CONTENTS

Acknowledgements xiii

1. Introduction 1
1.1. What are Completions? 1
1.2. Safety and Environment 1
1.2.1. Well control and barriers 3
1.2.2. Environmental protection 4
1.3. The Role of the Completion Engineer 6
1.4. Data Gathering 7
1.5. Designing for the Life of the Well 9
1.6. The Design Process 10
1.7. Types of Completions 11
Reference 13

2. Reservoir Completion 15
2.1. Inflow Performance 15
2.1.1. Vogel method 21
2.1.2. Fetkovich method 24
2.1.3. Predicting skin 25
2.1.4. Horizontal wells 34
2.1.5. Combining skin factors 37
2.2. Open Hole Completion Techniques 39
2.2.1. Barefoot completions 39
2.2.2. Pre-drilled or pre-slotted liners 40
2.2.3. Zonal isolation techniques 41
2.2.4. Formation damage tendency and mitigation 43
2.3. Perforating 45
2.3.1. Explosive selection 47
2.3.2. Perforation geometry and size 49
2.3.3. Perforating debris and the role of underbalanced
or overbalanced perforating 54
2.3.4. Cased and perforated well performance 63
2.3.5. Perforating interval selection 69
2.3.6. Gun deployment and recovery 72
2.4. Hydraulic Fracturing 82
2.4.1. Basics of hydraulic fracturing 83
2.4.2. Fractured well productivity 92
2.4.3. Well design and completions for fracturing 100
2.4.4. High-angle and horizontal well fracturing 109

v
vi Contents

2.5. Acid Fracturing and Stimulation 115

2.5.1. Basics of acid fracturing 115
2.5.2. Acid stimulation completion designs 119
References 123

3. Sand Control 129

3.1. Rock Strength and Sand Production Prediction 129
3.1.1. Rock strength 129
3.1.2. Regional stresses 137
3.1.3. Wellbore stresses and sand production prediction 142
3.2. Mitigating Sand Production Without Screens 147
3.2.1. Avoiding sand production 147
3.2.2. Coping with sand production 154
3.2.3. Sand detection 158
3.3. Formation Grain Size Distribution 162
3.4. Sand Control Screen Types 166
3.4.1. Wire-wrapped screens 166
3.4.2. Pre-packed screens 168
3.4.3. Premium screens 168
3.5. Standalone Screens 170
3.5.1. Standalone screen failures 170
3.5.2. Successfully using standalone screens 171
3.5.3. Testing and selection of screens and completion fluids 174
3.5.4. Installing screens 177
3.5.5. The role of annular flow and ICDs 178
3.6. Open Hole Gravel Packs 180
3.6.1. Gravel and screen selection 183
3.6.2. Circulating packs 184
3.6.3. Alternate path gravel packs 191
3.6.4. Summary of open hole gravel packs 193
3.6.5. Post-job analysis 193
3.7. Cased Hole Gravel Packs and Frac Packs 195
3.7.1. Perforating specifically for gravel packing 195
3.7.2. Cased hole gravel packing 198
3.7.3. Frac packing 201
3.8. Expandable Screens 209
3.8.1. Screen design 209
3.8.2. Expansion techniques 212
3.8.3. Fluid selection and sizing the media 214
3.8.4. Performance and application 218
3.8.5. Zonal isolation with expandable systems 221
3.9. Chemical Consolidation 223
3.9.1. Sand consolidation 223
3.9.2. Resin-coated sand 224
3.10. Choosing the Appropriate Method of Sand Control 226
3.10.1. Water injector sand control 228
References 232
Contents vii

4. Life of Well Operations 241

4.1. Types and Methods of Intervening 241
4.2. Impact on Completion Design 241

5. Tubing Well Performance, Heat Transfer and Sizing 247

5.1. Hydrocarbon Behaviour 247
5.1.1. Oil and gas behaviour 250
5.1.2. Empirical gas models 252
5.1.3. Black oil models 254
5.1.4. Equation of state models 258
5.2. Multiphase Flow and Tubing Performance 261
5.2.1. Empirical tubing performance models 264
5.2.2. Mechanistic flow predictions 268
5.3. Temperature Prediction 274
5.3.1. Heat transfer away from wellbore 278
5.3.2. Heat island effect 282
5.4. Temperature Control 282
5.4.1. Packer fluids 283
5.4.2. Low-density cements 285
5.4.3. Thin-film insulation 285
5.4.4. Vacuum insulated tubing 286
5.4.5. Cold or hot fluid injection 287
5.5. Overall Well Performance 288
5.6. Liquid Loading 289
5.7. Lazy Wells 294
5.8. Production Well Sizing 297
5.9. Injection Well Sizing 299
References 299

