Cost-Effective Life-Cycle Profile Control Completion System for Horizontal andMultilateral Wells

摘要

A new cost effective life-cycle profile controlcompletion system has been developed to solve majorproblems associated with surveillance andinterventions in horizontal and TAML level 2multilateral wells completed with ESP.As fields age and produced water oil ratio increase,surveillance and profile control in the multilateral wellsdrilled in PDO have become a major challenge. Thesewells are TAML level 2 multilaterals. Production fromtwo to nine barefoot lateral legs is commingled andartificially lifted by electrical submersible pumps (ESP).ESPs prevent through tubing access to the laterals.Installation of a Y-tool allows for wireline (WL) or coiledtubing (CT) deployed logging and some remedial CTintervention. Well and reservoir managementchallenges arise from completion design limitationssuch as barefoot completion, commingled production,the presence of ESPs, access to the TD of thebackbone and inability to selectively re-enter thelaterals.New minimum-cost zonal isolation and downholecontrol technologies provide an opportunity to retrofitTAML level 2 multilateral wells for well and reservoirmanagement purposes. Swelling elastomers in theform of the expandable zonal inflow profiler (EZIP) toolallows segmentation of wellbore section into a discretenumber of management intervals. Interval controlvalves provide the capability to shut-off water or gas.This paper describes the design and application ofremotely operated selective EZIP completiontechnology (SECTOR) in TAML Level 2 multilateralwells in the carbonate reservoirs of Qarn Alam Assetof PDO. With SECTOR, existing TAML Level 2multilateral oil producers are converted to TAML-5multilateral wells. The lateral legs are isolated fromeach other and can be selectively produced, shut-off orstimulated. The need for CT interventions forproduction logging and water shut-offs is removed.The water shut-off process offered by this technologyis reversible.