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• Region: Latin America
• Topics: Integrity
• Date: Sept, 2021

Offshore Well Intervention Latin America 2021 bought together a number of industry specialists to discuss the past, present and future of well integrity and transformative technologies in the pipeline.

Representatives from MADCON Corporation, EV, Quartic Advisory, Petrobras and PetroRio joined the panel to tackle the current challenges and transformative technologies that could rise to meet them.

On the key challenges facing well integrity, Ivo Foianini, Business Development Manager at EV, explained, "Overall, the issue of the use of cement has always been a problem. The way wells have been designed in the oil field has been a problem for the focus of either remediation for well integrity or abandoning wells. Cement is a great product to hold structural integrity and withstand the passage of fluid, but being able to properly place it behind pipe and detect where it is behind pipe is difficult. It remains a challenged route.”

"The other problem, as I see it, is corrosion. We use two components that don't age well- cement and steel. People have tried to reinforce steel with a lining, casing or resins, but, in general, we're using 20th century technology for the 21st century. We need to find ways to support them with better products or use new products from the future."

Vincent Stephane Geyl, Well Integrity Advisor at Quartic Advisory, added, "What I see as a technical challenge is data gathering. Conducting sufficient testing, gathering trends and analyses and combining them, is still a challenge.”

"All this data, designs, analyses and tests feeds into decision-making. The focus on making good decisions is much higher, but making decisions based on all the data is harder."

Jorge Ricardo Siqueira, Well Integrity Consultant at PetroRio, continued the discussion as the panellists turned to the innovative technologies to help combat the above problems and ensure well integrity in the long-term, the panel discussed designing wells for abandonment. Offshore areas in the North Sea and Gulf of Mexico are in the midst of a plug-and-abandonment wave, with post-plug wells not leaking after abandonment being at the forefront of many modern wells' designs.

Foianini explained, "It's an excellent idea- designing wells for abandonment. It gathers the well integrity aspect in it from a high level perspective. Operators don't have to deal with as many well integrity variables, because they're designed to be abandoned in the future."

Geyl continued, "New materials are the way forward- cement is just the lack of a better option. We've seen the deployment of bismuth in the North Sea as a barrier, putting minerals and elements as a barrier. There's a lot of work around exothermic reactions, to melt rock and casing to create a barrier.”

"One of the things I find so challenging is using the formation as a barrier. The solution is varied- using rock to seal is one of the best approach but it is tricky to demonstrate that each rock formation is sufficient enough to act as a barrier. We've seen efforts to recreate and re-mineralise formations within the well, but it's far ahead, in the future."

Bruce Trader, President of MADCON Corporation, contributed, "One company we're working with are a resin manufacturer in Louisiana. Resins have been considered for a while but they're working with the weight and density to improve the cost effectiveness."

"We are discussing how to use salt and rock as a barrier- it's not easier, but we are discussing it in Petrobras and with our clients- the challenge is to be sure we're doing it in a safe way," concluded Daniel Muller, Manager of Well and Subsea Integrity at Petrobras.

• Region: Latin America
• Date: Sept, 2021

As part of the Offshore Well Intervention Latin America conference Martin Tardio Velasco, Regional Subsea Services and Wellheads Director at Baker Hughes, led a panel of experts to explore the uptake of riserless light well intervention (RLWI) in Brazil could be developed, what benefits it could bring to the industry there, and what are the obstacles standing in the way.

Setting the scene

Velasco opened the session with a short presentation on current state of the RLWI market and the offshore industry in Brazil. He noted that, according to Rystad estimations, the break even price on downstream projects had dropped to US$50 per barrel, down 10% in the last two years. In Brazil specifically, the break even price had dropped 30% in 2014-2018, falling a further 15% since then. Lower break even prices favour less drilling and maximising production from existing wells and this reduction has also largely been driven by innovations within the oil and gas industry.

Combined, these factors make an ideal setting for RLWI, a method of intervening subsea wells bringing operation efficiency, lower rates and overall much lower costs compared to semi-subs.

Velasco commented, “RLWI vessel days are rising across the globe. Brazil, however, is still somewhat of a virgin territory for it. We see a huge opportunity there and we think the market will change in that direction. The country has around 600 christmas trees installed outside of the last ten years and the significant age leaves room for both enhancement and P&A, especially from RLWI vessels.”

Switching to RLWI

Matthew Vick, Senior Subsea Wells Engineer, BP, noted that he had noticed a real shift to riserless in the last three/four years and his company had been making use of this method in regions such as the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and Angola as the relaxed cost pressures (and the speed of mobilisation) makes it a much more economical solution.

He added that working in Angola would be similar to Brazil as there was a lack of expertise around RLWI. To patch this hole in the talent pool, BP took supervisors from the region to GOM to gain experience with the equipment.

Vick commented, “Most of the skills we need are available in the country from wireline tubing to pumping etc ‒ this is the standard bread and butter. It is just a small piece around well control equipment which is the last step. It takes some time to build that on experience but you can get there by identifying key individuals and building their experience in other regions.”