6. Artificial Lift 303

6.1. Overall Objectives and Methods 303
6.2. Gas Lift 303
6.2.1. Basics of continuous gas lift 303
6.2.2. Unloading and kick-off 308
6.2.3. Intermittent gas lift 315
6.2.4. Completion designs for gas lift 315
6.2.5. Conclusions 319
6.3. Electrical Submersible Pumps 319
6.3.1. ESP well performance 321
6.3.2. ESP running options 328
6.3.3. Handling gas 333
6.3.4. Pump setting depths 335
6.3.5. Reliability and how to maximise it 335
6.3.6. Conclusions 336
viii Contents

6.4. Turbine-Driven Submersible Pumps 337

6.4.1. Pump and turbine performance 337
6.4.2. Completion options 340
6.5. Jet Pumps 342
6.5.1. Performance 342
6.5.2. Power fluid selection 346
6.5.3. Completion options 347
6.6. Progressive Cavity Pumps 348
6.6.1. Principle and performance 349
6.6.2. Application of PCPs 351
6.7. Beam Pumps 352
6.7.1. Piston pump 354
6.7.2. Sucker rods 357
6.7.3. Surface configuration 359
6.8. Hydraulic Piston Pumps 361
6.9. Artificial Lift Selection 362
References 366

7. Production Chemistry 371

7.1. Mineral Scales 372
7.1.1. Carbonate scales 374
7.1.2. Sulphates 379
7.1.3. Sulphides and other scales 387
7.1.4. Scale inhibition 388
7.2. Salt Deposition 394
7.3. Waxes 397
7.3.1. Wax measurement techniques 398
7.3.2. The effect of wax on completion performance 400
7.4. Asphaltenes 404
7.5. Hydrates 410
7.5.1. Hydrate inhibition and removal 415
7.5.2. Hydrates as a resource? 418
7.6. Fluid Souring 419
7.7. Elemental Sulphur 422
7.8. Naphthenates 424
7.8.1. Emulsions 426
7.9. Summary 426
References 427

8. Material Selection 433

8.1. Metals 434
8.1.1. Low-alloy steels 434
8.1.2. Heat treatment 437
8.1.3. Alloy steels 438
8.2. Downhole Corrosion 442
8.2.1. Carbon dioxide corrosion 443
8.2.2. Hydrogen sulphide and sulphide stress cracking 446
Contents ix

8.2.3. Stress corrosion cracking 450

8.2.4. Oxygen corrosion 452
8.2.5. Galvanic corrosion 455
8.2.6. Erosion 455
8.3. Metallurgy Selection 457
8.4. Corrosion Inhibition 459
8.5. Seals 460
8.5.1. Seal geometry and sealing systems 460
8.5.2. Elastomers and plastics 462
8.6. Control Lines and Encapsulation 466
8.7. Coatings and Liners 468
References 469

9. Tubing Stress Analysis 473

9.1. Purpose of Stress Analysis 473
9.2. Tubular Manufacture and Specifications 474
9.3. Stress, Strain and Grades 474
9.4. Axial Loads 478
9.4.1. Axial strength 478
9.4.2. Weight of tubing 479
9.4.3. Piston forces 480
9.4.4. Ballooning 487
9.4.5. Temperature changes 488
9.4.6. Fluid drag 489
9.4.7. Bending stresses 490
9.4.8. Buckling 491
9.4.9. Tubing-to-casing drag 500
9.4.10. Total axial forces, movement and tapered completions 507
9.5. Burst 509
9.6. Collapse 510
9.6.1. Yield collapse 512
9.7. Triaxial Analysis 514
9.8. Safety Factors and Design Factors 520
9.8.1. Burst 521
9.8.2. Collapse 521
9.8.3. Axial 521
9.8.4. Triaxial 522
9.9. Load Cases 523
9.9.1. Initial conditions (base case) 523
9.9.2. Tubing pressure tests 523
9.9.3. Annulus pressure tests 524
9.9.4. Production 524
9.9.5. Gas-lifted production 526
9.9.6. Submersible pump loads 527
9.9.7. Jet and hydraulic-pumped production 527
9.9.8. Tubing leak 527
9.9.9. Shut-in 528
x Contents

