Aberdeen well intervention specialist READ Cased Hole has launched a new time saving technology which it claims can save operators more than a day compared with other logging solutions.
READ is attending ICoTA (International Coiled Tubing Association) conference in Houston today, where it is officially releasing its ZeroTime technology, which has been successfully field tested prior to launch.
ZeroTime allows operators to log whilst working, giving fast, accurate answers on the well site.
It provides efficient data acquisition and fast delivery of critical decision-enabling answers in situ, resulting in significantly lower operational costs and increased safety.
It is delivered at the well site, in tandem with routine trips into the well as part of the well delivery or intervention programme. This enables simultaneous data acquisition and reduces the number of number of logging runs required from a well by integrating into mechanical interventions.
Requiring no special treatment, it can be installed and run in hole by any drilling contractor according their – and the operator’s – standard procedures.
This enables the equipment to be kept at the well site throughout the campaign. READ specialists will mobilise on demand and as required for each well in the sequence.
The company has worked with a select number of operators and oil and gas companies to field test ZeroTime with over 800 successful surveys being carried out in customer wells. READ claims it has eliminated more than 400 operating days and saved the industry $70million.
“”By doing less trips to the well, it makes it a much safer operation. It ticks all the right boxes for the operators,” explained Tobben Tymons, READ’s technical director.
“It made sense to develop a technique that could work in parallel with the heavy work'” he said.
Case studies have revealed that for a typical single-well application ZeroTime eliminates the need for dedicated logging runs, resulting in fewer trips in hole and saving approximately 24 hours pver the same intervention performed by conventional means – a considerable saving in terms of time and money.
It also helps reduce risk on board by reducing the number of rig-up/rig-down activities.
Tymons said that the significant cost savings ZeroTimes offers has proved attractive to operators as the oil price has plummeted.
“When times get particularly difficult, then people will typically turn to technology to offer a solution. We have brought a product to market at a time when the focus on cost is higher than it may have been in the past, but ZeroTime has taken 10 years to get to where it is now.”
Cased hole case study:
A multi-national operator of a mature North Sea field was experiencing steadily declining hydrocarbon production and increasing water cut, leading to reduced performance and increased production cost.
A water injection well was targeted for intervention to optimise its injection profile through the manipulation of Sliding Sleeve Devices (SSD) installed in the liner.
With high operating costs and high operational complexity on a long reach horizontal well, the challenge was to perform swift intervention.
Read recommended the application of injection performance evaluation service and ZeroTime logging while working services deployed on coiled tubing in memory logging configuration.
ZeroTime surveys, utilising Casing Collar Locator, fast response temperature and borehole pressure sensors would be integrated into SSD manipulation operations to provide direct confirmation of successful manipulation and final SSD status, eliminating the need for stand-alone diagnostic surveys.
The combination of the well’s age and long horizontal reach made manipulation of the SSD’s difficult and surface tension readings provided by the coiled tubing system were often misleading.
The clarity and reliability of information provided by ZeroTime revealed a number of sleeves that required additional action before successful manipulation was achieved, dramatically increasing the effectiveness of the mechanical intervention.
Time saving ran in excess of 40 hours and with three less runs in hole.
With all targeted SSDs successfully manipulated, the operator achieved the desired injection profile on the first attempt.
