Chapter 1

Course Guide
General
The course Well Completion and Stimulation, PTRL 6016 is part of the Distance Learning Program at the School of Petroleum Engineering, UNSW. The course describes different steps involved in the design of a typical oil and gas well completion and its impact on reservoir productivity. Please take the time to read this document carefully. The document contains instructions which will allow you to get the most out of the course. The course manual is organized as a self-study guide. It should be used in conjunction with recommended texts. The manual is a study guide and not a substitute for a text. The recommended texts for this subject are: 1. Production operations, Course 1, Well Completions LE Buzarde Jr, RL Kastro, WT Bell and CL DePriester SPE Publications, 1972 2. Production Operations TO Allen and AP Roberts Volumes I and II Oil and Gas Consultants International Inc, 1989 3. T Ahmed Reservoir Engineering Hand Book Gulf Publishing Company, 2000 4. Production Engineering It is important that you have access to these texts during the course of your study. These books can be available from the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) on-line bookshop which you can access through the SPE website at www.spe.org. The online SPE bookshop also contains other good books of interest. The course manual is broken up into chapters. Each chapter deals with a specific topic area. The chapters contain worked examples and homework problems that you should submit electronically as soon as you complete them. The problems will be marked and you will receive feedback that will help you assess your understanding of the course material.

Problem Submission
You should work through all the spreadsheets for the worked examples in a chapter before attempting the problems. The examples are solved using Mathcad. The 1

example spreadsheets can usually be used to solve the problems in the chapter with little or no modification. Do not submit the examples. You are required to submit only the problems. All your problems will be solved on a spreadsheet of one type or another and submitted electronically using the communication tool (email facility) on WebCT. Please keep all your communications through WebCT. I am handling a total of 4 online subjects at any one time and unless we use WebCT things will quickly become unmanageable. Do not send spreadsheets and files that are read by spreadsheets individually. Cut and Paste from the spreadsheet and files into WORD and send only the Word file. The Word file should contain a summary page showing the results of the calculations and any comments/conclusions that you have drawn from looking at the Problem. Problems will be marked out of 10 with 3 of the 10 points reserved for the quality of the summary. If you have any problems in preparing your electronic submissions contact me and I will try to help. An alternative to sending Word files is to send pdf files. Both the worked examples and problems are provided with answers (in most cases). The worked examples are live in that they are presented in spreadsheet format where the input can be modified to allow you to use the spreadsheet to solve other problems. You can also change input data to see the effect of the change on the answer. You may need to change some of the inputs for the worked examples to obtain the solutions given in the course notes. If you believe that any of the answers are incorrect both for the examples and the problems contact me.

Mathcad
The worked examples in the course notes have been solved using a spreadsheet program called Mathcad. A copy of Mathcad is provided with your manual for your private use. You will need to install Mathcad on your computer in order to view the example solutions. The Mathcad files for the worked examples are located in folders that can be found on the course CD which accompanies the manual. The higher-level folders are named after the chapter number to which they refer. The Mathcad files for the worked problems are located in folders after the examples or problems to which they refer. The files for a worked problem consist of a Mathcad file named [File name.mcd] and may include simple plain text data files with extensions [Data file name.prn]. These files must all be located in the same folder. The data files may be viewed and modified using any convenient plain text editor such as {\em Notepad}. The [File name.mcd]} files can only be viewed (and modified) using the installed Mathcad software. Mathcad was selected to solve the example problems for two reasons: (i) Mathcad provides an easy to read solution outline much the same as if it was written by hand or typed, and,

