Customer Challenges
- Petronas required a safe and effective solution to unload a newly drilled and completed high-rate gas producer located on a small satellite platform offshore Caspian Sea
- Following drilling and well completion operation, the well contained a significant volume of heavy completion brine that needed to be displaced and recovered before the well could be effectively unloaded and brought onto production. The operation presented significant logistical and execution challenges due to the platform’s extremely restricted deck space, with only approximately 9.5 m × 10 m available for the intervention spread
- Conventional well intervention and nitrogen lifting methods would have required a substantially larger equipment footprint, additional lifting and handling activities, and more complex offshore logistics than the platform could accommodate
- Petronas therefore required a compact, rigless intervention solution capable of delivering effective nitrogen-assisted well unloading, reducing wellbore hydrostatic pressure and recovering the heavy completion fluid, while maintaining safety, efficiency and operational continuity
Expro Excellence
- Expro deployed its CoilHose™ Mk-VI system as a compact intervention solution to deliver nitrogen downhole and support the unloading of the newly completed gas well
- Considering the severe deck-space restrictions, Expro engineered the equipment layout and operational sequence to enable safe deployment of the CoilHose™ spread within the limited available footprint. The compact footprint, deployment flexibility, and rigless capability of CoilHose™ enabled the intervention to be performed from a platform where conventional nitrogen assisted intervention spreads would have been technically and logistically challenging to deploy
- Through careful operational planning and execution, a substantial volume of heavy completion brine was recovered, progressively reducing the wellbore hydrostatic and enabling the well to unload. Though several well problem encountered, Multiple CoilHose™ runs were successfully executed, allowing nitrogen to be injected at the target depth to reduce the hydrostatic and progressively assist the recovery of heavy completion brine from the wellbore
- The successful programme demonstrated the capability of CoilHose™ to perform complex well-unloading operations in highly space-constrained offshore environments while maintaining operational efficiency and minimizing disruption to platform activities
Value to Client
- Enabled Successful Well Start Up: Recovery of a substantial volume of heavy completion brine reduced the wellbore hydrostatic pressure, facilitated effective well unloading, and enabled the high-rate gas producer to be successfully brought onto production
- Overcame Platform Constraints: Multiple CoilHose™ runs were safely executed from a deck area of only 9.5 m × 10 m, where conventional intervention approaches were not technically or logistically practical
- Delivered a Fully Rigless Intervention: The operation eliminated larger equipment spread associated with conventional nitrogen-assisted intervention and reduced the logistical burden, operational complexity, associated risks, and costs
- Demonstrated an Alternative Intervention Technology: The operation showcased CoilHose™ as a flexible and operationally efficient solution for nitrogen-assisted well unloading, particularly for offshore wells where deck space, lifting capacity, and conventional intervention access are constrained
Contact
For further information, please contact wellintervention@expro.com.
