Well Design and Successful Field Installation of Openhole Sand Control Completions with Acid Stimulation in a Highly Deviated Well in Vietnam

Abstract

Openhole sand control technology is becoming mandatory in the field, particularly with uncertainty in geomechanics, challenges to wellbore integrity while drilling, and sand production during the life of the well. The completion equipment readiness and success of the installation can be challenging in the event of extending the horizontal section to accommodate geological heterogeneity and maximize well productivity. This paper discusses operational excellence recorded in Well A, Thang Long Field, offshore Vietnam from well design, ensuring maximum reservoir contact to outcome of well completion. The well was targeted in the Oligocene reservoir, a thin oil rim with large gas cap overlay, and required drilling and completion for 1126 m horizontal length of 8.5-in. open hole. The completion design included multiple swellable packers for isolation of unwanted zones, 6 5/8-in. base pipe sand screens for production zones, and a fluid loss device to prevent undesirable losses. Several torque and drag simulations were performed to predict potential threats that could be encountered during completion string deployment or during space out of the inner wash pipe string. One apparent challenge of this completion design was to deploy the lower completion string to total depth (TD) per stringent reservoir requirements, resulting in approximately 1126 m length of the string in the horizontal section. Another difficult task was to manipulate 1130 m of wash pipe inside the completion string to locate the seal assemblies accurately at the corresponding seal bore extension positions for the acidizing treatment. Although these were extremely long sections of completion string and wash pipe, the quality of acidizing stimulation to effectively remove mud cake should not be compromised to allow positive production rates. During operations, the completion string was run to target depth without any issue, and the wash pipe was spaced out and manipulated correctly. These subsequently led to a successful acidizing treatment and the proper closure of the flapper type fluid loss device. The completion design and operation were concluded successfully majorly contributing to field production to date. The novelty of the completion design and installation is the ability to deploy 1 126 m lower completion in long, highly deviated and horizontal openhole section coupled with acid stimulation in reasonable time as per plan.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90267 ©2016 AAPG/SPE Africa Energy and Technology Conference, Nairobi City, Kenya, December 5-7, 2016