells based on the operation modes and construction. The aim of the paper is to create tools for selecting and modifying the correlation of multiphase flow most suitable for the development of a particular group of fields, as well as to develop a tool to implement effective management of the modes of operation of gas-lift wells by choosing the optimal gaslift injection rate. Based on data from 814 instrumental measurements in wells with different construction, liquid flow rate, watercut, GOR and gaslift injection, the calculation of bottom hole pressures was made. The calculated and actual bottomhole pressures were compared with five correlations of multiphase flow, the most suitable correlations were determined and modified, including using machine learning methods, which helped to significantly improve the convergence of calculated and actual bottomhole pressures. On the basis of the newly modified correlation, a calculation of bottom hole pressure (BHP) in each production well was made, the calculation of the change in bottomhole pressure when changing the operating modes of wells has been implemented. For the field group of the Cuu Long Basin, it was revealed that with the increase in watercut in the producing wells significantly reduces the efficiency of the gas-lift method of operation. This effect is not reflected in the widespread correlations of multiphase flow, which does not allow to use the results of calculations without making additional edits. A way to adapt the calculation values to instrumental measurements has been implemented, one of the known correlations has been modified and used in the forecast of changes in bottomhole pressure after changes in operating modes of wells throughout the well stock.

TAML-3 Multilateral Wells Construction with Multi-Stage Fracturing in Producing Wells

The article presents geological substantiations, the process and the results of the construction of a multilateral well with multistage fracturing from the existing producing well in the Yuzhno-Priobskoye field. The scope of construction of a multilateral TAML-3 well as per the international classification with a saved mainbore was to prove the effectiveness of the multilateral technology and its economic feasibility in the conditions of an extensive stock of producing wells. Every year we are seeing an increasing number of new wells being drilled in reservoirs with worsening characteristics which is caused by low permeability. Sharp production declines (up to 70% in the first year) and an increasing amount of periodic wells highlight the need to advance well stimulation methods. Well workovers by drilling a horizontal lateral while keeping the mainbore in operation allows to increase the production rate by 30% compared to a conventional sidetracking. While keeping the production rate of the mainbore, this technology provides for an additional production from a lateral bore and allows to operate the well at the planned bottomhole pressure.

Collaborative Approach Overcomes Cementing Challenges in Narrow Pressure Window Environment

The collaborative approach used for cementing the production liner in an onshore development well in Russia is presented. The reservoir has a narrow window between pore and fracture pressures, which has previously caused formation instability and severe lost circulation issues during well construction, compromising zonal isolation objectives. Total loss of fluids experienced while cementing the 114.3 mm production liner in the first appraisal well in the field led to revising the cementing strategy. Collaboration among various parts of the drilling department and the opportunity to define a new approach resulted in a decision to introduce managed pressure drilling (MPD) to address the challenges associated with a narrow pressure window and uncertainty in pore pressure while drilling and cementing. This enabled implementing the optimal mud weight and adjusting equivalent circulating density (ECD) during cementing with minimum overbalance. Reducing the mud weight from 1.20 SG to 1.05 SG eliminated losses after running the liner and while cementing it. As a result, pre-job circulation rates and pumping rates during cementing could be increased, improving mud removal efficiency and achieving top of cement at the required depth. The constant-bottomhole-pressure mode of MPD was used to maintain the same ECD during displacement of the well to a lighter fluid and during cementing, avoiding well influx during pumpoff events by compensating for the annular friction pressure loss with surface backpressure. This first onshore managed pressure cementing operation executed within the same field in Russia (later named as field A) was completed flawlessly, with no safety or quality issues, zero nonproductive time, and achievement of the required zonal isolation across the challenging production section. The collaborative approach used was a novel strategy, with the mud weight program strategically adjusted before and during the cementing operation to achieve zonal isolation objectives.

Concentric Coiled Tubing, Proven Sand Cleanout Technology for Sub-Hydrostatic Wells in Caspian Sea

Index of sand production is one of the major issues faced in oil and gas wells on the Caspian region. Although there are multiple technologies to address this issue, the application of these technologies require the well to be cleaned before proceeding with any kind of remedial application. Concentric Coiled Tubing (CCT) sand vacuuming technology has brought a massive advantage for efficiently cleaning the wellbore of sub-hydrostatic wells in Caspian Sea. CCT system is the Coiled tubing string inside of Coiled tubing string which essentially provides a smaller second annular return route for the wellbore solids while simultaneously boosting the return pressure and allowing us to clean the sand where the bottomhole pressure (BHP) is low and not enough to support the circulation of fluids used for the cleanout. Cleanout fluid is pumped through the inner string to power the downhole jet pump comprised in CCT bottomhole assembly (BHA) which creates a drawdown that vacuums the solids and circulates the solids back to surface via the CCT annulus. The solid performance of the CCT system has an established track record worldwide and application of this sand cleanout technology brought a solution for recovering many wells with low BHP and has been successfully implemented since 2013, providing a method for cleaning out tons of accumulated sand particles from challenging wells in Caspian Region. With the complex system being used for cleaning out sand and also surface handling of the solids in the return flow from the wellbore, CCT sand vacuuming technology has proven to be effectively functioning in all cases that it was selected for so far. This Paper reviews the design and mechanism of the CCT sand/well vacuuming system as well as the results of several well intervention cases with its successful execution and lessons learned in Caspian region.