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Disconnect Tool Successfully and Efficiently Cements Electromagnetic Gauge
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Assembly in Place to Provide Key Reservoir Data

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Given Name Middle Name Surname Company
Alexandru Dimcea Halliburton
Iain Massie Halliburton
Simon French Energean
Dan Smith Energean

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Abstract
An operator developing a deepwater field in the eastern Mediterranean required to monitor pressures in
an upper sand section while producing from the main lower sands. If communication existed between
the two zones, a planned late-life workover could be eliminated, reducing development cost. Gauges
placed across the upper sands in a pilot hole would transmit pressure data to the production bore using
electromagnetic (EM) transmission technology. Ensuring isolation of these gauges by cement was
identified as critical in enabling effective EM data transmission and therefore a great deal of focus was
placed on the design of the cement job.

To perform the operation in as efficient manner as possible a tailored assembly was developed
consisting of electronic gauges and EM relays isolated by open hole packers, along with a cementing
assembly to allow cementation of the upper part of the string which included an EM receiver and relay
in place. The cementing assembly consisted of a frac sleeve to allow the completion to be run and
cemented in place, and a disconnect tool for the drill string to be disconnected in one run. Once
disconnected from the completion, the abandonment of the pilot hole could continue without a trip out
of the hole, saving significant time and costs to the operator.

The cement job design was tailored and verified by lab testing and software modelling to meet the
objectives of the job and the unique challenge associated with the placement method proposed. Once the
completion was installed in the production bore, communication between the gauges through the EM
transmission system was confirmed and monitored during the subsequent well cleanup. The
communication test verified annular isolation and system operability. Furthermore, upper and lower
zonal isolation was proven by monitoring the gauge data in an interference test when flowing another
well.
2

Introduction
In the development of a new oil and gas field, gaining an understanding of how the reservoir pressure
behavior changes during the early years of production can often provide the operator with crucial
information to help determine the best and most efficient way to maximise the value of the asset over the
life-time of the field (Zhao et al. 2017 ). This was a key goal for one operator developing a new
deepwater gas field in the Eastern Mediterranean. The operator wanted to obtain reservoir data to
determine if an upper sand reservoir pressure was being drained by the lower sand reservoir during the
early years of production. Such knowledge would help the operator evaluate whether there was
communication between the two zones which would allow a planned workover to be eliminated helping
to reduce costs and risk. The reservoir data was to be obtained by installation of electromagnetic (EM)
gauges placed across the upper sands reservoir in a pilot hole recording the pressures and transmitting
the data through the formation to a EM relay installed on the completion in the main-bore. From the
production bore EM relay, the data is transferred to surface via a multiplexed gauge cable used for the
conventional Downhole Pressure Temperature (DHPT) gauge. A critical element in ensuring that the
data is successfully transmitted from the pilot hole to the main bore over the expected 7 year lifetime of
the gauges is that “rock to rock” contact with the formation is achieved and this required the pilot hole
EM relay to be sealed in place from the top isolation packer to the string disconnect point. (Figure 1).

Figure 1-Sand gauges completion diagram in pilot hole and completions pick-up in main bore .
 3

Cement was chosen by the operator as the most suitable sealing material for this purpose. Ensuring the
cement was successfully placed to provide complete isolation of the pilot hole EM relay assembly was
highlighted by the operator as critical to the overall success of the operation. Therefore, the cement job
design including placement methodology and properties of the cement slurry to be used warranted a
great deal of attention.

Furthermore, although obtaining the reservoir data was deemed important by the operator to the long-
term success of the project , given the high costs of drilling and developing deepwater fields (Jenkins
1995) it was important that this was done in as efficient a manner as possible. Early engagement and
close collaboration between the operator and the relevant cementing, completions and gauge supplier
contractors therefore considered how the operation could be carried out in the most efficient way. A
tailored string was designed with the aim of facilitating the gauges and completions assembly to be
installed and cemented in one run, with the potential to save considerable time and cost to the operator
compared with having to perform the operation in multiple runs. A key enabler to this objective was the
inclusion of a subsurface disconnect tool at the top of the assembly, which allowed the completions and
gauge assembly to be cemented and left in well while the upper string could be retrieved following the
cement job and the remainder of the well abandonment conducted without the need to trip.

