Facing challenges

By Brian Schwanitz, VP Global Sales and Marketing Manager of Welltec

O&G. What are the main problems that companies run into when undertaking horizontal drilling?
BS. The first challenge that they encounter is drill pipe recovery. With every new horizontal development, the drill pipe has a high risk of getting stuck either because the hole is not being cleaned thoroughly of cuttings or because there are mud pressures or drilling parameters that are not being optimized. Traditionally, in high angle wells to get the pipe free, requires electric line logging tools to be pumped down through the drill pipe to determine where it is stuck and then to provide services to free the pipe. If circulation is lost, coil tubing is run into the drill pipe to provide these same services. That’s a huge operation and cost and it can often take days to mobilize a coil tubing unit to an offshore location.

Going in with the conveyance tools that Welltec offers, provides a very quick and efficient on depth service of free point indication and back-off of the drill pipe to free it.

The next challenge comes with completing the horizontal well, which means placing tubulars and valves and gauges into the well so that they can begin the production. That requires some special services in a horizontal well, and the conveyance technology that Welltec brings with their wireline tractor is also a very cost effective way of servicing that completion.

Because hydrocarbon production declines over time (which it always will), interventions are absolutely necessary to keep the hydrocarbon flowing at a maximum rate. This is especially necessary when the wells are declining their production faster than is expected.

What is needed is to re-enter the well, perform diagnostic measurements, and determine if the production is declining from either obstructions such as fill or scale, and/or due to water influx.

Once the problem is identified then an appropriate solution can be engineered. To make that solution happen in a cost effective manner means using a light intervention versus a heavy intervention. What I mean by that is instead of bringing in a rig or a coil tubing unit to be able to do the same type of activities, you can apply a electric wireline unit. It makes the intervention process more cost effective and you can do these more often.

One North Sea operator has a very aggressive intervention program and now 60 percent of their production comes from oil that has been increased due to interventions, and doing these interventions in this method has saved them over US$2.2 billion. It’s an excellent case study of using this technology in a cost effective way to optimize production.

Brian Schwanitz is VP Global Sales and Marketing Manager. Previously, he functioned as General Manager for Welltec’s nine operational bases in USA. Before joining Welltec, he worked for Schlumberger in various positions for 25 years. He is serving as an International Board member of ICoTA, has authored eight SPE papers and 12 published articles.