G N I L L I R D DRILLING Official Magazine of the International Association of Drilling Contractors MAR APR

CONTRACTOR 2009 DCONTRACTORRILLING OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION DRILLING CONTRACTORS innovating while drilling Advances in MWD/LWD, drill pipes

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MARCH/APRIL HEALTH, SAFETY & ENVIRONMENT Green rig project, corporate ocean responsibility, and more 2009 ALL DRILLING, ALL COMPLETIONS, ALL THE TIME W ELL INTERVENTION New technologies make well intervention faster, more accurate, cost-efficient, more reliable

By Katie Mazerov, contributing editor

IN A DOWN market, at least one sector of the oil and gas industry is hold- ing steady – the well intervention busi- ness. Some service providers even antici- pat e an uptick in business that could sustain for the next two years. “Operators still need to maintain wells and keep production up as economically as possible,” said Perry Courville, group manager, and hydraulic for . “We expect this year to stay relatively steady for intervention services, and in some places, we actually expect an uplift to mitigate the decline in rig activity.” Supporting that trend is an array of new tools and technologies that have pushed well intervention to new levels . Advances Global Tubing believes that it can bring a step-change to bias weld technology with its in coiled tubing, such as increased diam- friction-stir welding technique. Above is the company’s ERW seam welding system. eter, better welding technology and new metallurgy to increase strength, have cisely monitor and record the weld tem- water doesn’t flow easily into or out made it an increasingly important tool perature profile at the weld seam. The of the formation, but it doesn’t detract for a variety of intervention functions. Thermatool HAZControl feature main- from the flow of the hydrocarbons,” said tains weld characteristics over a wide Halliburton’s Walt Glover, communica- “Well intervention represents more than range of steel thicknesses and grades. tion manager for well intervention. The 75% of the overall coiled tubing market,” relative permeability modifier (RPM) said Robert Bunch, CEO and chairman “We’re confident we’re not only bringing technology is proving successful in help- of Global Tubing, a Houston company to the market the latest in tube milling ing control unwanted water production launched in 2007. “Unlike jointed pipe, technologies, but also some very innova- and helping control water loss to the coiled tubing is a continuous string of tive and revolutionary technology with formation. pipe that can be run in and out of the regard to the strip weld,” Mr Bunch said. well, and you can perform remediation In mechanical wireline service, services without the need of a workover Among Halliburton’s new technologies Halliburton’s Downhole Power Unit rig,” he said. “And coiled tubing opera- using coiled tubing is PropStop service, (DPU ) technology is a non-explosive, tions can be performed while the well is in which a chemical is applied in frac- electromechanical tool that provides under pressure, so you don’t need to kill tured wells where proppant has begun to a reliable alternative to conventional the well to perform the function, which move into the wellbore. “Until now, oper- hydraulic or explosive tools to set and reduces the risk of formation damage.” ators have had to do frequent clean-outs, retrieve packers or other wellbore devic- losing production time,” Mr Courville es on a slickline, electric line or coiled Global Tubing is just entering the mar- said . The process involves a resin-based tubing. ket with a patent-pending technology technology that coats proppant grains in that Mr Bunch believes could be a “step the fracture to stop the proppant from “The DPU is ideal in areas where change in the bias weld technology. We spilling into the wellbore. The resin is transporting explosives is hazardous have, for the first time, successfully applied through coiled tubing using a or costly,” said David Larimore, global adapted a technique called friction-stir pulsing tool that enables better distribu- operations and product manager. “And welding to the manufacture of high- tion in the fracture and optimizes the with the new DPU Intelligent Series tool, strength, low alloy steel tubing.” pumping process, he explained . we can measure the force and control the stroke length required to set the “We believe that with this new technolo- In highly deviated and extended-reach packers or plugs in real time. With these gy applied to the coiled tubing bias weld, wells, the new CoilGlide service can be features, you have reassurance in the we should see better fatigue life for the used in place of expensive downhole quality of setting wellbore devices.” tubing, as well as have a product that is tractors. It uses a proprietary gel that more resistant to corrosion.” increases lubricity , enabling the coiled In wireline interventions, Halliburton tubing to move farther into the wellbore. is developing discrete technologies and The company’s milling technology fea- integrated solutions that are indepen- tures a Thermatool Weldscan product A new technology also can modif y the dent of conveyance, whether in real time that includes a digital camera compo- relative permeability of the formation on electric line or in memory on slick- nent allowing operators to more pre- to water versus oil. “It makes it so that line. “This is advantageous because, in

