Enhanced Single Trip Upper Completions for ERD Applications

An Abu Dhabi offshore field development plan comprises of ERD wells requiring intermediate / production casing depths of up to 23,000 ft with horizontal sail sections of approximately 10,000 ft of length. The original completion design involved drill pipe deployed intermediate completions, followed by a separate upper completion run with anchor latched seals. Over time, operational practices enabled the use of single-trip completions with tubing mounted packers, saving 2 – 3 rig days per well, but introduced some challenges. The objective was to maximize the usage of single-trip completions while continuing to leverage the advantages of an intermediate completion. Additionally, deployment enhancers such as lubricated fluid, low drag centralizers, and / or upsized tubing were included in the design to extend deployments deeper. A comprehensive application review was conducted covering the system technical limits during installation and well life cycle operations. Detailed testing and modelling were carried out to understand the impact of deployment enhancers. This paper will provide insight as to the detailed drivers and design of the lubricated fluid and low drag centralizers. Additionally, the strategy for well trials and their successful results will be covered. Several enhanced single-trip completion systems were successfully installed, confirming the efficiency gain of 2 – 3 rig days per well in high angle, deep casing ERD wells. The fluid lubrication provided 30 – 50% cased hole friction factor reduction. Additional long term well life cycle efficiencies were achieved, such as OPEX savings during future workover operations resulting from the anchor-latch feature and maintaining the same ID from the production packer down to the liner for future lower completion retrofit without requiring the production packer to be retrieved. While single-trip upper completion systems have been used in the past, achieving the two-trip completion system advantages with a single-trip system was not possible before. Additionally, deploying the enhanced system coupled with deployment enhancers has allowed the completion of high angle and deep casing ERD wells. Expectations are to extend application of this completion design to even deeper casing depths.