Snubbing Unit Brings Middle East Well With Underground Blowout Under Control

Snubbing Unit Brings Middle East Well
With Underground Blowout Under Control
T
Surface Broach WHP 800 psi CSG 650 psi Depth (ft)
his paper describes the
mobilization of a snubbing Holes in
Depth (ft) tubing/casing
unit and blowout preventer (BOP)
Hole 7 in. 1,620 13⅝ in. 310
stack in the Middle East that Possible
enabled a well with an underground Hole 3.5 in.1,950 flow paths
blowout and surface broaching to be 9.625 in. 3,823
brought under control within a short
Holes 3.5 in. 3,500
time. The mobilization timeline is TTBP 3,704
provided, along with details about Hole 3.5 in. 3,720
how the snubbing unit and BOPs were Packer 3,934
EOT 3,952
integrated with existing equipment Formation 1,600 psi Perf 3,994
to enable re-entry into the blowout 7–54 MMscf/D
well. The procedures and equipment
used to enable a stable rig-up and well
BP+cement 4,147
entry are discussed. The paper also
describes the situation within the well Perf
and the procedures used to bring it
under control. BP+cement 4,310
Perf
TOC 4,360
Introduction and Background
A well drilled and completed in 1991 7-in. shoe 4,715
was last worked over and recompleted Fig. 1—The situation in the blowout well on 4 April. CSG=casing; EOT=end of
as a single-zone producer in 2010. On tubing; TOC=top of cement.
25 March 2018, the perforated zone was
isolated riglessly with a through-tubing well that was the source of communica- they quickly returned to 800 psi on the
bridge plug (TTBP) and dumped ce- tion with the cathodic protection well. tubing and 650 psi on the tubing by the
ment, and new perforations were added The tubing pressure was found to be 7-in. casing annulus. A total of 1,200 bbl
between 3,994 and 4,010 ft. After per- 800 psi, and the casing pressure was of OBM was pumped into the well.
foration, wellhead pressure (WHP) was recorded as 650 psi. On 3 April, wireline was rigged up,
only 90 psi, which was not sufficient Slickline was mobilized, and on and the logs run indicated that the tub-
to flow the well to the nearby gathering 29 March, a tubing check revealed an ing was severely damaged at approxi-
center, and the well was shut in. obstruction in the tubing at 3,738 ft and mately 1,951 ft, with many holes and
On 29 March, the gathering cen- provided evidence of damaged tubing wall loss between 1,296 and 3,727 ft.
ter reported that WHP had increased at 1,960 ft. Between 29 and 31 March, The 7-in. casing was found to have se-
to 800 psi and that a nearby cathodic multiple attempts to kill the well were vere damage between 1,585 and 1,620 ft.
protection well had begun producing made with brine weights between 9.0 Pressure and temperature logs indicat-
oil and gas to atmosphere. Investiga- and 9.6 ppg, followed by oil-based mud ed gas flow between the tubing and cas-
tions were performed on all production (OBM) at 16.0 ppg. Although pressures ing at 1,951 ft.
wells in the vicinity, and identified the were temporarily reduced to 0 psi, A TTBP was run on coiled tubing on
4 April and set at 3,732 ft. Discussions
began the same day with a snubbing
This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Judy Feder, contains highlights
contractor about mobilizing a suitable
of paper SPE 194283, “Rapid Deployment and Use of Snubbing Unit Brings Well
snubbing unit and BOP stack. Because
With Underground Blowout and Surface Broaching Under Control,” by Albert of the proximity of the well to an inter-
Donaldson, SPE, Victor Marrero-Reyes, and William Scott, Halliburton, and national airport, a main highway, and a
Haitham Al-Mayyan, SPE, Kuwait Oil Company, prepared for the 2019 SPE/ nearby public center, as well as the risk
ICoTA Well Intervention Conference and Exhibition, The Woodlands, Texas, USA, of further surface broaching, time was
26–27 March. of the essence in finding a solution to
For a limited time, the complete paper is free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt.
66 JPT • JANUARY 2020

