Unlocking Oil Reserves from Inaccessible Platforms Utilising DSL (First Implementation in Egypt)

Abstract

Offshore Oil accounts for 30% of the world's liquid hydrocarbon production. As offshore platforms age, as is the case with some of the production facilities in the Gulf of Suez, these structures will have a increased load restriction, which makes it difficult to perform simple interventions, and forces the operator to deploy a Jackup rig or do a barge assisted operation. Some identified opportunities are not performed due to the high cost and the inherent subsurface uncertainty with brownfield assets. An alternative solution is a new generation intervention tool that allows signal transmission on conventional slickline wire. Real-time slickline (DSL) perforations use a unique technology to allow signal transmission on a standard slickline. The technology uses downhole battery-powered telemetry embedded in the downhole tool string. A radio-frequency (RF) antenna installed below the stuffing box is responsible for sending & receiving RF signals through the wire. The wire is coated with a proprietary engineered coating to ensure quality signal transmission and protects against corrosive wellbore fluids. The technology allows real-time depth correlation, pressure, temperature & vibration measurements while perforating. Moreover, the technology offers on-command explosive triggering, which improves safety over the older memory/timer version. Real-time slickline perforating was successfully introduced in the Gulf of Suez, accessing two platforms with structure load weight limitations that could not accept a conventional e-line unit. The optimized weight of digital slickline equipment was only 8 tons, compared to 35 Tons for e-line. Two wells were successfully perforated on two different platforms, adding 1200 BOPD at 10% of the rig-assisted intervention cost. The real-time slickline deployment enhanced the intervention efficiency and saved $950,000 in operating expenses. In addition to the successful deployment of several perforation runs without operational problems, the additional capabilities of DSL for surface readout (SRO) pressure & temperature data allowed the operator to optimize the time on the platform and maximize efficiency. The ability to add feedthrough jars to the string helped complete one job when the tool BHA struggled to get into the tubing after perforation. This capability is not available in conventional E-line. Real-time slickline (DSL) operations are the next generation for rigless interventions providing access to wells that e-line could not cost-effectively intervene and complete this task at a much lower cost.