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and collet and provide a point of initiation for the stimulation
treatment.
Casestudy
The company recently completed a 221-stage stimulation with
the 5.5 in. Bowhead II sliding sleeve system in the Permian Basin,
Texas, US, resulting in the largest interventionless hydraulic
fracturing operation completed to date. The operation was
accomplished in 6 days (with 41 stages being carried out per
day) and it was part of a larger campaign in which a total of
1095 sliding sleeves (across 6 wells) were fractured, placing a total
of 76.5million lb (34 700 t) of sand at amaximum concentration
of 4 ppg (480 kg/m
3
) and amaximumpump rate of 52 bbl/min
(8.3m
3
/min), with an average horsepower requirement of 4600 hp.
The efficiency provided by systems such as these can result
in significant time and cost savings, and their emergence paves
the way for future innovations by continuing to challenge existing
sliding sleeve technology to improve upon its own capabilities.
Single-point entry completion technology offers clear technical
advantages with regards to controlled fracture placement and
stimulation efficiency. The trending emphasis on choosing the
best completion practice for each well application should lead
the industry as a whole to give serious consideration to these
systems.
Weatherford
It has been over 25 years since the first ‘Intelligent Well’ was created,
15 years of an unconventional reality and the same time frame
for autonomous injection control devices (ICDs) and deepwater
technology. Weatherford has interests in all thesemarket segments.
Lowering well costs is an aimoperators have always sought
to achieve. The company’s TR1P systemuses radio frequency
identification (RFID) to allow the reliable and safe deployment
of complex upper and lower completions in one combined run,
saving upwards of 60% installation time over traditional methods.
TETRATechnologies
TETRA Technologies provides a range of products and
services for the industry, including chemicals, fluids, and
additives, to water management, production testing, wellbore
cleanup, and natural gas compression. The company also
engineers fluids for completion, drilling, and workovers,
such as CS Neptune® completion fluids. The high-density
fluids, bothmonovalent and divalent, approach the densities
of zinc bromide and cesium formate brines, yet they are
formulated without zinc, formates, undissolved solids or
priority pollutants.
The fluids can lower operating costs and simplify logistics
as they require no special mixing, handling, or storage at
the rig site. The neutral-to-alkaline pH reduces HSE risk. The
fluids can be reclaimed for reuse and, being zinc-free, require no
zero-discharge equipment.
Casestudy
In 2014, amajor operator required a zinc-free, formate-free
fluid with a density of 15.4 lb/gal. and a pressure crystallisation
temperature below 30˚F at 15 000 psi. Development took two
months, followed by in-house and third-party testing for efficacy,
stability, compatibility, corrosion, and other factors.
The first application took place in February 2015 in the
Gulf of Mexico. Water depth was 7200 ft, TD 30 000 ft, and
bottomhole temperature 265˚F. The operation included a
blowout preventer test at 15 000 psi and under 40˚F. Used as both
the completion fluid and base for wellbore treatment pills and
packer fluids, the fluid performed well with no operational issues;
the operator subsequently used it in four other wells.
Since its inception, the CS Neptune fluids range has continued
to grow through the development of new fluid chemistries and is
currently available in densities of up to 17.5 lb/gal.
Tendeka
As a specialist in completions and production solutions and
sandmanagement, Tendeka aims to enhance productivity for
clients’ reservoirs both on and offshore in demanding operating
environments.
2019 saw Tendeka secure a four-year exclusive deal with
Equinor that will see 100 000mof sand screens installed
annually on the Troll field in the Norwegian North Sea with its
FloSure autonomous inflow control devices (AICDs).
AICDs preferentially choke unwanted produced fluids
whilst promoting production of oil from the entire length of
the well, leading to greater recovery, lower water cuts and less
gas production.
More than 7000 passive inflow control devices (ICDs) and
more than 42 000 AICDs have so far been deployed around
the world.
To further address the issue of sand control failures in
wells the Filtrex remedial sand control systemwas launched in
December 2019. The technology can simultaneously performa
sand clean out and install a permanent solution to remove the
need for multiple trips and a costly workover.
The company’s Houston-based performance enhancement
team focuses on the development and deployment of combining
tools and chemistry to overcome challenges associated with
unconventional wells, and achieve economic well performance
optimisation.
ShaleModifier, for example, is an oil-based polymer treatment
that covalently bonds to the rock surface to allow enhanced oil
flowback from the nano-network, resulting in improved return
on investment for operators. It can be pumped as part of the
initial completion ahead of the hydraulic fracture or as a workover
squeezed into the formation.
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