Utilizing Fiber Optic Enabled Coil Tubing Telemetry in Extended Reach Horizontal Well Mechanical Rigless Water Shut-Off (WSO) Operation (Case Study)

Abstract

Abstract In many fields, high water production can cause adverse effects on the reservoir performance, which can result in production losses. To mitigate this situation, it is crucial to utilize water management to reduce water production, optimize oil production, increase the well life and revive dead wells. One of the options is utilizing a workover rig to isolate the water entry zone by running swellable or inflatable packers. This option is costly and time consuming, taking into consideration the time required to prepare the location for the rig, stripping out and returning back flowline and cleaning wells prior returning to production. To overcome this challenge, it was essential to look for an alternative solution that requires less time and cost. One of those solutions is isolating the water producing zone by rigless water shut-off (WSO), using mechanical isolation. This kind of operation is more challenging for extended reach horizontal wells. This paper highlights the mechanical rigless WSO method used to mechanically isolate a water contribution zone by utilizing fiber optic enabled coiled tubing (FOECT) telemetry and setting an inflatable packer combined with a capped with cement. This successful WSO treatment positively impacted the overall performance of a dead horizontal oil producer with 4,000 ft of reservoir contact. The WSO resulted in decreasing the water cut from 68% to 0%, and revived the dead well with 10 thousand barrels per day (MBOD) oil gain. Real-time downhole temperature, pressure (inside and outside the coil tubing) and casing collar locator (CCL) measurements, obtained by FOECT was utilized to get accurate packer setting depth, confirm packer setting and ensure the suitability of cement recipe slurry design. The whole cycle of candidate selection, job design, execution challenges, post job evaluation, lessons learned and the experience gained to optimize the similar future jobs are covered in this paper.