Week 13

Workovers
 What Is a Workover?
Intervention in a Completed Well
Virtually any well intervention can be called a
workover
In practice
Doing some kind of work on the well
May or may not require killing the well
Note many keywords on next few slides
 Why enter well instead of just
monitoring at surface?
From surfacesomething is
wrong, but WHERE?

Production or injection data

Casing, tubing, packer integrity
monitoring
Well repair (obvious!)
Improve production or injection
 Why Are Workovers Performed?
(why do we re-enter a completed well?)
Data gathering (cased hole logging
production or injection logging)
Reservoir conditions/performance
Well condition/performance
Integrity monitoring (tubing, casing, packer)

Well repair (casing, tubing, packer, etc.)

Improve performance (production/injection)
 Contd: Why? Improve
Production/Injection
Fill cleanout (hydraulic or mechanical)
Debris
Solids from well operations
Formation solids
Deposited solids
Flow assurance (preventative or remediation)
Stimulation (hydraulic fracture; acidize)
Artificial lift (rod pump, gas lift, ESP, etc.)
Change Interval(s) Connected to Reservoir
 Contd: Improve Production/Injection
Change interval connected to reservoir
Shut off flow from/to an interval
Plug bottom interval of wellboreusually easy
Cement
Sand
Bridge plug
Isolate and plug specific intervalsmore difficult
Cement squeeze perforations
Polymer gel squeeze
Casing patch (several types)
Straddle (liner with two packers)
Add flow from/to new interval (add perfs)
Deepen or sidetrack well
What Tells Us a Well Needs a
Workover?
 What Tells Us We need a Workover?
Dataand interpretation
Production data
Gas, Oil and Water
Production Ratios
Oil-Water ratio (or Water CutWC); Gas-Oil Ratio
(GOR)
Pressure data
Wellhead Pressure
Annular Pressure
 How to know if a Well Needs a
Workover
Nodal Analysis
What should the production from this well be?
IPR, VLP
Zone-by-zone production rates and ratios
Any other problems
Annular Pressure build-up
Sand production
The production engineer as an investigator
 How Are Workovers Performed?
Fullbore (Bullhead) Pumping of Fluid/Chemicals through
Well Tubing (can be confusing nomenclature)
Through Tubing: Run Tools through Tubing to Avoid
Pulling Completion String
Wireline (run tools up to ~65from vertical) Increasing
Slickline
Electric line (E-Line)
Cost*
Tractor sometimes used for high angle wells
Coiled Tubing
Work String on Rig
Pull Tubing, Completion (pulling unit; workover rig)
Common for packerless completion (rod pump)
Can be very expensive to remove packer

*can be specific to a certain operating area

Wireline Intervention
Stuffing box

Lubricator

Blow-out
preventer

Wireline
drum
Business End of Wireline Unit
 Wireline
Intervention
Slickline
Normal wireline applications
Run/retrieve tools

Braided Line
Fishing applications

E-line
Perforating
Cased-hole logging
Set bridge plug

Use of Tractorshigh deviation

Especially with Production logging
Tractor for high angle well wireline work
Drive wheel cogs
 Wireline
Intervention
Long smooth cable up to
35,000 ft in length

Used to lower or raise

downhole tools

Spooled off a drum/sheave

on a truck

Can be lowered into a well

under pressure
 Slickline Intervention
Slickline Tools
Jars
Gas lift valve carrier
Pulling Tools
Running Tools
Gauge Cutter
Lead Impression
Block
 Wire line
Intervention
Check fluid levels
Set or remove plugs
Change zones
Install valves
Take static and
dynamic pressure
measurements
Bailing sand
Production Logging
Fishing
Wireline InterventionLimits
& Possible Problems

Wireline failure
Tools getting stuck
Blowouts
Potential for other
accidents

Cannot pump through it

Cannot rotate it
Limited pulling strength
Limited well angle w/o
tractor
Coiled Tubing
Coiled Tubing
Metal piping, 1 to 3.25
inches in diameter