Echoeing these sentiments, Colin Nicol, Senior Operations Leader, Baker Hughes, said, “It is hard to take on new technology in less mature regions and sub-Saharan Africa is a good example. There are experience gaps, onshore and offshore so you need to identify the prevailing skills similar to the ones you need and identify the core people to train. We work with regional people but it has also be necessary to supplement them with senior personnel from GOM etc. Ultimately, we want people from the region to be comfortable with the assets prior to it arriving and make it sustainable in order to bleed back the amount of experienced people we need to parachute in. At some point you can then step away and make the region self-sufficient for RLWI operations.”

Velasco added, “There is a wide talent pool in Brazil and it has usually been quick to set up new technology. An example is the evolution of deepwater where it is now exporting talent for deepwater operations and I see similar potential with RLWI.”

P&A opportunities

Another opportunity for RLWI comes in the form of vessel availability. Nicol noted that the renewable market is gradually eating into the vessels used by the oil and gas industry and are using them on long term contracts. Particularly popular is larger vessels with bigger decks and high capacity cranes. With competition over rigs bound to drive prices higher, many operators may well turn to lighter vessels in order to enhance production on their assets or fulfil their obligations around P&A.

Continuing on the topic of P&A, Velasco commented, “In Brazil we still have some room to catch up in terms of P&Aing wells, a lot often get delayed. We foresee that with new regulations inbound this work will start picking up.”

The panellists noted that this trend could spell further opportunities for RLWI in Brazil as lighter vessels are able to perform such operations more efficiently and quicker, resulting on cost saving on what is traditionally an expensive venture. Additionally, RLWI capabilities are rapidly advancing. New technology allows RLWI to perform lower completion abandonment, cut and prep for pulling tubing and even tools to allow cement barriers to be placed across multiple annuli, making them a more viable option to rig based vessels.

Enhanced HSE

With ageing wells in Brazil also comes the problem that many were not designed to support the weight of some of the newer rigs entering operations. This can cause potential problems if the stress cannot be supported, a challenge much less severe to RLWI vessels.

Vick added that there are many other HSE advantages of utilising RLWI over rig-based operations. He noted that, for instance, on rigs personnel are much more exposed to hydrocarbons, often around ten metres from potentially flammable gas etc. Whereas on RLWI the well is isolated to the tree itself and the only hydrocarbons coming to surface is when taking the lubricator out or residue gas from testing. This is a big HSE risk reduction and improvement in personnel safety.

• Region: All
• Date: Sept, 2021

Maggie Demicco, Manager of Business Development & Product Management at Parker LORD, sat down with Offshore Network to discuss how the company’s flexible joint product line, a solution typically reserved for drilling applications, is bringing value to the well intervention market.

While engineers at Parker LORD have predominantly focused their efforts on drilling applications (with products such as telescopic joint packers which are all certified and fielded on many rigs around the world), Demicco described how the company has ventured into the well intervention market, spearheaded by their flexible joint solution. Demicco stated, “This really came about by accident in some ways. Flexible joints are very common in drilling applications but had not been used in intervention applications.

“This particular unique application has a high pressure rating, higher than most flexible joints used in drilling applications. We also envisioned a solution that was compact as intervention vessels are smaller than drilling rigs and this is why it is helpful to have the flexible joint 2 metres high or less as opposed to say 5 metres or more for a stress joint. In doing so you are able to handle higher pressures with a more compact package in that case."

Demicco also described how, with flexible joints installed at the top, operators impart less of a moment on the entire riser system. Flexible joints accommodate any angular offset, much like a ball joint, so less moment is imparted into vessel structure and riser. This allows for benefits such as being able to operate more on the edge of where you could before with a stress joint, such as further off station or in rougher weather.

So far, Helix has fielded three units of this solution, the first two went into service as early as 2017, the third in 2018, and it is also being utilised in a subsea mining application, to enter service next year.

Unlocking value in challenging environments

While the flexible joint can bring benefits in the form of cost saving and safety benefits HSE, it also opens up new opportunities for operators and service providers which were previously restricted by stress joints.

For instance, Demicco commented, “If you have an intervention vessel or rig doing riser-based interventions in deeper water, say 900 metres or more, you’ve got a longer riser and that inherently is more flexible by being longer. In such applications there is less of a need for flexible joints. But if you are in shallower water like 300 metres or less, the riser is a lot shorter so it is more rigid in nature. If you have a stiffer riser system, you put more stress into the wellhead itself at the bottom and into the vessel at the top. In that case flexible joints can provide a lot more benefit with those shorter, stiffer risers if installed at the top and the bottom.”

Demicco added that the flexible joints are even more beneficial when placed at the top and bottom of a riser. Such an advantage could be incredibly useful in regions such as the North Sea which does not only have shallower waters but also rougher sea conditions and a lot of very old wellheads which have undergone multiple interventions over the years. Demicco noted, “Having a flexible joint here would help reduce the stress when you’ve got older wellheads you don’t want to replace, ensuring the field will keep producing.”

