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Australian Energy Producers Journal Australian Energy Producers Journal Society
Journal of Australian Energy Producers
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Non peer reviewed)

Sand fill cleanout on wireline enables access to additional perforation zones in gas well producer

David Field A *
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- Author Affiliations

A Welltec Oilfield Services Pty Ltd, Perth, WA, Australia.




David Field has 35 years of extensive multi-discipline field operations and management experience in the oil and gas industry. David spent the first 14 years of his oilfield career as a roving field engineer, performing wireline conveyed Vertical Seismic Profile data acquisition around the globe. He then changed tack and joined a new technology company providing Fibre Optic DTS systems for the oil and gas industry. In December 2006, he accepted a position as the APAC Regional Operations Manager for a renowned wellbore clean-up tools company. David joined Welltec in May 2013 as the Australasia Business Development Manager based in Perth.

* Correspondence to: dfield@welltec.com

Australian Energy Producers Journal 64 S242-S246 https://doi.org/10.1071/EP23078
Accepted: 19 March 2024  Published: 16 May 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of Australian Energy Producers.

Abstract

An Australian operator wanted to explore options for wireline conveyed sand bailing in one of their offshore deviated ‘S’ shape gas producing wells. The objective was to remove approximately 24 m of sand fill inside 9.625″ production casing, with an internal diameter (ID) of 8.681″. To limit the number of cleanout runs, the latest technology in wireline deployed suction tools with a 4.25″ overall diameter (OD) was chosen, which provided increased recovery volume, plus real-time surface control and monitoring. Because of the tool’s overall diameter, the landing nipple also required milling to allow access. Therefore, a specially designed 4.412″ mill bit was manufactured and run on a milling tool. The electric line deployed milling technology successfully milled through the landing nipple and a ball catcher in four runs, thus increasing the ID sufficiently to allow access for the cleanout tool string. A well fluid column of about seven bars is required to enable operation of the suction tool. The cleanout tool was configured with three bailer sections (seven max) for the first run, to determine sand recovery optimisation. Three different sizes of bailer filters are provided; prior knowledge of debris particle size is therefore advantageous. In this case, a slickline bailing sand sample had been recovered, which immediately aided filter choice. Seventeen bailing runs were conducted over 5 days, successfully recovering a total of 918 L of sand, equating to about 2.4 tons. Ultimately, the process enabled perforation of two additional gas zones to increase production.

Keywords: debris removal on eline, downhole access, e-line cleanout, nipple profile milling, power suction tool, Well Cleaner, Well Miller, Well Tractor.

Biographies

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David Field has 35 years of extensive multi-discipline field operations and management experience in the oil and gas industry. David spent the first 14 years of his oilfield career as a roving field engineer, performing wireline conveyed Vertical Seismic Profile data acquisition around the globe. He then changed tack and joined a new technology company providing Fibre Optic DTS systems for the oil and gas industry. In December 2006, he accepted a position as the APAC Regional Operations Manager for a renowned wellbore clean-up tools company. David joined Welltec in May 2013 as the Australasia Business Development Manager based in Perth.