Planning a Well Completion for Profit
Authors: de Rochemont John F. , Ledet C.A. 
Published: December 2007

American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc.

This paper was prepared for the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME Symposium on Formation Damage Control, to be held in Houston, Tx., Jan 29–30, 1976. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate journal, provided agreement to give proper credit is made. provided agreement to give proper credit is made. Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines.

A suggested procedure for deep well completions is presented with emphasis on a teamwork effort to arrive at an in-depth analysis of the known well parameters. This analysis will enable a completion team to accurately predict the behavior of the production conduit, and subsurface equipment combination. The production conduit, and subsurface equipment combination. The method outlined will prevent possible equipment failure during well treating and production cycles, and possible formation damage as a result thereof.

Introduction

The costs of drilling, completing and working over oil and gas wells is increasing steadily. The need for more energy makes it imperative that we do all that is possible to optimize production from new wells drilled as well as wells worked over, increase production through stimulation techniques, or overcome production production through stimulation techniques, or overcome production difficulties resulting from either reservoir characteristics or wellbore problems. This paper is devoted primarily to new wells drilled and the opportunities available to operators to minimize problems, that could possibly cause formation damage, resulting problems, that could possibly cause formation damage, resulting in lower production rates and return on investment.

It is a well-known fact that workover techniques over the past decade have concentrated on methods to avoid having to kill a past decade have concentrated on methods to avoid having to kill a well. This can allow kill fluids to migrate into producing formations and possibly affect formation to wellbore interfaces; thus, affect production rates.

Examples of such workover techniques are:Snubbing systems which allow working over wells under pressure.Coil tubing units which are used extensively for cleanout purposes rather than pulling the tubing.

Let us consider a new well completion. What are the opportunities available to us in planning a well completion? Who is involved in making these opportunities become a reality? When shall we examine the opportunities available to us? How shall we go about them? These are the questions that present themselves. Too often, lack of communication prevents planned results.