Main advantages
Ability to pump through
the coil
Ability to push into the
hole rather than relying
on gravity
No joints to make/break
Can run through
existing tubing
Coiled Tubing (CT) Some will have a mast
BOP stack if drilling
Gooseneck

Injector Can work on

live well
Stuffing box

Lubricator
Before Running Coiled Tubing into a well
Tubing Force Analysis
All the forces that will act on Coiled Tubing

Determine Operating Envelope

How much can you pull?
How much can you push?
 What Can You Do with CT?
Most wireline operations (slickline & e-line)

Pumping Liquid/Gas

Drilling

Perforating

Tubing in low pressure gas wells

 CT Issues
CT Fatigue
Monitor number of cycles

Monitor number of times corrosive liquids

have been pumped through pipe

Retire CT before failure!

 CT Applications
Nitrogen Lifting

Sand Clean outs

Acidizing
Used for diversion especially in horizontal wells

Spotting cement and polymer gels

CT fracturing

CT and electric-line
CT Fracturing
 Thru Tubing Intervention: Coiled Tubing Cleanout
(caution: may cause perforation invasion by fluids/solids)
Forward or
Fill Covering Perfs Reverse jetting
 Plug Bottom Interval
Use coil or work
Bottom perfs string to lay sand,
watered out cement (and/or plug)
 Cement Squeeze 3. Remove
1. Protect Oil zone 2. Squeeze Perfs Wellbore
Cement
Coiled Tubing or
Work String

Watered
Out

Temp.
Sand
Oil Plug

(c) 2009 R.H. Lane

 Cement Squeeze
5. Return to
4. Remove Temp. Protection Service

Watered
Out

Oil

(c) 2009 R.H. Lane

 Cement Squeeze
What if you want to protect the upper interval?
With or without
Lay in cement plug bridge plug or
other cap

Oil

Watered
Out

(c) 2009 R.H. Lane

 Cement Squeeze
What if you want to protect the upper interval?
Use inflatable packer on Can squeeze
Coil to squeeze polymer cement behind
Gel into formation gel in some
cases

Oil

Watered
Out

(c) 2009 R.H. Lane

Full-bore InterventionHydraulic Fracturing
Rig Intervention Can Be Expensive

Stands of pulled tubing

 StraddleTwo Packers
Traditional Straddle
May Require Tubing
Pull $$$

Watered Out

Oil

(c) 2009 R.H. Lane

 Casing Patch - Avoid Tubing Pull
by using
Expandables?
-Better elastomers
give better seal. SPE
68129

Watered Out

Oil

(c) 2009 R.H. Lane

 For Open Hole Horizontal Wells
-External casing packer (set with hydraulic pressure;
cement
-Swellable external casing packer (swells in water (or
oil))
-Used for fractures, faults
-(Flowing Polymer Gel Has Good Success History, too.)

Water Entry via fault/fracture

(c) 2009 R.H. Lane

Al Shaheen Field, Offshore Qatar
See SPE 123949
 Al Shaheen Field--Open Hole Horizontal
Wells
Thin reservoirs, roughly 4,000 4,500 ft deep
But total length of wells can be up to 30,000 ft
i.e., up to 25,000 feet of horizontal section
Wellbore may cross fractured area (caused by
formation slumping over geologic time)

(c) 2009 R.H. Lane

 Two Types of Well Pattern

Little natural drive energy,

so field is on water flood

Radial or Spider Pattern

Alternating injectors, producers
Line Drive with
Heels close together;
injectors/producers roughly
Greater P at heel
parallel
Fractures may be anywhere
Fractures may be anywhere
 How do you deal with a problem?

Near the heel? Near the toe?

Rig Workover Costsmillions of US $$
So how do you do a cost-effective workover?
Workover Rig
Coiled tubing Unit
Drilling Workover

Coiled tubing Units

Arctic Rig Drilling
Sidetrack for ~$3-4MM
Coiled Tubing Unit
Drilling Sidetrack
Through Tubing
For less than $1MM