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certain situations, particularly offshore Jaws downhole underreamer, combined Halliburton’s Downhole Power Unit environments, limited deck space can’t with a MacDrill motor, can “pass restric- technology provides an alternative accommodate multiple service packages tions in the wellbore and open up a to conventional hydraulic or ex- and associated personnel providing dif- drill or milling face below these restric- plosive tools to set and retrieve ferent services,” said Mr Larimore. tions to clean out debris and cement,” packers or other wellbore de- explained Mike Rossing, global busi- Advanced solutions for fracture stimu- ness unit manager for thru-tubing fish- vices on a slickline, electric lation, zonal isolation and milling are ing and milling services. line or coiled tubing. It can also emerging in the marketplace. be ideal in areas where Weatherford’s WidePak One Trip “We recently used this technique in Asia transporting explosives Straddle is used for remedial applica- Pacific to successfully remove cement is hazardous or costly . tions such as tubing integrity and shut- from a well in a dual-string completion, ting off water-producing perforations. in an underbalanced operation with The system is conveyed through tubing large amounts of nitrogen needing to by either wireline or coiled tubing. be used as the drive fluid to ensure the underbalanced characteristics were “We use this for tubing remediation met,” he added. for a corroded pipe area, where there is a hole in the tubing or a washed-out BJ Services recently introduced two gas-lift mandrel to re-establish tubing rigless intervention techniques specifi- integrity,” said Bob Murphy, global busi- cally for wells having surface-controlled ness unit manager, thru-tubing products. subsurface safety valves (SCSSV), which “We’re also using it to shut off a section have prevented the use of traditional of perforation that is producing water or techniques for providing or gas. Traditionally, when a straddle was chemical inhibition. used, you made a trip in the well to set one packer, and then a second trip with The valves, which are installed in pro- a seal assembly, a spacer pipe and an duction tubing, are kept open by hydrau- upper packer. Now it can be done all in lic pressure from the surface, except in one trip.” the event of maintenance or a failure. The valves can be wireline retrievable The system can straddle up to 35 feet or tubing retrievable, and are operated in one trip and can operate at a higher by an annular control line installed at differential than previous systems, Mr completion or during a workover. Murphy continued. “What makes this dif- ferent is the boosting seal system, where The InjectSafe system inserts a wireline- created hole, the we have a 5,000-psi differential rating retrievable safety valve into an existing control line on the both inside and out on the straddle,” he tubing retrievable safety valve, with back side will now be said. “We’re up to a 300° operating range capillary tubing suspended below and in communication with with standard elastomers.” above the safety valve. This provides a the wireline retrievable valve, and it will continuous path for injecting de-lique- open and close the valve.” Weatherford’s Surge Frac coiled tubing fication or other chemicals, effectively system offers an improved technology bypassing the safety valves, explained The company’s Reconnect system is for selectively sealing off perforation Jeff Bolding, product line manager for a thru-tubing retrofit solution used sections in long horizontal or deviated BJ Services’ InjectSafe Systems. when the control line that operates the wells to inject acid, particularly in cases safety valves is broken. It is a safer, where poor permeability, porosity and Regulations stipulate that all tubing cost-efficient alternative to an expen- pressure along the length of the horizon- retrievable safety valves must have the sive workover, and more reliable than a tal sections cause reduced production. ability to receive a secondary, wireline storm choke, velocity valve, vacuums or valve. sealants. Surge Frac, which can set multiple times at a low differential pressure in one “With InjectSafe systems, we can go in “The problem involves getting a surface- trip, yields more uniform treatment and with a wireline tool and permanently controlled valve into a well when the better drainage. Selectively stimulating lock the valve in an open position, wheth- control line is broken,” Mr Bolding producing zones that exhibit a variety of er there is hydraulic pressure going explained. “We build the safety valve formation pressures, permeability and through it on the control line or not,” with the polish-bore receptacle, which porosity leads to more effective stimula- Mr Bolding said. “Then we can run a receives a stinger that is deployed by the tion of every zone. “We have well-docu- communication tool on the wireline, and new control line, thru-tubing. When it mented improvement in zones that we when we make a hole into the side wall stings, instead of communication being normally would consider brownfields,” of the tubing retrievable safety valve, oriented to get chemicals down and Mr Murphy said. we’re communicating with the hydraulic around to the capillary long string, we piston chambers. The hydraulic control have ported that flow path directly to the For milling, Weatherford has enhanced line on the back side is now communicat- piston chamber or wireline valve that underreaming technology to enlarge ing to the interior of the production pipe. opens and closes the safety valve itself.” the hole size for casing and cementing When we come out of the hole with that operations and to set cement plugs and tool, we can run the wireline retrievable The is then adapted so that enlarge zones for gravel packing. The safety valve. And because of the newly the new control line is able to exit the wellhead without any disruption or loss

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of function. “If we’re going to introduce a control line inside the tubing, it needs to be terminated somewhere at the wellhead,” Mr Bolding said. “We need to bring it out and put pressure on it so it can operate the safety valve. So we terminate it at 90 ° with an adaptor at the base of the wellhead.”

For re-stimulating old wells, BJ Services has introduced the StimTunnel process, which uses coiled tubing for applying hydrochloric acid into carbonate rock using an articulated, jointed jetting tool. “Traditionally, we used acid fracturing or pumped hydrochloric acid into a car- bonate formation blind, and hoped for the best,” said Lance Portman, director of BJ Services’ coiled tubing research and engineering. “Or, we would pump a mixture of acid and blocking agents to try and control where the acid went.

