Completions
This edition highlights three offshore technology papers that address a common industry theme: how targeted engineering solutions can reduce uncertainty, shorten operations, and make technically constrained offshore well activities more executable.
Three papers are highlighted as the primary contributions because of their broad industry relevance. They focus on improving formation particle-size characterization, expanding the application of openhole gravel packs in depleted and compartmentalized reservoirs, and advancing the understanding of capillary pressure in sand production.
This paper aims to establish a set of best practices for generating particle-size-distribution data from core samples.
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A well in the South China Sea was diagnosed by ultrasonic and temperature logging to have a well-integrity problem, forcing the operator to shut in the well because the leak created a high tubing/casing-annulus pressure. -
The elliptical (conical) damage profile associated with horizontal wells is well-known, but review of industry-wide applications by different operators shows no corresponding uniform correlation between the damage profile and actual treatment volumes that have been applied.
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One of the major challenges in fracturing low-permeability gas formations is the loss of well productivity caused by fluid entrapment in the matrix or fracture.
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Oxane Materials' advanced cerammic proppant travels farther during fracturing in larger quantities, thereby leading to smoother, higher flows of oil and gas.
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Europe and Australia have joined the US in expanding recoverable hydrocarbons from unconventional resources, and initial activities are on the rise elsewhere.
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This paper sheds light on the nonlinear physics involved in the production of shale-gas reservoirs by improving the understanding of the complex relation between gas production, reservoir properties, and several treatment-design parameters.
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Sand production is an unintended consequence of oil and gas production from unconsolidated and semi-consolidated reservoirs, causing damage to surface and subsurface well equipment and reducing the hydrocarbon productivity.
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This paper shares the engineering approach used to determine where and when sand control was needed in offshore Malaysia on the basis of geomechanical sand-free critical-drawdown-pressure evaluation for the selected well type, configuration, and completion.
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Traditionally, sand-control equipment is used to prevent sand from entering the wellbore. An alternative is to produce solids with the well fluids and separate them at the surface.
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This paper presents results from a nondestructive core-strength-index tester that is less destructive than the Schmidt hammer and less intrusive, easier, faster, and less expensive than the core scratch tester.