9.9.10. Evacuated tubing 529

9.9.11. Injection 530
9.9.12. Stimulation 530
9.9.13. Installation and retrieval load cases 533
9.9.14. Pump in to kill 535
9.9.15. Annulus pressure build-up 535
9.10. Tubing Connections 544
9.11. Packers 549
9.11.1. Packer setting 549
9.11.2. Packer loads 551
9.11.3. Packing loadings on casing 552
9.12. Completion Equipment 553
9.13. The Use of Software for Tubing Stress Analysis 553
References 554

10. Completion Equipment 557

10.1. Tree and Tubing Hanger 557
10.1.1. Conventional (vertical) and horizontal trees 557
10.1.2. Platform and land Christmas trees 559
10.1.3. Subsea Christmas trees 563
10.2. Subsurface Safety Valves 565
10.2.1. Hydraulic considerations 566
10.2.2. Equalisation 570
10.2.3. Setting depth 571
10.2.4. Safety valve failure options 571
10.2.5. Annular safety valves 572
10.3. Packers 572
10.3.1. Production packer tailpipes 575
10.4. Expansion Devices and Anchor Latches 576
10.5. Landing Nipples, Locks and Sleeves 578
10.6. Mandrels and Gauges 581
10.7. Capillary Line and Cable Clamps 587
10.8. Loss Control and Reservoir Isolation Valves 588
10.9. Crossovers 590
10.10. Flow Couplings 591
10.11. Modules 591
10.12. Integrating Equipment into the Design Process 591
References 593

11. Installing the Completion 595

11.1. How Installation Affects Completion Design 595
11.2. Wellbore Clean-Out and Mud Displacement 595
11.2.1. Sources of debris 596
11.2.2. Clean-out string design 597
11.2.3. Displacement to completion fluid 601
11.3. Completion Fluids and Filtration 604
11.3.1. Requirement for kill weight brines 604
11.3.2. Brine selection 605
Contents xi

11.3.3. Additives 611

11.3.4. Filtration 611
11.4. Safely Running the Completion 615
11.4.1. Pre-job preparation of tubing and modules 615
11.4.2. Rig layout and preparation 617
11.4.3. Running tubing 619
11.4.4. Running control lines 624
11.5. Well Clean-Up and Flow Initiation 625
11.6. Procedures 626
11.7. Handover and Post Completion Reporting 632
References 633

12. Specialist Completions 635

12.1. Deepwater Completions 635
12.1.1. Deepwater environments 635
12.1.2. Production chemistry and well performance 637
12.1.3. Stress analysis 638
12.1.4. Operational considerations 638
12.2. HPHT Completions 639
12.2.1. HPHT reservoir completions 640
12.2.2. Materials for HPHT conditions 641
12.2.3. HPHT equipment and completion installation 641
12.3. Completions with Downhole Flow Control 642
12.3.1. Downhole flow control in cased hole wells 644
12.3.2. Downhole flow control in wells with sand control 646
12.3.3. Valves and control systems 650
12.3.4. Control lines and control line protection 653
12.3.5. Packers, disconnects, expansion joints and splice subs 655
12.4. Multilateral Completions 657
12.5. Dual Completions 662
12.6. Multipurpose Completions 663
12.6.1. Types of multipurpose completions 664
12.6.2. Wellhead designs for annulus injection/production 667
12.6.3. Well integrity 668
12.6.4. Well performance, flow assurance and artificial lift 670
12.6.5. Well intervention and workovers 674
12.7. Underbalance Completions and Through Tubing Drilling 675
12.8. Coiled Tubing and Insert Completions 677
12.9. Completions for Carbon Dioxide Injection and Sequestration 678
12.10. Completions for Heavy Oil and Steam Injection 685
12.10.1. Heavy oil production with sand 685
12.10.2. Steam injection 685
12.11. Completions for Coal Bed Methane 688
References 690

Subject Index 695