SPE-176060-MS
Innovative Offshore Stimulation Campaign in
Saudi Arabia
Syed Muhammed Danish and Etna Becerra, Halliburton
© 2015 Halliburton. All Rights Reserved.
SPE-176060-MS • Innovative Offshore Stimulation Campaign in Saudi Arabia • Syed Danish
Abstract
Field X—offshore/onshore footprint • Peripheral matrix water injection as a pressure maintenance scheme.
• More than 80 wells on 13 offshore platforms.
• More than 100 wells on 27 man-made artificial drilling islands interlinked with a 41 km causeway.
• Extended reach, highly deviated with openhole production/injection profile ranging from 3,000 to
9,000 ft
Campaign objective • Stimulate to restore reservoir productivity/injectivity with multiple downhole and offshore challenges.
• Heavy tar mat zone characterizes the field, causing hard mixed deposit bridges.
• Large treatment volumes are necessary: 1,700 to 5,100 bbl for power water injectors (PWIs) and
1,500 to 4,500 bbl for oil producers (OPs).
• Offshore barge/platform weight and space limitations with limited return handling capability.
• Time consuming/costly logistics.
The scope of this presentation is to review: • Remedial coiled tubing (CT) intervention and stimulations performed during the offshore portion of
this project resulting in more than 300% production/injection improvement.
Slide 2
SPE-176060-MS • Innovative Offshore Stimulation Campaign in Saudi Arabia • Syed Danish
Field Introduction
• Largest carbonate project of the region
with target production: • 900 million B/D heavy crude oil
• 90 MSc/D sour gas
• 65 million B/D condensate
• Unique engineering design: • Water drive mechanism
• Unique placement of both PWI and OP
wells
• Onshore foot print on artificial man-
made islands
• Offshore foot print on shallow platforms
with ~10 m water depth
Slide 3
SPE-176060-MS • Innovative Offshore Stimulation Campaign in Saudi Arabia • Syed Danish
Offshore Drilling and Stimulation Plan
Planned work on 13 platforms • Offshore rig mobilizes to a pad site, drills and
completes six to seven wells per platform,
consisting of a cutting re injection (CRI) or
reservoir monitoring with permanent
downhole monitoring system (PDHMS) and
the rest either OP or PWI wells.
• Post-drilling/completion rig moves to the next
pad site without stimulating the wells, and a
platform is commissioned with respective
production or injection lines from the gas/oil
separation plant (GOSP).
• Jack up barge/vessel with CT, nitrogen, return
handling package, and a stimulation vessel
follows the rig to the newly commissioned
platform and stimulates the wells.
Slide 4
SPE-176060-MS • Innovative Offshore Stimulation Campaign in Saudi Arabia • Syed Danish
Challenges
• Downhole challenges • 80% of these wells are extended reach, 90% of the
wells are highly deviated, with maximum deviation
angle reaching 90° for more than 50% of the
openhole region, hydraulic tractor and agitator
assemblies are necessary to reach total depth
(TD).
• 30% of the measured depth coverage is for
openhole production or injection.
• Open hole results in excessive drag while running
in hole (RIH), slick friction reducer is placed in the
45° deviated zone.
• 2% of the wells have multilateral profiles. Lateral
finding technology is necessary to stimulate the
correct lateral.
Slide 5
SPE-176060-MS • Innovative Offshore Stimulation Campaign in Saudi Arabia • Syed Danish
Challenges
Offshore barge limitations
• Barge deck loading/capacity • Limited in terms of CT string length
• Limited use of other services, including full surface
testing package, stimulation package, slickline, or
wireline
• Crane capacity and length—45 ton port side and 25 ton
starboard side • Limited in terms of lubricator height, tool deployment
is restricted
• Barge technology • Self-propelled barge without dynamic positioning,
weather plays a important role during barge
positioning
• Barge leg lengths—52 ft and barge draft—4.5 m • Cannot perform deepwater or shallow water
operations
Slide 6
SPE-176060-MS • Innovative Offshore Stimulation Campaign in Saudi Arabia • Syed Danish
Stimulation Vessel
• Vessel specifications • Dynamic positioning system (DP2)
• 3 in. Iron discharge line 15,000 psi
certified
• 50 bbl blender tub—mixes acid-on-
the-fly (AOF)
• 91,300 gal of raw HCl acid/10,000
gal of solvent/12,500 gal of
additives
• 4,200 gal waste tank for fluid for
priming up pumps and lines
• Five pumps; 5,000 HHP; Min rate:
0.5 bbl/min, max rate: 30.0 bbl/min
From 2013 to 2015, 3.7 million gal of
corrosive fluids pumped in more than 60
wells
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SPE-176060-MS • Innovative Offshore Stimulation Campaign in Saudi Arabia • Syed Danish
STIMSTAR (Stimulation Vessel) and KINOA (Jack up Barge)
Slide 8
Exposiv
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SPE-176060-MS • Innovative Offshore Stimulation Campaign in Saudi Arabia • Syed Danish
Project Execution: 65 Wells (2013 to 2015)
Slide 9
58
7Operations executed
Acid Stimulation
Milling/Cleanout
42
28 Wells executed
Power Water Injector
Oil Producer
Treatment volume gradients
For PWIs:
• Preflush 6 gal/ft
• Carbonate stimulation acid (CSA) 3 gal/ft
• Viscoelastic-based diverting acid (VDA) 3 gal/ft
• Spacer CSA 3 gal/ft
• Carbonate emulsified acid (CEA) 6 gal/ft
• Post-flush 3 gal/ft
For OPs:
• Preflush 3 gal/ft
• CSA 10 gal/ft
• VDA 5 gal/ft
• Post-flush 3 gal/ft
SPE-176060-MS • Innovative Offshore Stimulation Campaign in Saudi Arabia • Syed Danish
Project Execution: 65 Wells (2013 to 2015)
Slide 10
SPE-176060-MS • Innovative Offshore Stimulation Campaign in Saudi Arabia • Syed Danish
Conclusions
Slide 11
• Sixty-five interventions, seven milling/cleanouts, and 58 acid stimulations were
successfully completed.
• Injectivity/productivity results post-stimulation revealed a 300% improvement.
• Execution time per well was reduced to 1/4th of the original time.
• Customized CT stack rigup reduced rigup (R/U) and rigdown (R/D) time.
• Provided operational flexibility with regards to use of chemical solvents, dispersants,
tools, tractors, agitators, indexing/knuckle joints, acid compatible motor, and mill
assembly.
• Using the jack up barge and stimulation vessel combination helped improve logistics and
resource availability
Acknowledgements / Thank You / Questions
The authors thank the management of Halliburton and Saudi Aramco for
support during the execution of this project.
Slide 12