Pump-Out Stage Tool and Pump-Out Float Collar System Enhances Completion Efficiency in Queensland Coal-Seam Gas Project: A Case Study

This case study highlights the field-trial of a pump-out stage tool, pump-out float collar, and the annular casing packer. These technologies were integral to drilling and completing wells in the Santos coal-seam gas (CSG) development of the Roma field in the Surat Basin of southeast Queensland. Pump-out systems—which allow a primary cementing job to be performed above a slotted casing string using a pump-out stage tool, annular casing packer, and pump-out float equipment—eliminate the need for drill out operations. Once the casing is landed, a ball is deployed from surface to actuate the inflation of an annular casing packer below the stage tool and above the slotted casing. A second ball is deployed to shear and shift a sleeve to open the stage tool and begin the primary cement job. Once complete, a cementing wiper plug is released from surface and pumped behind the cement slurry to shift the stage tool into the closed position. The internal pump-out casing components are displaced to the bottom of the well and require no further intervention. This case history includes results of the initial field-trial runs and technical details on well configurations, slotted liner placement across the coal-bed intervals, pressure charts, cement-job data, shear information on the ball seat, detail on the stage-tool operation, pumping out the float collar, and displacement of the internal equipment downhole. These jobs planned to eliminate the need to run a dedicated drillout trip during initial completion and also the need to change out the pipe rams in the blowout preventer (BOP). Ultimately, the pump-out system provides a full-bore casing geometry with no internal restrictions and is expected to reduce completion costs by 15%.