While companies such have Helix have not yet incorporated this, Parker LORD sees this as the next step which could provide even more flexibility to potentially expand operation limits even further.

Safety first

At Parker LORD, HSE is considered paramount and reducing risk is inherent in the solutions they offer, as is the case in the flexible joint.

Demicco noted, “One feature of our flexible joint is that it has two separate flexible elements, based on the different way we approach flexible joint design. One flexible element is doing the work of a seal bearing, sealing against intervention fluids. The other one is designed to handle the riser loads and the bending moments. However, while each is designed to do its primary function, if something was to happen, and a seal bearing were to fail, you have the load bearing as a secondary sealing mechanism.

“There is also a sensor between the two barriers to measure the pressure in the cavity which should read as zero in normal operations. If the pressure increases in that cavity, it the sensor will alert you if a failure has happened in the seal bearing, and then you can change it out when you have a convenient opportunity in operations. We consider that a dual barrier, a belt and suspender approach.”

Other solutions on offer

Also on the menu for well intervention operations are Parker LORD’s customisable Gimbal Bearing Assemblies, which, as Demicco outlined, have a similar story in that they were in use on drilling rigs. These are used while running a riser, below the spider and accommodate the vessel motion and support the load of the riser along with whatever equipment is connected.

Demicco said, “If you want to have a Gimbal on an intervention vessel you are often constrained on space so you can’t use an extremely large and stiff 72 inch 1.8 metres wide Gimbal in that case. This is another story where we took a product successful in drilling applications and modified it for an intervention application. Whether more space constrained, required lower stiffness, or the angles are different from drilling application, our engineer from that product line came up with ingenious design tool to take customer inputs for each application and quickly revise the equipment to adjust the parameters on the fly with for the customer.”

Opportunity on the horizon

Demicco added that the company is continuing to explore solutions across the sector, including within the well intervention space. She said, “We know how to design elastomer parts and mitigate shock and vibration. We are talking to customers to find out what their big issues are in those spaces and we typically try and target the problems other people can’t solve, have failed to solve, or unwilling to solve for whatever reason. When we talk to customers about their problems we are asking: Is there some elastomer product that’s failing too quickly and you want to extend the life or are you trying to solve a problem in a non-elastomer way? Is there some other solution we can design using elastomer to solve the problem?"

In regards to the flexible joint, Demicco added that the next step is to get this more widespread, as the hard work has been done. “We have set up this market-based product and the big initial step and cost (getting the mould to manufacture the moulded flexible elements) has been taken. We’ve got that and once we’ve validated that design to the API standard, established our manufacturing processes, that’s really the most important thing. After that it is easier to modify and package those flexible elements differently depending on the customer application. We have the mould, have capacity on the equipment, now just a matter of finding people willing to adopt it and working with them to make modest tweaks to suit their application.”

Maggie Demicco handles Product Management and Business Development for the Oil & Gas business unit of Parker LORD. She holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Brown University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Babson College.

• Region: Gulf of Mexico
• Topics: Integrity
• Date: Sept, 2021

Tracerco, part of Johnson Matthey Plc, will provide asset integrity data for an operator in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) to extend the life of over 18 risers.

Tracerco will deploy Discovery, a subsea computed tomography (CT) scanner designed for external scanning of pipelines and which operates along the same general principles as CT scanners used in hospitals.

With environmental concerns posing question marks over continued drilling in the longer term, many operators are keen to ensure that their fields are capable of producing for a much longer period of time, a phenomenon buoyed by new methods of oil and gas extraction allowing them to do so. As such, operators are looking for methods to monitor and verify their risers’ condition to ensure ongoing integrity and extend their operational life.

For life extension, regulators typically require a physical inspection to ensure the condition of the riser and CT, a technique to accurately and non-intrusively see through an item, can provide this information.

Technologies using CT, such as Discovery, provide operators with valuable inspection data on the entire pipeline, spanning the range from product to coating and all areas in between.

It is a non-intrusive external scanning technique and is easily capable of scanning through several inches of pipeline steel with no requirement to remove any protective coating, regardless of thickness and material.

Jim Bramlett, Commercial Manager North America for Tracerco, commented, “Tracerco was the first company to develop a subsea CT system and still holds the fundamental patent for the concept of subsea CT scanning dating back to 2011. Over the years since, Discovery has incorporated numerous additional patented innovations for optimising the system.”

Discovery will be used to inspect the risers and determine whether they can be extended past their original design life by gathering real time data on a variety of integrity issues including pipeline corrosion, pitting and wall thinning. This will allow the operator to work with the local authorities to get their permit extended and potentially realise billions in continued revenues from the asset.

“Discovery provides the integrity insights to know the unknown enabling critical decisions regarding life extension to be made,” added Bramlett. “It does this while the risers are still in full operation. No need to interfere with production.”

