Multilevel Completions in One Trip: Development and Deployment

Abstract

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper OTC 30747, “Tripping the Light Fantastic: When Three Become One,” by Euan Murdoch, SPE, Paul Day, and Steven Walduck, Weatherford, prepared for the 2020 Offshore Technology Conference, originally scheduled to be held in Houston, 4-7 May. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Copyright 2020 Offshore Technology Conference. Reproduced by permission. Typically, the completion of certain deepwater wells will necessitate the separate deployment of sandface, intermediate, and upper completions. What if this could be achieved in a single trip? In the simplest terms, completing in a single trip reduces the overall completion time by half and more. The complete paper describes the hurdles that have prevented single-trip installation of upper and lower completions in the complex world of subsea and deepwater applications and examines the processes, technologies, and risk-mitigation steps that took a concept from pilot to successful deployment. Introduction Almost universally in offshore operations, operators have elected to deploy completions in multiple trips. Simple completions on land are often deployed in a single-trip fashion, and the deployment of cemented single-trip gas-lift systems on platform locations in the Gulf of Thailand is commonplace. Subsea single-trip systems have been deployed in the Campos Basin; however, these tend to be relatively simple and in wells not requiring sand-control solutions. They typically consist of a safety valve, gas-lift mandrels, polished bore receptacle (PBR), production packer, and re-entry guide. At the time of writing, no one has run standalone screens as a single-trip system in deepwater applications.