Drilling & Completion Tech Digest

New MWD/LWD service sets field records

A newly launched MWD/LWD service capable of operating in harsh environments up to 392°F and 25,000 psi recently set records in the Haynesville Shale, Sperry Drilling announced.

An operator drilling a long horizontal interval in the Haynesville, an area known for high reservoir temperatures, deployed the Quasar Pulse Service. With temperatures reaching as high as 363°F, the well was completed  with a total depth of 22,595 ft and a total vertical section of 10,072 ft, both field records.

The operator saved an estimated $209,000 by not staging tools into the well and avoiding a potential trip for failure. Additionally, the reservoir interval was nearly twice as long as typical wells in the area, providing higher production and potentially reducing the number of wells needed to develop the field, according to Sperry Drilling, a Halliburton business line.

The new service includes 4 3/4- and 6 3/4-in. tools, allowing it to perform in wellbores up to 9 7/8 in. in diameter. It can deliver directional, gamma ray, PWD and vibration data to enable precise wellbore placement in high-temperature and high-pressure zones.

The service allows access to reserves that conventional tools cannot reach and can eliminate the need for mud chillers and “staging” to cool down tools.

Gravity-deployed carbon composite cable completes first commercial deployment offshore Norway

Ziebel, a Stavanger-based provider of specialist well intervention services for the oil and gas industry, announced that its Z-Line gravity-deployed slim carbon composite cable was used to acquire meaningful distributed temperature and distributed acoustic fiber-optic data during a commercial well intervention. The tool made its inaugural run for a major operator offshore Norway.

The system accessed a platform well to a depth of 9,684 ft with standard wireline-type gravity deployment and dry sealing pressure control equipment (no grease injection). All mechanical requirements of the line functioned successfully, and high-quality distributed fiber-optic data was acquired for the operator.

The Z-Line is a 3/16–in. (4.8-mm) diameter carbon composite line with embedded optical fibers at its core. This enables distributed temperature sensing and distributed acoustic sensing to be performed along the full length of the line. In addition, Ziebel’s optical point pressure and temperature sensors are contained within the BHA, along with a connection to enable standard memory logging tools to be run below the BHA. The rig-up and footprint are similar to that of a standard wireline cased-hole setup, although the distributed measurement acquisition method does differ in that it is carried out with the line parked stationary in the well.

The carbon composite material enables the line to have an extremely high strength-to-weight ratio, with a breaking strength (6,600 lb/3,000 kg) in excess of what can be achieved with a similar diameter of steel wire or braided line. The smooth outer finish makes for effective sealing, and the low friction coefficient to steel plus the relative stiffness of the line gives it increased ability to reach into deviated wells. In addition, the low friction reduces the abrasion and tubing wear associated with standard wireline or slickline runs.

Mechanical pipe cutter retrieves stuck tubing in 30-year-old Kuwait well

Baker Hughes recently used its Mechanical Pipe Cutter (MPC) tool to help an operator in Kuwait retrieve stuck tubing and recover a completion string in a 30-year-old well. By performing multiple cuts in a single operation, the operator saved 24 hours of rig time.

The completion string was stuck due to the accumulation of barite in the annulus between the tubing and the coal seam gas.

Baker Hughes performed multiple 3 1/2-in. tubing cuts in a single operation. Using the 2 1/8-in. MPC tool, six successful cuts were made 300 ft (91 m) apart in four trips within 23 hours. In one trip, the tool performed three cuts, despite tension pull limits from the tubing condition.

1st phase of deepwater GOM seismic survey completed

Schlumberger has completed the acquisition of approximately 2,750 sq km of two new full-azimuth multiclient seismic surveys over the Garden Banks and Green Canyon areas in the Gulf of Mexico. These acquisitions are the initial phase of the Revolution X and Revolution XI surveys and will provide full-azimuth, high-density broadband data.

When completed, the Revolution X and Revolution XI surveys will provide more than 3,800 sq km and 2,940 sq km of 3D data, respectively, for suprasalt and subsalt targets and deeper subsalt Miocene and Wilcox formations.

17 innovations win 2015 OTC Spotlight on New Technology Awards

The Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) has announced the 17 winning technologies that are receiving the 2015 Spotlight on New Technology Awards recognizing innovative technologies significantly impacting offshore exploration and production.

Winning technologies are selected based on five criteria:

New: The technology must be less than two years old.

Innovative: The technology must be original, groundbreaking and capable of revolutionizing the offshore E&P industry.

Proven: The technology must be proven, either through full-scale application or successful prototype testing.

Broad interest: The technology must have broad interest and appeal for the industry.

Significant impact: The technology must provide significant benefits beyond existing technologies.

