Poly Plug Clear Gel Field 305
Well Information
Ewing Banks Gulf of Mexico
52 Degrees Angle
9.0 Completion Brine-KCL
200 F
90 min
Challenge
Production was renewed in an existing wellbore following a bradenhead placement
of Poly Plug® Clear Gel to isolate a low production rate, high water cut gravel pack
zone. The innovative crosslink polymer gel, Poly Plug® Clear Gel, and placement
technique allowed a downhole recompletion to a known productive zone that would
have been left behind due to marginal economics. Conventional methods for zonal
isolation would have required the use of a major rig workover to isolate the zone
with anticipated AFE costs in excess of $2,000.000.00. The well bore configuration
in the Ewing Banks area consisted of 7 5/8” production casing at a measured depth
of 14,448’ MD and an inclination of 52° with 3 ½” tubing to just above the gravel
pack interval. A 4” tubing section was placed in the gravel pack interval consisting of
60’ of blank and 52’ of .012 gauge wire wrap screen. The placement technique
involved establishing an injection rate with seawater into the gravel pack zone of 2.5
to 3.0 BPM prior to pumping the crosslink polymer gel. A total of 75 bbls of Poly
Plug® Clear Gel was pumped through the gravel pack into the production zone and
allowed to crosslink in place to affect a shut off of the interval. Once fully crosslinked
and set, bailer runs were conducted to clear excess Poly Plug® Clear Gel, the
isolation plug was tested to 1000 psig and then the lower zone perforated and put
on line.
Results
Key technical and commercial successes achieved during this project
include: (1) conducting a gravel pack isolation from the bradenhead,
requiring neither a workover rig nor sophisticated pressure pumping
equipment, (2) successful placement of Poly Plug® Clear Gel through
the existing gravel pack and into the production zone, resulting in
complete isolation of the interval, (3) significant reduction in cost from
the original AFE of $2,000,000.00 for conventional methods to a cost
of $200,000.00 for this operation, (4) completion of a lower sand
interval with electric line conveyed perforating guns and (5) extending
the life of the wellbore with a significant increase in production rates
and revenue with a corresponding reduction in produced water.
Production from the lower sand package increased significantly, tripling
the BOPD with a FTP of 722 psi as compared to the upper gravel
packed interval on gas lift.