Key facts
Customer: North Sea Operator
Location: NCS
Key benefits: Highly efficient single trip well barrier installation completed in 36 hours
The customer’s challenge
The Norsok D-010 standard requires two rock-to-rock barriers (plugs) in reservoirs or zones with potential for flow. In order to satisfy these regulatory requirements three barriers were to be installed in the customer’s well that was to be used for slot recovery operations.
The customer wanted an efficient well barrier installation that would minimise time, cost and risk.
The HydraWell solution
HydraWell aimed to execute the well barrier installation using a new enhanced jet-washing technique based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and flow modelling conducted together with the customer.
HydraWell set three well barriers in total, including one reservoir barrier and two shallower barriers, utilising its proprietary PWC® (Perf, Wash, Cement®) HydraHemera™ jet-washing system.
The reservoir PWC® barrier was placed using conventional jet washing parameters, but both shallower barriers were placed utilising optimised parameters to enhance the jet-washing technique. The HydraWell PWC® solution was applied by first perforating across the barrier installation interval, washing across the perforated interval and then placing cement. The well barrier integrity was subsequently verified using pressure testing and cement evaluation logs after drilling out the internal cement across the perforated area.
The result
The combination of a detailed CFD analysis, HydraWell’s extensive PWC® experience and the customer’s flow modelling analyses enabled a highly efficient single trip jet-washing job that also delivered a safe operation with verified barriers.
As a result, use of optimised PWC® parameters has saved a significant amount of rig time allowing the well barrier installation for one of the upper plugs to be conducted in only 36 hours.
