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Vermilion Energy Inc.

Steady Growth

Stable Dividends

2 0 2 0 V I S I O N the best oil and gas company in the world

SPE Well Integrity Master Class

Completions Integrity

Nick Muecke

Well Construction Manager

Vermilion Oil & Gas Australia

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SCOPE

♦ What is a completion?

♦ What is “completion integrity”?

♦ Design considerations

♦ Material selection

♦ Managing the well lifecycle.

♦ Applicable standards

♦ Impacts on completion integrity

♦ Example schematics

The term “fluid” is used through-out this presentation and

relates to gas, oil, water or chemical

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What is a completion?

♦ A collection of discrete components that, when

combined, provide a conduit to:

bring produced fluids to surface or deliver injected

fluids to the reservoir in a controllable manner

provide reservoir data

provide isolation mechanisms for shut in (planned &

emergency), intervention, suspension and

abandonment

♦ Life of field and/or best economic fit

♦ Future Proofing

designed to cater for all phases of the well and

reservoir life (where feasible and cost effective)

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Completion Integrity

What is completion integrity? ♦ The well fluids remain where they are supposed to be for the full well

life cycle (design, construction, production and abandonment)

How do we achieve it? ♦ The risk of loss of control of fluids (primarily hydrocarbons) during the

well life cycle is mitigated through a process of:

Design (material and component selection)

Installation management (procedures, fluids, chemicals,

equipment and barrier verification)

Maintenance, inspection and treatment (procedures, fluids,

chemicals, equipment and barrier verification)

Abandonment management (procedures, fluids, chemicals,

equipment and barrier verification)

Assessment and balance of risk

Individual and organisational competence

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Common components

♦ Christmas trees, well heads, control, injection and cable termination blocks, surface or subsea …….

♦ Surface valves, chokes, actuators

♦ Chemical injection and hydraulic or electrical control systems (for surface and subsurface components)

♦ Tubing strings and connections and tubing hangers

♦ Surface and Sub Surface Safety Valves

♦ Mandrels (chemical, gas injection, gauge)

♦ Packers, liner hangers, seal bores

♦ Seal assemblies

♦ Control lines, chemical injection lines, joiners and terminators

♦ Clamps, centralisers, lock rings

♦ Sliding side door (mechanical or hydraulic)

♦ Flow control valves (mechanical or hydraulic)

♦ Artificial lift (gas, ESP, rod, jet, pcp, …)

♦ Nipples (isolation, gauge hang off, sleeving, contingency, …)

♦ Blast joints

♦ ……. It is a long list

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Design Considerations

♦ Multiple or single zones, selective or not, comingled or not

♦ Multiple or single phase flow (slugging, layered, …)

♦ Well design considerations (casing design, trajectory, exposed formations, cementation, annular pressure, treatment regime, well kill, abandonment)

♦ Perforated, barefoot, screened, gravel packed, ….

♦ Sand production (well bore stress, well/treatment fluid compatibility, erosion)

♦ Flow rate (erosion management, wellhead loading, tubing stress, seal wear)

♦ Surface pressure (erosion & corrosion management, tubing stress)

♦ Reservoir fluid and pressure characteristics (corrosion management, pressure control, elastomer compatibility)

♦ Temperature (corrosion management, pressure control, tubing stress, elastomer selection, )

♦ Flow assurance (wax, asphaltines, scales)

♦ Sealing mechanisms (MTM, elastomeric)

♦ Fines migration (drawdown, well/treatment fluid compatibility, impairment)

♦ Intervention, servicing, life-cycle data gathering requirements

♦ Bull heading to frac, kill or chemical treatments (well bore stress regime, rock strength, formation characteristics, well pressure design envelope)

♦ Company and/or industry guidelines and Regulatory requirements (barriers – permanent, temporary)

♦ Inventory at hand, manufacturing lead times, standardisation ……

♦ The list is very long, complicated and usually requiring compromise …….

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Material Selection

♦ Impacted by:

Fluid properties (H2S, CO2, water, salinity, chemicals)

Economics (price assumptions, field or well life)

Pressure (reservoir and partial pressure, stimulation)

Production rate and profile (when will water hit, souring)

Temperature (reservoir, overburden profile, ambient, stimulation)

Time (both equipment lead times and well life)

MTBF (reliability)

Ease of intervention (rig access or availability)

Facility design

Applicable standards (API, NACE, company, national, international)

Inventory at hand, supply lead times, standardisation (both yours’ and

your vendor’s)

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Material Selection

♦ Compatibility with other materials

(dissimilar metals)

♦ Stagnant areas (seal areas, annuli,

gas lift mandrels, corrosion inhibition

methodology, …)

♦ Cement design (strength, annular

height, exposed formations, ….)

♦ Liner laps

♦ Movement due to pressure and temperature changes

♦ Packer setting locations (tubing & casing metallurgy,

cement, .…)

♦ Installation constraints (floating casing, T&D, rig type, …..)

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Material Selection

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Managing Integrity Through Lifecycle

Who is responsible?

What is the scope?