“With the StimTunnel process, we actu- The wellbore on the left demonstrates the use of conventional bullhead stimulation. The ally control where the acid goes because zone with the lowest pressure is stimulated while other zones are not . The wellbore im- we make a new tunnel in the wellbore, age on the right demonstrates Weatherford’s selective stimulation system that enables and that’s where the acid is going the ability to isolate and effectively stimulate each zone. because that’s where the tool is going,” he continued. “We keep the acid away from water zones, where we don’t want it to go, and we push the acid where we do want it to go.”

Baker Oil Tools (BOT) recently com- pleted its fifth casing exit using the new Longbow casing exit system. Key to the new system is a high-performance bottomhole milling assembly that incor- porates several unique design features. And, new cutting inserts are the result of more than six years of research, development and testing at ’ new Center for Technology Innovation.

“Today, many of our customers are demanding windows of improved qual- ity and greater length, completed in half the time,” said Mark McGurk, director of wellbore intervention. “These new assemblies truly deliver exceptional performance and value, with high reli- ability.”

One of the fastest growing segments of BOT’s wellbore intervention business is in wellbore cleaning, where problems related to debris in the wellbore are a major financial risk. Wellbore cleaning systems deployed during the transition from drilling to production phases pro- vide an efficient means of managing that risk. The Wellbore Cleaning system com- bines several high-performance tools to BJ Services crew members prepare to run a capillary string for an InjectSafe system seek out debris, collect it and eliminate installation in the . it, all in a single trip.

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Baker Oil Tools’ Vectored Annular Cleaning System can be ideal in situations where it’s not desirable to circulate debris, cuttings or junk up to surface. It captures debris downhole by means of circulating through a flow path and sequence of jets that create a ’s ACTive family of live downhole coiled tubing vacuum effect at the bottom of the tool string . services combines CT with fiber-optic technology.

“In many cases it is not desirable to “Our ACTive platform of services ACTive Isolation sets isolation devices, circulate debris, cuttings or junk up gives us the ability to measure critical while controlling downhole pressure to surface. This is where our Vectored parameters like downhole temperature, across the sealing elements. Annular Cleaning System (VACS) downhole pressure and downhole depth becomes an ideal option,” Mr McGurk correlation in real time, hence allowing Schlumberger program manager Rex said. VACS captures debris downhole us to make changes, as required, to our Burgos notes that the surveillance by means of circulating through a flow job design as we are in the well,” said technique of the fiber optics, Distributed path and sequence of jets that create a Teoman Altinkopru, coiled tubing ser- Temperature Survey (DTS), can deter- vacuum effect at the bottom of the tool vices marketing manager. mine the temperature along the length string. The system offers the flexibility of the fiber itself. “ACTive allows us of carrying capacity chambers that can “In pumping stimulation fluids with to utilize that technology while using be customized according to the size and coiled tubing, for example, knowing the coiled tubing,” Mr Burgos said. “The amount of debris to be recovered. bottomhole temperature and pressure value here is that with the fluids, we’re both within and outside of the coil gives able to tell from the effects of tempera- Looking toward the future, Mr McGurk us the tremendous advantage of being ture, where exactly those fluids are says that BOT is continuing to invest able to fine-tune the execution of the being placed. We can determine if we in development of their SMART pumping job on the fly,” he said. “Instead are delivering fluids to the zones we Intervention System. “The system of basing our decisions on calculations want, and we can divert the flow if nec- incorporates the SENTIO downhole real- done prior to the job, we are now using essary.” time data acquisition and transmission downhole pressure and downhole depth system for wellbore intervention opera- measurements in real time to maximize ACTive Profiling enhances all ACTive tions,” he explained. “Experience to date coverage.” service with DTS profiling to provide a has been primarily in fishing and de- 3D temperature profile of the wellbore to completion of wells and optimizing cas- For wellbore clean-out and matrix monitor treatment fluid placement and ing exit systems. We are now planning to acidizing jobs, ACTive Cleanout uses well production performance. downhole pressure readings to avoid deploy thru-tubing sizes of the SENTIO The greatest beneficiary of real- tool in addition to our recent investment formation damage and reduce the num- ber of trips into the wellbore. “On these time technology is the customer, Mr in more powerful surface based trans- Altinkopru said. “We are eliminating mission and display units. type of treatments, being able to read the downhole true measurements allows surprises on the job because we are bas- “We feel that the proliferation of this us to stay below the frac pressure of the ing our decisions on real-time downhole real-time service into a broader array of well,” Mr Altinkopru said. information, not pre-calculated informa- intervention applications, and also sev- tion,” he said. “And getting the job right eral of BOT’s other major product lines, In depth-sensitive coiled tubing opera- the first time reduces the exposure of is only a matter of time.” tions such as perforation, ACTive Perf the crews, saves time and delivers more results in greater accuracy by providing value to the customer.” Fiber-optic technology combined with accurate depth control and target cover- Animations and videos demonstrating these coiled tubing is the centerpiece of the age in one run while maintaining down- well intervention technologies are available new Schlumberger ACTive family of live hole pressure balance. online at www.drillingcontractor.org. downhole CT services.

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