As I write the introduction to this year’s Coiled Tubing feature, I would like to mention that this year saw the 30th anniversary of the SPE/Intervention and Coiled Tubing Association (ICoTA) Well Intervention Conference and Exhibition in Europe, which proved to be an outstanding event, as usual.
The Curtis Blount Outstanding Paper Award was won by TechnipFMC (in collaboration with Halliburton) for “Riserless Coiled Tubing Services From Light Well-Intervention Vessel: First Operation in a Live Subsea Well.” Other excellent finalists included entries from E Plug (TorcCollector), Baker Hughes (PRIME Compact Puncher), Welltec (Wellgrab), and SLB (High-Resolution Dual-Caliper and Slim Multielement Cement and Corrosion Tool Combination). This year, ICoTA added a further sign of appreciation for the award winner—fully funded travel to a chosen ICoTA conference worldwide. I encourage readers to investigate these technologies.
Furthermore, in other notable ICoTA developments, ICoTA Asia was officially established as an organization this year; its first conference is scheduled for 2–3 December 2025 in Kuala Lumpur. ICoTA also announced the re-establishment of its China chapter. The ICoTA Europe chapter, based in Aberdeen, is hosting several events for young professionals, ideal for networking and meeting experts to gain insights into the industry, so make sure to book your free tickets and participate.
As for this year’s selected papers for the Coiled Tubing feature, one includes a discussion of a first-time technology breakthrough of CO2-injection pumping using coiled tubing for Project Greensand in Denmark, a consortium of Danish government and several oil and gas operators aligned to test achieving carbon capture in depleted oil well reservoirs. With storage operations set to get underway at the end of 2025 or early 2026, Project Greensand is expected to become the first CO2 storage project in the EU intended to mitigate climate change.
The second selected paper is a health, safety, and environment (HSE) -oriented study that explores coiled tubing intervention with a novel approach to safely remove scale containing naturally occurring radioactive materials offshore Abu Dhabi.
The third paper, the winner of the Curtis Blount Outstanding Paper Award, demonstrates the future of subsea well intervention through vessel-based coiled tubing operations offshore Europe. Each of these papers presented at SPE conferences exemplifies engineering solutions to maximize commercial value while retaining focus on HSE and service quality.
Summarized Papers in This June 2025 Issue
SPE 224032 Riserless Coiled Tubing Services in Live Subsea Well Enhance Efficiency, Safetyby Per Buset, TechnipFMC, et al.
SPE 222569 Pilot Project for Carbon Dioxide Injection Uses Coiled Tubing and a Retrievable Bridge Plug by Ksenia Starodubtseva, SLB, et al.
SPE 220493 Novel Approach Removes Scale Contaminated With Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material by Kamil F. Salahat, ADNOC, et al.
Recommended Additional Reading
SPE 221847 Breaking New Ground in Reservoir Management: Kuwait’s First Underbalanced Coiled Tubing Drilling Operation for Blowout Relief in West Kuwait—A Global Success Story by Sebastian Sierra Martinez, SLB, et al.
OTC 35468 Step Change in Coiled Tubing Drilling Strategy of Multilateral Drilling Using Underbalanced Coiled Tubing Drilling Technique in an Onshore Sour Gas Field, UAE—Case Study by Mohamed Osama, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, et al.
SPE 220603 Coiled Tubing Downlines Corrosion and Preservation Experience From Extended Riserless Light Well-Intervention Campaignsby R. Mammadli, BP, et al.
Karan Kaul, SPE, is a principal technical professional with Halliburton Energy Services Group based in Aberdeen. He has more than 15 years of experience in the upstream oil and gas and manufacturing industries. Kaul previously worked with a manufacturing company, holding various engineering and leadership posts in research and development, field operations, coiled tubing surface equipment design, and technology implementation. He has worked in south Asia, North America, the Middle East, Europe, and the UK, both onshore and offshore. Kaul holds a BE degree in mechanical engineering. He has authored several SPE papers and is a past and ongoing program committee member and a session chair for the SPE/ICoTA conference. Kaul serves as a member of the JPT Editorial Review Board and can be reached at karankaul17@outlook.com.