♦ Specification

♦ Design

♦ Installation

♦ Intervention and Maintenance

♦ Monitoring

♦ Scope changes (e.g. – access to different zones with different fluid

mixes, conversion from producer to injector, life extension)

♦ Abandonment

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Managing Integrity - SPECIFICATION

♦ Accurate representation from subsurface and production on:

Production rates

Production profile

Reservoir fluid property changes during production life

Corrosion management equipment

Maintenance strategy

Facility access

Will an exploration or appraisal well become a producer?

Will its use change over production life

♦ Functional and Technical Specification

Well Design Criteria – the functional spec from the subsurface and production

teams

Well Basis of Design – the technical spec from the well construction team

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♦ International Standards Organisation (ISO)

ISO 13533 Specification for Wellhead Equipment

ISO 11960 Specification for Casing and Tubing

ISO 15463 Field Inspection of New Casing, Tubing and Plain End Drill Pipe

ISO 10417 Design Installation, Repair and Operation of Sub Surface Safety Valves

ISO 10432 Specification for Subsurface Safety Valve Equipment

ISO 10426-1 Specification for Cements and Materials for Well Cementing

ISO 10426-2 Recommended Practice for Testing Well Cements

ISO 4406 Hydraulic fluid power - Fluids - Method for coding the level of contamination by solid particles

ISO 15156 Corrosion Resistant Alloys for Sulphide Service

♦ API (standards and recommended practices)

♦ NORSOK (Standard Norge)

♦ ANSI/NACE (largely obsolete – moving to ISO)

♦ Regulatory requirements or guidelines (state, national, international)

♦ Internal company standards

Standards, Regulations and Guidelines

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Managing Integrity - DESIGN

♦ Fit for purpose and cost effective

♦ Design Safety Factors

♦ Future Proofing Can the well design accommodate changes in produced fluid (oil, gas, water)?

Can we cope with reservoir souring?

Changes in reservoir parameters (pressure, etc.)

Impact of future water production on sand production (change in erosion rates)?

Will the well need to be converted to gas/water injector later in field life? How?

Intervention capability:

• How do we intervene and stay within Barrier philosophy.

• How do we access downhole components? (slickline/e-line/CT/tractors etc.)

• How do we accommodate remedial repairs? (Insert Safety Valves, recover ESPs, stuck

plugs, fishing operations, sand clean out, scale)

• What do we give up with specific well designs? Be clear in BOD.

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Managing Integrity - INSTALLATION

♦ Competency Supervisors

Work Teams

Well control (Different for horizontal vs Vertical)

♦ Barrier Verification Clear tracking of barriers installed at each phase.

Sign off to confirm correct barriers instated.

♦ Acceptance Criteria Identified “STOP” points in program (e.g. verification of casing integrity).

Requires sign-off by competent personnel to accept well status prior to proceeding.

Identifies remedial actions if criteria cannot be met.

♦ Management of Change (MOC) Controls deviation from existing program or standards

Defines changes in risk/cost/time/HSE exposure

Provides auditable tracking of operational decisions.

♦ Handover Pre-agreed well status for handover.

Verified by Well Construction and recipient (Operations) at time of handover.

Defines clearly how well is constructed and key components in design.

Serves as a manual for defining ongoing monitoring and maintenance of asset. • E.g. frequency of TRSV inflow tests, Xmas tree maintenance, functioning of downhole

components.

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Managing Integrity - INTERVENTION

Same principal considerations as the installation process: ♦ Competency

♦ Barrier Verification and Acceptance Criteria

♦ Management of Change (MOC)

♦ Handover

In addition: ♦ For interventions, the well fluids (and pressure) are usually at surface and

often constrained by barriers that have to be removed (pack-offs, grease injection heads, etc).

♦ Maintenance and inspection prior to operations.

Is well maintenance effective – lack of maintenance can quickly impact on barriers complicating intervention operations.

Are the planned intervention barriers verifiable?

Do additional barriers need to be installed to enable operations to proceed?

♦ Handover from Production

♦ Intervention often requires Simultaneous Operations

Impact on Major Accident Events, ongoing facility operations, management systems

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Managing Integrity - MONITORING

How do we ensure ongoing integrity?

♦ Regular testing programs – e.g. functioning and inflow testing of

SSSVs and pressure testing of Xmas Tree/wellhead valves and seal

systems.

♦ Regular maintenance – e.g. Xmas Tree/wellhead valve servicings

exercising SSSVs and flow control valves (Smart wells) and …

♦ Corrosion protection and monitoring, Erosion monitoring

♦ Well tracking sheets – regular reporting of all pressures and

corrosion and erosion coupons. Monitoring for variances.

♦ Annular fluid management

Annulus top ups

Dosing

Chemical injection

Problems may arise from formation water corroding from outside in

♦ Pressure monitoring

Annular pressure monitoring and management against MAASP

Annulus alarms

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BARRIERS

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Example Schematics – Platform Gas Well

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Example Schematics – Platform ESP Oil Well

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Example Schematics – Subsea Gas Well

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Example Schematics – Subsea Oil Well

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Example Schematics – Platform Multilateral Well

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What is missing?