• Region: North Sea
• Topics: Decommissioning
• Date: Sept, 2021

MatthewsDaniel, a global leader in specialist services for the marine and energy industries and applicable insurers, will open a new office in Aberdeen to enhance its offering to North Sea clients.

David Cox, MatthewsDaniel CEO, commented, “We see this move as one that will enable us to not only better serve our valuable North Sea clients, but also grow the organisation in an important market.

“Aberdeen and the North Sea have a rich oil and gas history, and we are excited to play a part in the next chapter of that story as organisations look towards field and asset decommissioning, as well as renewable energy.”

Cox continued, “The focus of this new office will be on the execution of our North Sea and European marine warranty surveying (MWS) and risk assessment operations, with the region possessing the expertise required to deliver rapid solutions to our clients in this key offshore energy hub.

“These are exciting times for the North Sea, and opening this office is an investment in the industry and the skills that the workforce here have. I have no doubt our new office in Aberdeen will enhance our already strong relationships with our existing clients, as well as future ones.”

Staff will work alongside colleagues from Bureau Veritas and Bureau Veritas Solutions Marine and Offshore, giving them access to a greater depth of resources, including engineering and maritime assurance expertise.

MatthewsDaniel’s experts are world-renowned in conducting specialist technical reviews both onshore and offshore for critical project phases and activities, employing a well-researched and quality-assured approach to identify and advise on measures to mitigate and minimise risk.

• Region: All
• Date: Sept, 2021

At OWI EU Jonathan Owens, Director, Oil and Gas at Parker LORD, sat down for a virtual fireside chat with Neil Greig, Sales Manager at Helix, to discuss the blossoming relationship that has emerged between the two companies in recent years, culminated by Helix’s use of flexible joints, designed and manufactured by Parker LORD.

Owens opened the discussion by explaining how the relationship between the two companies began when, in 2017, Helix started implementing its Integrated Tension Frame (ITF) onto a number of its vessels. With this step, the company soon discovered that the frame required more flexibility and approached Parker LORD for a solution for their Siem Helix 2 vessel which was operating in Brazil and the Well Enhancer in the UK.

Going into more detail, Greig explained that across their assets they faced a challenge of sheer loading rather than bending. For the Well Enhancer, they developed a system to allow risers to run in relatively shallow depths (80m-200m) ‒ a compensated coil tubing lift frame or dynamic lift frame. This had two integral pistons forming part of the compensation system which worked to an extent but encountered issues with seal designs in the system and potential twisting of the frame due to side loading. A side effect of this was wear inside the pistons which ultimately resulted in the system not moving smoothly and a crabbing effect.

To mitigate these issues, Helix shortened the frame, rigidised it and replaced the two pistons with a single cylinder above, reducing the potential two fail points to one. Despite noticeable improvements, this was still not enough and it was at this point that the company decided to approach Parker LORD who advised the introduction of a flex joint to the system. Sitting just below the frame, this reduced the side loads going into it, everything moved in a smooth linear fashion and, after post job analysis, there was no sign of wear.

Owens took over and noted that additional, “Flexible joints at the top and bottom of a riser on a drilling rig and for diverter flexible joints are very common in drilling to reduce the side loads on the wellhead and accommodate being offset from the drill centre but is not so common on the intervention side. Typically stress joints are relied on for transition. The challenge with an intervention riser versus a drilling riser is obviously higher pressures, small footprints to bear the load of the riser weights, and intervention fluids like solvents.”

“So what we did was divide the work of the two flex elements, one called the load bearing, a flex element, to take the axial load and the fatigue aspects of the work; the seal bearing on the ID is a smaller flex element to handle the pressure and the intervention fluids. One advantage of doing that is we created a redundancy in the system because the pressure housing and the load bearing can take the 10,000psi operation pressure too, so you get a dual-barrier system.

Greig added, “The key point is that instead of using a stress joint which have to effectively be bespoke depending on well conditions, water depths, etc, the flexible joint has a wider range of operations without adjustments which makes it a more cost efficient option."

Entering shallow waters

The two speakers noted that with regions such as the North Sea, shallower waters makes it a much more challenging environment for riser-based well intervention operations and fatigue sensitive wellheads are often a key issue.

But adding flexible joints to the top and bottom of the riser, as Owens demonstrated, helps with the stiffness transition and reduces the loading onto the wellhead to avoid some of the challenging situations such operations can pose.

Greig said, “We certainly will rely on the flexible joint for the upper section as a practical solution to countering those high sheer forces and bending forces. In such environments everything is highly utilised so whatever solution you have in place it is critical you get it right. The flexible joint protects this equipment with the topside one and there is similar argument that you would be protecting the equipment subsea with the lower one. In deep water, such as 1300m, things are a lot more forgiving but it is a much more critical situation at 85m and we certainly wouldn’t be able to entertain them without the flex joint in the system.”