Mathcad can automatically account for arbitrary systems of units and has no problems with mixed unit systems. These advantages come at a price - a steep and sometimes difficult learning curve. However, you do not need to learn Mathcad in order to successfully complete the course. At a minimum you can simply use Mathcad as a viewer to view and print the solutions for the worked examples. As a next step you could learn how to change the numbers on a Mathcad spreadsheet and how to resize graphs. This would allow you to use the spreadsheets as live solutions that you could then use to solve some of the homework problems as well. If you manage to master a few basic Mathcad skills, you could modify the example spreadsheets or create your own spreadsheets from scratch to solve all the homework problems. As far as the homework problems themselves are concerned, you are free to use any spreadsheet which you are comfortable with or any combination of spreadsheets and hand calculations. Your copy of the Mathcad software is contained on a CD shipped with the course notes and you will need to install this on your PC. Before installing the software, make a note of the serial number you will need this for the installation. If the serial number is not marked on the CD, open the CD and read the file containing the serial number. After installing Mathcad, open the application, click on the Help button go to Resource Center then to Overview and Tutorials. I recommend that you spend an hour or so learning basic Mathcad skills using the on-line tutorials. A good sequence of tutorials is Entering Text, Building Mathematical Expressions, Defining Variables, Defining Range Variables, Defining Vectors and Matrices, Creating Graphs and Using Units. To make my spreadsheets a little easier to use, I have highlighted, in yellow, areas where you are expected to enter data. You might surprise yourself and become a Mathcad convert! All engineering students are now taught to use scientific spreadsheets like Mathcad during the course of their undergraduate studies. A word of warning on units. The equations in the course manual are written for any consistent system of units. Since Mathcad handles systems of mixed units automatically, the equations in the spreadsheets appear the same as the ones in the manual. If you are doing calculations in using a different spreadsheet, Excel for example, or by hand, you will need to change dimensions manually and calculate the dimensional constant for each equation individually. This constant will, of course, be different for different systems of units. It is assumed that you are familiar with units and unit conversions. If you feel that you need to revise this area, the text by Dake contains an excellent treatment of units and unit conversions starting on page 108.

(ii)

Study Guidelines
In covering the material in the manual, a chapter at a time, It is recommended that you follow the procedure outlined below: 1. Carefully read the entire chapter to familiarise yourself with the material.

2. Locate the topic area in your text book and study this material in conjunction with the course material. 3. When working with the Examples in the course notes, open your hard copy of the notes at the appropriate section and open the Example Mathcad on your PC screen. The spreadsheet is alive and you can play around with it try solving a similar example already solved in your text book. You may need to disable the lock on the files if they are protected go to Help to find out how to do this. Make sure that you have made a back-up file before you start making changes. 4. When you feel that you have mastered a topic area, attempt the problem for the topic. As I have said before, you can solve the problems any way you like. When you have solved a problem prepare a summary of your method and results and email the summary and solution using WebCT. I will look at the solution and email you comments and a mark out of 10.

Timing Guide and Course Problems

Your rate of progress will depend on your background and the time you are able to devote to the material. The program is designed to be completed in a nominal 14 weeks. I offer the following schedule only as a guide to assist you in managing your time. Ch-2 (week 1): Well Completion Design and Productivity consideration: Problems 2.1, 2.2 Ch-3 (week 2, 3 and 4): Well Performance Analysis. Your first introduction to Mathcad for solving of problems: 3.1, 3.2 Ch-4 (week 5 and 6) Tubing Design. Problems .4.1, 4.2. Ch-5 (week 7 and 8) Well completion Equipment: Problems 5.1, 5.2, 5.3. Ch-6 (week 9 and 10) Perforation of Problem 6.1.

Ch-7 (week11 and 12) Sand Control: Problems 6.1, 7.2, 7.3.

Use the above list to check-off problems as you send them to us and to record the mark which would be send to you. This will keep track of your progress and ensure that we have received and marked all of your submissions.

Assessment Method
Your overall mark in the subject will be 33% for the Problems and 67% for the final examination. The pass mark is 50. If you work all the problems, you should achieve the allocated 33 points. This means that to pass you only need an additional 17 points from the exam. This corresponds to a mark of 25/100 for the exam. This is not a big task!

Electronic Manual
Some of the diagrams may not appear all that clearly in your hard copy of the course notes. This is because the original figures are in colour but the manual master is printed in grey-scale and your copy is a photocopy of the master. An electronic copy of the complete manual (in colour) is contained on your course CD and is also available for download from the course website. The electronic copy is in Adobe pdf format and requires Adobe Acrobat to view. We hope that you will find the course interesting, informative and enjoyable. If you experience any difficulties at any time do not hesitate to contact us immediately. Our contact numbers are: Tel: 61-2-9385 5659 Fax: 61-2-9385 5182 Email: sheik.rahman@unsw.edu.au or Altafs email - use WebCT if at all possible.