the problem with a high chance of suc- Results annular barrier while using the plugs
cess (Fig. 1). The operation as performed differed and nipples in the work string as the in-
substantially from the planned opera- ternal barriers. The lower blind shear is
Planning, Mobilization, Rig-Up, tion, which resulted in a faster resolu- available should the annular barriers fail
and Well Operation tion of the well problem than was antici- during this process, and a full opening
Mobilization, rig-up, and testing were pated. The primary time reduction was safety valve is available should the inter-
completed within 12 days of receiving achieved by performing the dynamic nal barriers fail.
instructions to proceed. The well was kill through the original (holed) com- The completion of 9.3 lb/ft 3.5-in. L80
controlled and left in a safe condition pletion, enabling the completion to be tubing, when sheared with the BOP in
within an additional 14 days. The origi- retrieved with no pressure in the well, use, was at the lower end of the capabil-
nal plan, which was to slip and shear the rather than having to shear it out joint- ity of the ram with 750 psi on the well.
holed completion out of the well under by-joint under pressure. The failure of The actual value observed at shearing
pressure, had to be continuously re- the tubing cut on wireline also short- was 950 psi, which was much less than
viewed and modified as more informa- ened the intervention time. This meant the calculated value of 1,252 psi. The de-
tion became available during the snub- that the packer and the internal TTBP formation of the lower fish section was
bing operation. Ultimately, that plan were all retrieved at one time, rath- never observed because it was milled
was not implemented. The rapid de- er than in multiple trips in the hole off. The choice of mill for dressing the
ployment and use of the snubbing unit with drillpipe. top of a sheared fish is crucial to the ef-
brought control to a deteriorating situ- A snubbing subject matter expert ficiency of the operation. The concave
ation and provided the fastest option (SME) who was added to the team on mill used in the first attempt was subop-
to gain control of this well. The major- location managed the intervention op- timal, and the failure of the mill extend-
ity of the complete paper is devoted to eration, enabling one point of con- ed the length of the operation. In past
a detailed description of the planning, tact between the oil company, the well- operations, when dressing and fishing
equipment mobilization and rig-up, and control contractor, other services, and sheared pipe, a dressing shoe was added
snubbing and well-kill operation. the snubbing-company management to the bottom of the overshot, enabling
A major area of concern during plan- and crews. Having the SME on loca- the dressing and latching of the fish
ning was the possibility of further tion allowed rapid decision-making to occur in one run. Previous experi-
broaching around the wellhead, lead- when changes were required, helped en- ence shows that this operation can be
ing to instability of the wellhead and of sure the safety of personnel and equip- achieved in less than 30 minutes. Un-
the unit when rigged up. Finite-element ment, and enabled the snubbing crews fortunately, these fishing tools were not
analysis (FEA) of the substructure re- and supervisors to focus on complet- available in country at the time of the in-
vealed that in the event of sudden well- ing the work. tervention. When the shear-ram blocks
head movement, the forces may not be Although the method of using slip were inspected after the job, there was
contained. To mitigate this possibility, rams and shear rams was not used to no evidence of any deformation.
the cellar of the well was filled with ce- remove the holed completion on this The availability of a snubbing unit
ment to immediately below the 13⅝-in. particular well, it should not be disre- working in country substantially re-
casing valves, and 1.25×480×48-in. garded as a viable method of removing duced the amount of equipment that
steel plating was sourced to spread a holed completion from a pressurized needed to be mobilized. This reduced
the ground load under the subframe. wellbore. BOP manufacturers and the the amount of space required on cargo
I-beams were sourced and modi- general drilling community are usually planes and meant that all additional re-
fied to be placed under the spans of of the opinion that, after a shear ram quired equipment could be mobilized on
the subframe, reducing the bend- has been used one time, it should be in- two flights.
ing stresses at the points of concern. spected, redressed, and tested before The close contact of the oil company
When the FEA was re-run, the concerns being used again. This holds true when with the customs department was in-
were alleviated. the ram has a well-control function in valuable in securing the rapid customs
The snubbing contractor used in- the BOP stack. In this particular case, release of the unit directly upon landing
house software to ensure that snubbing however, the sealing function of the ram at the airport; this rapid release reduced
operations could be performed safely on was not required. Only the cutting abil- the mobilization time substantially
the well with regard to buckling forces ity and redundancy was designed into over a normal customs-clearance pro-
above the lower stripping ram and the the stack with the inclusion of another cess. The snubbing contractor’s internal
forces to which the completion would be blind shear ram lower in the stack. The processes of critical well review, logis-
exposed in the wellbore. These results stack design was such that the shear and tics capability, a large fleet of snubbing
were used during the operation to set slip ram could be changed with the well units, personnel competence, and plan-
safe hydraulic limits on the jack, ensur- under pressure and pipe in the hole by ning capability were key components in
ing that the pipe would neither be buck- running competent pipe past the two mobilizing a snubbing unit quickly and
led nor parted. lower pipe rams, and using them as an performing the intervention safely. JPT
JPT • JANUARY 2020 67

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Snubbing Unit Brings Middle East Well

With Underground Blowout Under Control

66 JPT • JANUARY 2020

JPT • JANUARY 2020 67

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