Ensuring safe operations

Following the discussion, Offshore Network spoke to Craig Tennant, Engineering Manager ‒ Riser Systems at Helix Energy Solutions for more on the company’s relationship with Parker LORD and the improvements the flexible joint has brought to their operations.

Tennant commented, “The flexible joint allowed for a small but useful increase in operating envelopes which allowed for safe operations. This is especially important for a failure scenario to ensure we can disconnect the riser before the vessel drifts off station and exceeds allowable structural limits.”

“We use the flexible joint for riser-based operations on the Q7000 and Well Enhancer with a similar set up to the Siem Helix vessels. The addition of the flexible joint on the Well Enhancer has reduced the transfer of loads into the Coiled Tubing Lift Frame with the aim to minimise bending stresses within the frame.”

On the solution opening opportunities in shallower waters, Tennant said, “Introducing a flexible joint alleviates the high reaction forces resisted at surface and improves our working envelope using the existing equipment. The flexible joint is one part of a suite of components and practices that allow us to achieve shallow water operations. Shallow water operations open up riser-based operations where previously only open water wireline operations were available. These are generally located around coastal UK, i.e. central North Sea, but open up potential worldwide such as Brazil and Australia.”

Tennant noted that his company have a campaign planned with Cooper Energy in 2022/2023 in Australia where the Q7000 vessel, with flexible joints on board, will be deployed. He added that it is likely that they will also be operating with riser-based systems in the North Sea next year with the flexible joint as an integral part of the riser stack.

• Region: Latin America
• Date: Sept, 2021

Presenting in a virtual webinar at OWI LATAM 2021, Bhargava Ram Gundemoni, 3M Global Solutions Specialist, showcased how operators can enhance their oil and gas production and how better sand control can lead to better productivity and profitability.

Beginning the presentation Ram spoke about simplified sand control and the general key performance drivers in sand control selection which are reducing equipment and personnel footprint, risk reduction to enhance safety and durability and finally, operational excellence - for increased productivity and increased return on investments.

Challenges and current market needs

The general market needs are to increase productivity for less cost and achieve less risk to failure. Traditional practices used for the Sand Control Selection (SCS) process are based on mature technologies and methodologies that often fail to meet the key performance drivers. Mature technologies often rely on a metallic filter media which is used as the mechanical sand control barrier downhole. Metallics filter media metrologically has erosion limits that constrict the boundary condition of hydrocarbon productivity. If a more erosion resistant filter material can be utilised, the upper safe operational window can be extended limiting the risk of erosional failure and hot spotting of the downhole sand control system whilst optimising asset recovery where possible. In addition, offering greater longevity to downhole sand control through a material change reduces the reported millions of dollars companies employ in repairing wells with failed sand control.

Disrupting the traditional sand control approach

The solution is a change of metallic filter media to ceramic filter media of the screen. This has been achieved by integrating a full-body ceramic part in the form of rings on a pre-perforated base pipe on to which ceramic rings are stacked and hold with two end caps and with an external shroud on top. The stack of ceramic rings creates a slot opening which is designed for the application spec-in and the ceramic material at the inflow offers erosion resistance and therefore mitigating the hotspotting potential ‒ allowing the operator a wider operating window of productivity.

Ceramic Sand Screens have been proved by deployment in the industry both in green fields and in intervention wells, delivering operators Operational simplicity, Reduced HSE Risk at lower Capex delivering higher productivity. In some cases, Ceramic Sand Screens has been an enabling technology to unlock production potential with faster return on Investments.

Standardised field-wide approach with simplified stand-alone screen sand control

Ceramic Sand Screens unlocks the operator methodology to achieve a simplified and standardised sand control approach in wide range of reservoir conditions and well architecture as downhole sand control system in OH, cased hole on a rig or through tubing rigless applications. Ceramic Sand Screens have been deployed and delivered success in applications with homogenous, heterogeneous, well-sorted to poorly sorted, low to high fines reservoir of sand properties.

Uphole recompletion using ceramic sand screens in the Latin Americas.

Customer challenges:
The operator posed challenges such as recompleting an interval by installing a sand control through existing completion without the removal of tubing or utilisation of a” big rig”-side track. The well contained high gas rates, high flux velocity and impingement velocity through short net target zones which were expected. Non-uniform, unconsolidated sandstones, and aggressive nature of sand due to its morphology was also a critical factor in planning.

Solution:
A simple stand-alone screen solution to withstand high gas rates and across the perforations with cost-effective and deployment on a rigless wireline deployment method. The operator defined erosion testing to prove 200ft/s flux velocity prior to the sand pack.

Results and Value creation:
Adding more than 100mn scuffs per day (MMSCFD) to the asset from the zones left behind casing improved productivity and the results showed low skin of just one after 1.5 years of production and in some cases, zero skin was also recorded.

This application was further replicated in seven gas and two oil production wells with high production from short, perforated zones with flux velocity calculated to be 100 to 120 ft/s.

