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Damaged-Bore Wireline Safety Valve

Weatherford’s WDB safety valve can seal in
this type of damaged sealbore.

In early 2004, a major operator approached Weatherford with a problem concerning surface-controlled subsurface safety valves (SCSSVs). A significant number of the landing nipples and tubing valves in their wells had damaged sealbores, and it was large enough to cause failure of packing in wireline and wireline-insert valves. The operator needed a solution that would allow them to have surface control of safety valves in wells with damaged sealbores, removing the need for workovers. The damaged-bore wireline safety valve, WDB, was developed. This system uses a seal system that allows the seal stacks to seal in damaged bores effectively. The damage can be up to 0.5 mm deep and 16 mm wide, in more than one location, in a sealbore. A prototype was run in a well in Indonesia. At the end of the field test, the well was brought back on line with an operational SCSSV.

For additional information, e-mail richard.jones@weatherford.com.

Inflatable Retrievable Packer

            TAM Intl.’s SlikPak Plus
            inflatable/retrievable packer/
            bridge-plug system.
 

TAM Intl. developed its SlikPak Plus inflatable/retrievable packer/bridge-plug system to run on slickline or electric line for fast deployment and accurate depth control. The battery-powered/-controlled 2 1/8-in.-outside-diameter assembly can run 2 1/8- to 14 1/2-in. permanent or temporary inflatable packers and/or bridge plugs. A programmable electronic circuit controls the power applied from the batteries to the pump motor. The system incorporates pressure and temperature sensors that monitor the inflation and setting processes and the downhole well temperature at setting depth. It also has a mechanical backup disconnect device. The system has optional inflation-fluid reservoirs in the tool string to carry the preferred inflation fluid for the inflatable packer if well fluids are unsuitable. The inflatable packers can be run through tubing in a straddle-packer configuration or as a temporary or permanent bridge plug. Each packer can be inflated in 20 minutes or less. The system can be set effectively in either cased- or openhole wells. An internal bypass speeds the run-in of the tools and ensures complete inflation of the packers at setting depth, even in wells exhibiting crossflow between zones. The high-volume/low-pressure pump is designed to inflate the packer quickly, and then the hydraulic intensifier provides a boost to the pump output pressure to complete the inflation process. A pull intensifier provides a mechanical backup means of increasing the inflation pressure if the hydraulic intensifier fails to function properly. Shear pinned at 1,100 lbf in the closed position, it requires jarring action to activate.

For additional information, e-mail tim.davis@tamintl.com.

Shallow-Water Platforms

Aquaterra Energy’s Sea Swift
minimum-facilities platform.

Aquaterra Energy recently presented its new Sea Swift minimum-facilities platform. The first platform was scheduled for shipping to west Africa in November. The concept uses conductor-supported platforms and focuses on reducing the amount of material used in construction to provide a low-cost solution for shallow-water production. The design enables oil production sooner than with conventional techniques. The significance of the cost and time savings is the increased number of marginal fields that can be developed viably. The platform systems can be used for predrilled-well support, such as drilling-template supply and tieback engineering, riser analysis, centralizers, and provision of special-project engineering support.

For additional information, e-mail info@aquaterraenergy.com.

Oil-in-Water Monitor

Roxar’s Oil-in-water monitor installed
in the Cavone oil field.

Roxar has announced that a second pilot for its Oil-in-water monitor has been installed in the Cavone oil field to monitor oil droplets and solids at the onshore production facility. The pilot is part of a series of technologies being rolled out at the Cavone facility to optimize production and reduce environmental effects. Technologies include the removal of oil from water and reduction of the residual concentration of hydrocarbons in water to less than 10 ppm from higher than 1,000 ppm initially. The monitor uses an ultrasonic pulse/echo technology, which provides high accuracy and reliability for enhanced characterization. Individual acoustic echoes from both solids and oil droplets are analyzed and differentiated to give accurate information on size distribution (size as small as 2 to 3 µm) and concentration. The monitor does not recalibrate when the chemical composition changes because direct measurements are performed on the dispersed phase. Advanced autodiagnostics functionality enables the monitor to overcome challenges such as equipment degradation, scaling, and temperature or chemical changes. The monitor can be inserted and extracted without interference in the production process and is suitable for installation in systems with hazardous conditions.

For additional information, e-mail Geir.Aanensen@roxar.com.

Pulsation Dampener

CoorsTek’s ZM-series pulsation
dampener.

CoorsTek Inc. augmented its line of pulsation-stabilizing equipment with its Zero-Maintenance (ZM-series) pulsation dampener as part of the company’s SurgeTek pulsation-management line. In downhole pumping situations, nearly all positive-displacement pumps create pulsation—amplified during the compression stroke of the pump, which then sends surges downstream. Depending on system variables such as pump speed, media pumped, and pump type, this pulsation can create severe problems. Pulsation dampeners reduce this pulsation by up to 75% over a variable operating range to help smooth the flow regime, extending life of expensive line components. The pulsation-dampener series is available in a range of sizes for different media processing and flow rates. Dampeners are offered in 5-, 10-, and 15-gal-capacity models.

For additional information, visit www.coorstek.com.

Fast Reservoir Simulation

Coats Engineering Inc. has released its 64-bit Windows version of its black-oil and compositional reservoir simulator, Sensor 64. Linux versions will be available soon. This latest generation of full-physics full-field reservoir simulators can provide high levels of detail and accuracy in reservoir studies that enable making better and faster decisions than was possible with earlier versions. The model applies to isothermal-recovery processes for black-oil and compositional fluids in single-porosity, dual-porosity, and dual-permeability reservoirs. Advanced workflows offer tools that can be used to generate, submit, and evaluate the results of very large numbers of runs simultaneously and iteratively, providing the potential for orders-of-magnitude improvement in cycle times and/or levels of resolution and accuracy in history matching, optimization, and uncertainty quantification. The use of a fast serial simulator provides high efficiency in these workflows. The 64-bit technology allows even giant reservoirs, modeled with many millions of cells, to be studied in an efficient manner.

For additional information, visit www.CoatsEngineering.com.

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