Category Archives: Completion

What is Mono Trip Gas Lift (MTGL) Completion?

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Mono Trip Gas Lift (MTGL) Completion is an advanced well completion technique introduced by Baker Hughes, designed to significantly improve the efficiency and reduce cost of gas lift operations. In traditional gas lift completions, multiple trips in and out of the wellbore are required to install the lower and upper completion equipment. The MTGL completion technique simplifies this process by allowing the installation of the entire gas lift system and a packer in a single trip. Additionally, cementing operations, packer setting, and cleaning operations can all be done offline once the rig skids off to another well. This application drastically reduces well costs. The MTGL completion is particularly well-suited for small reservoir fields or brownfields where well economics are very low. With traditional completion techniques, the well cost would be so high that development of the field would not be economical.

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Reservoir Properties and Completion Selections

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In order to properly design a completion, reservoir rock and fluid properties must be carefully taken into account because they directly influence on equipment selection.  Reservoir properties (rock and fluid properties) which must be considered are as follows;

Rock Properties

Permeability (k)

Low permeability formation may require fracturing operation to enhance production. The completion for tight formations must be able to withstand pumping pressure and allow fracking fluid and proppant to flow through.

Formation Strength

Unconsolidated formations are required to complete a well with a sand control completion; thus, a well can be produced without any damage to downhole and surface equipment.

Formation Pressure

Reservoir pressure directly affects the pressure rating on all completions because all components must be able to work under reservoir condition. What’s more, formation pressure will affect how much flow of the well can produce.

Formation Temperature

High reservoir temperature will quickly degrade some components, especially elastomer, and this will result in well integrity issues due to pressure leakage. This is one of the critical concerns in selecting the right equipment to work under high temperature conditions. Continue reading →

Coiled Tubing Equipment Overview

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Coiled tubing was developed in 1970s and is one of the most important pieces of well intervention equipment in the oil and gas industry. There are several different types of it available in the industry market with several different designs of a coiled tubing unit; however, the components of a coiled tubing unit are very similar. The main differences are performance capabilities and hydraulic power control systems. This article will give an overview of the essential components of a coiled tubing unit. (Read about the history of coiled tubing here – Introduction to Coiled Tubing (CT) in Oil and Gas)

Figure 1 shows the mounted truck coiled tubing unit, which is normally used for the land operation and Figure 2 is the coiled tubing unit used for operating in an offshore environment.

Figure 1 – Coiled Tubing Unit on a Truck (Courtesy of Stewart & Stevenson)

Figure 2 – Offshore Coiled Tubing Unit (Courtesy of NOV)

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Introduction to Coiled Tubing (CT) in Oil and Gas

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Development of the coiled tubing like we know it today started in early 1960’s. Now it is an important component of various workover and service applications. While still the use of Coil Tubing is about 75% in workover/service applications, the technical advancements have resulted in an increase in utilization of Coil tubing in drilling as well as completion applications.

Ability of performing remedial work on live well was an important driver associated with development of Coil Tubing. In order to achieve this feat, there was a need to overcome three different technical challenges: These were:

  • Continuous conduit that is capable of being inserted in to wellbore (the CT string).
  • Means of running the CT string and retrieving it in to or out of wellbore when under pressure (the injector head).
  • Device that is capable of giving a dynamic seal around tubing string (packoff or stripper device)
Coiled Tubing Unit

Coiled Tubing Unit (Credit: ShutterStock)

The Origin of Coiled Tubing Continue reading →

Perforation Fundamentals – Basic Knowledge about Perforation Used in Oil and Gas Industry

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Perforation is a special operation to crease an efficient communication path between a wellbore and a reservoir by creating tunnels. The effective paths allow reservoir fluid to flow into the well with minimum pressure loss (less skin as much as possible).

Perforation (Courtesy of Schlumberger)

Perforation (Courtesy of Schlumberger)

The process of perforation involves lowering a perforating gun into a wellbore to a planned depth and energizing the gun to be safely fired. When perforating a well, shape charges are fired and then energy from the explosion will create tunnels through casing, and cement and then into a reservoir. Length and diameter of perforation hole are dependent on the objectives which will be discussed later. Figure 1 shows the cross sectional of perforation.

Figure 1 – Perforation Cross Section Ref:http://www.angelfire.com/wy/lisadenke/pictures/assorted_facts_pics/HES_perfs.gif

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