Low capex and high productivity: Marginal fields in Indonesia with ceramic sand screens

Customer challenge:
The operator had to deal with marginal reserves with stacked reservoirs - a challenging low-cost environment. The expected production rates from short, perforated interval leads to high flux velocity and under heterogenous sand particle distribution increases the risk to erosion failure. A downhole sand control solution required to address these challenges. A rigless deployable solution was critical to meet field economics.

3M solution:
Proven high erosion and hot spotting resistant ceramic screens enabled the operator to set the screens across the perforation zone deployed on slickline with one or two pup joints to space out the lower completion depending on perforation interval.

Value creation:
The operator achieved cost savings of up to 70% compared to the previous sand control approach. Diverging from traditional sand control methodology, embracing ceramic sand screens technology as a solution approach in a heterogenous sand particle distribution, not only drove savings on CAPEX but also enabled increase of reservoir deliverability by more than 200% of average cumulative gas produced, High erosion resistant screen properties were a key technology driver in this performance. With a more simplified and faster deployment methodology this approach has enabled the operator to maximise operational excellence in activating more wells in a year. Ceramic sand screens are now considered as standardised sand control technology and methodology within their assets.

As of August 31 2021, 3M has completed 115 installations for sand control with users consisting of 50% oil producers and 50% gas producers. According to 3M, the product also meets ISO 17824 / API 19SS Standards.

To learn more about Ceramic Sand Screens, visit https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/oil-and-gas-us/ceramic-sand-screens/

If interested in such a simplified solution to unlock the production potential assets by addressing sand control challenges, contact Bhargava Ram Gundemoni: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

• Region: North Sea
• Date: Sept, 2021

isol8, an Aberdeen based oil and gas services firm, has received a UK£3.5mn investment from BGF to support its long-term growth plans and develop its zero-emissions product portfolio as its expands its services into the wellbore construction sector.

It is estimated that successful deployment of isol8’s technology could unlock savings of between UK£1.5mn to UK£7mn for platform and subsea wells abandonments. This could translate to savings of between UK£2bn to UK£5bn in North Sea well decommissioning costs.

isol8 is the only company in the world known to use underwater soldering to create metallurgically bonded alloy barriers to seal off oil and gas wells. The firm designs, develops and deploys its industry leading Fusion Barriers, providing a longer lasting and more environmentally friendly solution to traditional cement-based methods.

The drive to decommission

Andrew Loudon, CEO of isol8, commented, “Decommissioning is now a huge focus in the North Sea and we’re partnering with clients to help them significantly reduce their asset retirement costs.
“Now, with the support of BGF, we are in a strong position to broaden our zero-emission product portfolio and accelerate the production of new products, including our casing annulus packers and tubing packers for well construction.

“The BGF team fully understands and supports our vision, and their expertise and business knowledge will be invaluable as we embark on this next chapter together.”

As part of the transaction, BGF Investor Richard Pugh will join the board of isol8 as an investor director, alongside newly appointed independent director Nigel Avern. Nigel is the former CEO of Peak Well Systems, nurturing the business from a small start-up to an international company with market leading positions in well intervention tooling and bridge plugs. Nigel led the successful trade sale of Peak to Schlumberger. Formerly, Nigel spent 18 years with The Expro Group working in range of marketing, technical and general management roles.

Pugh said, “isol8 has huge potential to use its cutting-edge Fusion technology to generate very large savings in plug and abandonment and intervention operations – both of which are markets where we expect long-term growth and where Aberdeen continues to have world-leading expertise.

“At the same time, by ensuring a gas-tight seal, Fusion provides the industry with a much lower emission solution than cement, going some way to address the long-term challenge of de-carbonising the sector. This funding round will support an exceptional management team in completing the final push to commercial adoption, working in parallel with a number of operators who have shown real commitment to the technology.”

• Region: Latin America
• Date: Sept, 2021

At the OWI LATAM 2021 conference, Artur Barbosa, Business Development Manager at Archer, gave a presentation on secure and efficient P&A of wells, which focused on the company’s Stronghold Barrier setting and Barrier Verification systems, part of its suite of recovery and P&A solutions. The presentation demonstrated how the Stronghold systems provide an economical and effective alternative to traditional plug and abandonment (P&A).

Barbosa started by giving an overview of Archer, a global oil services company with a 45-year history and strong focus on safety. Its solutions support drilling services, well integrity, intervention, P&A and decommissioning. The company operates in 40 locations in 19 countries across the globe, with more than 5,000 employees.

“In our current portfolio we have 33 platforms, three subs, and two modular rigs, where we are responsible for operations, maintenance and certification of drilling equipment on these assets; rental division providing specialised equipment for offshore operations; engineering solutions for enhancing customers’ assets performance; cased hole wireline services; and oiltools, which provide solutions for well cleaning and cementing, slot recovery and P&A,” he explained.

