A review of field performance of New Propellant/Perforating Technologies

摘要

The use of propellants as a production enhancement tool is not new in the petroleum industry. However, the concept of combining the proplellant into a sleeve form with the perforating gun is unique. This technology has recently been introduced to the oilfield and shows promise of solving many of the inherent preforating problems for which solutions have been needed. This paper will review the development of the combined propellant and perforating technique and will use case histories that focus upon tubing-conveyed applications to document the positive effects gained by combining these technologies. The case histories will present some of the operational successes as well as some of the failures experienced to date. The propellent/perforating technique has been applied in both extreme over- as well as underbalanced well conditions in approzimately 1,000 wells. It has proven that it can offer a cost-effective, safe method when used as a near wellbore clean up tool and for prefrac preparation. Additionally, its usage can eliminate other service needs that often occur subsequent to perforating. These facts will be evidenced by the case history experiences disclosed in this paper.