Fishbones Dreamliner defines a new level of simplicity, accuracy, and efficiency in reservoir stimulation. Dreamliner increases productivity by creating an array of targeted small-diameter laterals into formations. Numerous laterals are individually but simultaneously drilled by harnessing fluid flow through turbines utilizing standard rig pumping equipment and existing wellbore fluid.

FMC Technologies’ Annulus Monitoring System provides independent condition monitoring within the subsea wellhead from the onset of drilling. The communication system delivers actionable information to the operator during critical phases of well installation and commissioning from multiple analog or digital sensors within annular locations.

Schlumberger’s GeoSphere reservoir mapping-while-drilling service reveals subsurface-bedding and fluid-contact details more than 100 ft (30 m) from the wellbore. This reservoir-scale view provides an unprecedented depth of investigation, enabling operators to optimize landing, maximize reservoir exposure and refine field development plans using deep-directional measurements enabled by real-time interpretation solutions.

The Halliburton RezConnect Well Testing System is the industry’s first system to offer full acoustic control of drill-stem testing tools. Downhole samplers, valves and gauges are controlled in real time, and their status is communicated to the surface.

The Oceaneering Deepwater Pile Dredge is an electrically driven system with pumps that provide water jetting and suction to excavate piles at any depth. The jetting provides a 360° pattern to fluidize the soil inside the pile, and then suction pumps remove the soil from the pile.

The Baker Hughes MultiNode all-electric intelligent well system is the industry’s first advanced completion system that provides remote-controlled monitoring and precise control of production zones to manage water and gas breakthrough and improve ultimate recovery. The system adjusts to changing reservoir conditions by choking back high-water and high-gas producing zones, balancing production along the lateral.

The Welltec Annular Barrier (WAB) is an expandable, metal annular barrier engineered and qualified to replace cement in well construction. Its rugged design, qualified to ISO V0 and meeting regulatory standards, has been utilized as a cementless, primary well barrier to prevent surface annular pressure over the life of the well.

The Oceaneering Magna Subsea Inspection System is a versatile screening inspection tool that assesses the mechanical integrity of assets at a high rate of speed without disrupting production. The advanced system is ROV-deployable, inspects 360° around the pipe and provides real-time data of the wall condition with a single deployment.

The OneSubsea Multiphase Compressor is the world’s first true wet gas compressor. Developed with Statoil and Shell, it represents a breakthrough in technology, enabling compression of the unprocessed well stream without any need for pre-processing. The technology was primarily developed to increase recovery rates and to cost effectively increase the tieback distances of subsea gas fields.

Cameron’s Mark IV High-Availability BOP Control System features an industry-first three-Point of Distribution (POD) design option for subsea BOPs. The third POD provides added redundancy for improved operational availability of the drilling system to as much as 98%. Each POD’s simplified design improves reliability.

SBM Offshore’s ARCA is a new design of chain connector attaching mooring lines to floating units. Placing the chain articulation in the mooring line allows them to be recovered for inspection and maintenance. In response to market demand, the ARCA also enables for diverless connection/disconnection and significant cost reduction for turret mooring systems.

The Weatherford Red Eye Subsea Water-Cut Meter uses near-infrared absorption to provide water-onset detection, water-cut measurement, and water-to-hydrate inhibitor-ratio measurement. The meter can operate in full three-phase flow streams at any gas-volume fraction and is not affected by changes in salinity, eliminating the need for corrections related to these factors.

The Traderco Discovery allows operators to externally inspect coated lines for flow assurance and pipeline integrity issues without removing any coatings. It identifies hydrate, wax, asphaltene or scale. Discovery provides real-time data without production interruption.

Schlumberger’s Quanta Geo photo realistic reservoir geology service redefines imaging in oil-base mud to provide highly detailed, core-like microresistivity images that visually represent formation geology. These images enable confident visual identification of facies and determination of directional trends, thus reducing uncertainty in reservoir models, making better field development plans and quantifying project economics.

The Versabar Versacutter provides a new way of cutting through offshore platform piles and well conductors at a depth of up to 20 ft below the mudline. The Versacutter delivers a long reciprocating cutting wire below the mudline by jetting, with the wire continuously cutting through the piles and conductors.

WiSub’s Maelstrom subsea connector system eliminates the pins from subsea wet-mate connectors with a solution based on solid-state electronics, providing increased mating cycles, reduced cost and increased reliability of subsea connections. It applies inductive coupling for power transfer and patented microwave communication methods for 100Mbps data rates.

The Weatherford Total Vibration Monitor with Angular Rate Gyro (TVM+) is a downhole sensor that provides critical drilling dynamics data in real-time and recorded formats and utilizes the industry’s first MEMS-based (micro-electromechanical system) angular-rate gyro. This device enables downhole-sensor measurements of angular rotation in never-before-seen detail.

Click here to visit DC’s Innovating While Drilling microsite, where you can find more articles about industry technology milestones and downhole or subsea innovations.

Click here to access the 2015 OTC website.