“Archer can provide all these services in an integrated services contract model, reducing the interfaces with subcontractors and making Archer the focal point of drilling and well services activities,” he stressed.
Barbosa gave an outline of Archer’s wide-ranging capabilities and solutions across the well lifecycle from exploration and development through workover intervention, to abandonment and slot recovery. He emphasised that Archer can provide the customer full life cycle in P&A and slot recovery solutions for cut and pull, casing exit and barrier setting and verification.

“The advantage of the Stronghold barrier system is it eliminates the need for milling during P&A operations,” he explained.

“For barrier setting, the Stronghold Barricade system is designed to perforate a selected casing section, wash and clean and set a permanent barrier,” he said. It reduces P&A costs by creating a rock-to-rock barrier in one trip.

“The Barricade Plus is an improvement on the system; it deals with higher circulation and pressure and bypass capabilities, and is designed to deal with larger casing sizes,” he continued.

“For barrier verification we have the Defender, which is designed to verify the integrity of the barrier, and it’s the most efficient way for us to P&A a well.” It enables operators to perforate and test an annular barrier in a single trip.

“The Fortify is an improvement on this system, with a unique pressure verification system,” he went on.

Barbosa added that the company has conducted more than 200 successful jobs all over the globe, resulting in US$250mn in savings for customers.

Barbosa explained in detail the schematics and operation sequence of the systems, and shared some technical paper references where these technologies and their benefits are explored in depth. These include SPE-191528-MS (TotalEnergies), SPE-193945-MS (Aker BP), SPE-193989-MS (Shell) and SPE-197149-MS.

He also referred to a case study illustrating the successful deployment of the Stonghold Barricade in the Gulf of Mexico. In this case, a major deepwater operator needed to set a 330ft cross sectional cement barrier in 13 3/8” x20 casing. This well, in over 6,000 ft MD water depth required a cement barrier to be placed just above the 20” casing shoe in order to meet the qualifications to plug and abandon the well.
The Archer 13 3/8” Stonghold Barricade was successfully deployed for washing and cementing of the 330ft long interval with even rates at 1200 lpm. The tests run after performing the operation firmly tagged top of cement 6ft above the planned height, and a successful positive/negative test allowed the operator to move on with the completion of the plug and abandonment.

Barbosa gave another example of the application of the Barricade washing tool , where it was used with the Thor casing cleaning and recovery system, which is designed to perforate, clean and recover the casing in a single trip, the method being to move the friction in the casing, and recover the casing.

“The challenge is where we have significant barite, where it would be very time consuming to recover the casing, with multiple cutting required. With this solution we could make two cuts in the casing, perforate, wash out the barite, activate our plug and recover the casing. That was the business case for one of the jobs with our Thor system. In this case the customer was finding it difficult to pull the casings out, so we used our Samurai cutting tool to cut the casing with two cuts, then ran in hole with the Thor, washed the section and recovered the casing.”

The presentation stimulated a number of questions, which were addressed in a lively q&a session to conclude the session.

• Region: Middle East
• Date: Sep. 2021

Global completions specialist Tendeka has secured more than US$30mn worth of international contracts within the last quarter, for implementation over the next three years.

This is in addition to long-term work it has secured with operators for its swellable packers and sand and inflow control technologies across key energy hubs, including the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), North Sea and Australasia.

Tendeka is also delivering its first significant FloSure autonomous inflow control devices (AICDs) campaign in the USA, following a successful trial earlier this year.

To support the inflow control of wells, Tendeka has installed more than 50,000 FloSure AICDs around the world. The field adjustable FloSure AICDs preferentially chokes unwanted produced fluids whilst promoting production of oil from the entire length of the well, leading to greater recovery, lower water cuts and less gas production.

Deployed as part of the lower completion using zonal isolation packers to divide the reservoir into compartments, the AICD can be integrated with sand control screens for soft formations.

Tendeka’s SwellRight Swellable Packers provide a permanent packer solution suitable for many applications where a pressure seal or zonal isolation is required.

Brad Baker, CEO at Tendeka, said, “To secure a number of multi-year, international agreements is always satisfying, but even more so with what the industry has been going through over the last 18 months. It has been an uncertain time for the sector, but due to the hard work of our team and our investment in technology, we have forged even stronger relationships with our global customers to enhance their operations.

“These wins for our sand and inflow control technology cements our position in the market as the industry leader of inflow control technology.”

Tendeka is also the developer of the PulseEight dynamic downhole reservoir management system, which is the world’s first re-deployable wireless completion with control, power, monitoring and communications already on board. 

• Region: Australia
• Topics: Decommissioning
• Date: Sept, 2021

EXCEED, an industry-leading specialist in delivering well management and performance improvement solutions to the energy sector, has announced the launch of EXCEED Australia, as it eyes the country’s burgeoning decommissioning sector and a revitalised offshore market.

The company continues to implement an unwavering strategy of international expansion with its fifth overseas entity, which builds upon recent expansion into Mexico and Norway

Brad Girdwood has been nominated to steer the ship, after his appointment as Operations Manager, Australia. He brings 30+ years’ local and international experience to EXCEED Australia.

Girdwood commented, “In the pipeline for some years, the time is now right for EXCEED to make its mark upon the region. In particular, significant legislative developments surrounding the decommissioning of Australia’s offshore and onshore assets have accelerated the sector’s timeline. Honed in the North Sea, EXCEED’s spectrum of decommissioning capability provides this evolving US$40.5bn market with critical experience and expertise.”

In with ICON

EXCEED’s entry into the local decommissioning and well management market is bolstered by the advent of a collaborative relationship with Perth-based oil and gas services provider, ICON Engineering.

EXCEED Managing Director, Ian Mills said, “ICON’s impressive track record in delivering unrivalled innovative, practical turnkey solutions to the offshore field development industry in both facilities and in support of drilling operations is entirely congruent with our approach across all stages of the well lifecycle.

“Since 2010, EXCEED has built upon its well management service through the development and implementation of efficient intervention and abandonment programmes, expertly executed in full compliance with all North Sea regularity requirements. Initially, our joint objective with ICON is to provide the emerging Australian decommissioning sector with the end-to-end project service it requires, with full focus upon compliance, safety and efficiency.”

To hear more about the blossoming opportunities presented by the Australian offshore market, be sure to attend OWI AUS, in Perth 23-24 November. To find out more information follow this link: https://www.offsnet.com/owi-aus/conference-brochure

• Region: West Africa

In the build-up to the Offshore Well Intervention West Africa conference, Offshore Network spoke to Silverwell Energy, a global provider of Digital Intelligent Artificial Lift (DIAL), as the company prepares to deploy its first systems to the region in 2022.

Explaining the inspiration behind the solution offered by the company, which will be making its way to West African waters soon, Abdel BenAmara, Vice President for Silverwell’s Middle East and Asia Pacific regions, stated “The majority of the world’s gas lifted wells are under-optimised. This incomplete production optimisation, coupled with excessive intervention costs and risks, presents an opportunity to re-imagine gas lift well design and operating principles. It has been estimated that addressing this opportunity delivers a production uplift approaching 20%. Optimising gas lift systems with existing technology is typically time consuming, costly and risky.”

BenAmara elaborated on the subject of well intervention and commented that frequent interventions are required with associated lost and/or deferred production. Traditionally it was not possible to make on-demand in-well adjustments to gas lift injection depth and rate to address these challenges. Further, it’s not easy to make data-driven decisions about these adjustments to assure continuously maximised and stable production.

Silverwell has therefore sought to overcome the production constraining limitations of existing gas lift technology with the development of their digital in-well integrated interventionless gas lift optimisation system called DIAL (Digital Intelligent Artificial Lift).

BenAmara continued, “The system consists of multiple DIAL units, tubing conveyed and installed along with the tubing string during a workover operation. Each DIAL unit can include up to 6 independent injection orifices, each individually controlled from the surface, with a large spectrum of gas injection rates. The operator can vary the gas injection rate by opening or closing valves, in any combination, which can each have a different port size, giving the operator a huge range of possible injection rates.”

“The system is controlled by a Surface Control System (SCS), connected to all DIAL units, in a multidrop configuration through a single downhole electrical control line (TEC) which is typically ¼” in diameter. DIAL units are spaced using maximum available surface gas injection pressure, without any pressure drop required between each station, since the opening of the valves are digitally controlled and not impacted by downhole pressures or temperature. The upper units in the completion are typically used for well unloading requirements and the lower units are the operating units - used to adjust gas injection depth and rate based on reservoir pressures and other well parameters. Each DIAL unit is also equipped with pressure and temperature sensors giving full visibility of the well’s downhole conditions.”

DIAL systems in operation

DIAL systems were successfully installed in America, Middle East and Asia Pacific regions, and these deployments resulted with average oil production gains of 10 - 20% for single string completions and 40%+ for dual string completions. Other benefits also included gas consumption reductions and significant OPEX savings by avoiding intervention costs typically required for gas lift operations.

Silverwell will be deploying its first systems offshore West Africa in 2022, with a Major IOC, marking the start of its operations in the region, with ambitious development plans beyond these initial deployments.

BenAmara added, “This disruptive technology has the potential to revolutionise gas lift operations in West Africa, which is one of the major artificial lift techniques used in the region. By digitising gas lift operations, and eliminating well intervention requirements, it will enable gas lifted wells to reach their full potential.”

To hear more about the offshore well intervention opportunities and challenges in West Africa, follow this link: https://offsnet.com/owi-wa

About Silverwell:

Silverwell is the global developer, manufacturer, and installer of digitally intelligent gas lift production optimisation systems for the oil & gas industry. They are a leader in automation of gas lifted production and apply patented technology so that more data for less uncertainty in production management decisions enables more production with less intervention.

Silverwell is certified to ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System and ISO 45001:2018 Occupational Health & Safety.