Such a complex tailored assembly and placement methodology added unique challenges in the design
and execution of the cement job to the cementing contractor. This paper will describe in more detail the
key components of the tailored assembly, cement placement methodology and cement job design that
helped the operator to successfully achieve their objectives in an efficient manner.

Tailored Assembly Key Components

Completions Assembly
The main components of the completion assembly were the gauge assembly, open hole packers and frac
sleeves. A brief description of the function of each of these components is given below;
 Gauge assembly – Battery powered, wireless EM gauges and relay station. A single EM gauge
assembly containing three gauges were run between two open hole isolation packers.
 Open hole packers – To provide isolation between the sands and EM gauge assemblies.
Accurate positioning of these is key and is to be based on formation identification from open
hole logging. The packers are inflated by dropping a ball, landing on a seat and applying pressure
to the required activation pressure.
 Frac sleeve assembly – To provide open ports to facilitate circulation above the upper open hole
packer to allow cementing the EM relay station in place. Activated by applying pressure to shear
pins and verified by circulating prior to commencing the cement job.

Subsurface Disconnect Tool

A key component in the tailored assembly to facilitate the desired cement placement methodology is a
subsurface disconnect tool. This tool was designed to facilitate placement of competent cement plugs for
well abandonment or sidetrack purposes. It’s disconnect mechanism means the tailpipe below is left in
the well which avoids having to be pulled through cement which can disturb and contaminate it. It
allows the setting of longer cement plugs without risk of getting stuck, saving rig time and costs
involved with having to set multiple plugs. This also helps reduce the risk of contamination of plugs
placed under challenging conditions such as in high deviation wells. The subsurface disconnect tool has
4

been successfully used by operators globally saving operators considerable rig time and cost (Rogers
and Poole, 2012).

The inclusion of the disconnect tool in the tailored assembly would allow the completions assembly to
be installed and the EM relay station cemented in place in one run. This lower assembly would then be
left in the well and the drill pipe above disconnected to allow cement plugs to be set above to complete
the abandonment of the well without the requirement to trip. Completing all of these operations in one
run would help save substantial time and cost to the operator compared with having to perform multiple
runs.

To operate the tool, a drill pipe wiper dart is launched from a subsea cement head after pumping the
cement which travels down the drill pipe before landing on a sliding sleeve assembly. Surface pressure
is then applied until the predetermined release value is reached which shifts the sliding sleeve causing
collet fingers to move inwards. This then releases the disconnect tool and string below from the upper
work string (Figure 2). (Rogers and Poole, 2012)

Figure 2-Disconnect tool with dart landed on sliding sleeve and disconnected tailpipe

The disconnect tool that was planned to be used consists of four key components; the work string
adapter, disconnect assembly, drill pipe releasing dart and tail pipe. A brief description of each of these
components is given below.

The workstring adapter connects the upper workstring to the subsurface release mechanism (Figure 3).
 5

Figure 3-Workstring adapter

The disconnect assembly (Figure 4) consists of the releasing sleeve where the drillpipe wiper dart lands
and sliding sleeve assembly encompassing the collet, collet retainer and shear pins. There is a thread on
the bottom to connect to the tailpipe.

Figure 4-Disconnect assembly

The releasing dart (figure 5) is a rubber wiper dart designed to pass through the specific upper work
string and consisting of a nose and shoulder outer diameter (OD) specifically chosen to land and seal in
the releasing sleeve inner diameter (ID) in the disconnect assembly. Correct dart selection according to
the geometry of the workstring, cement head and disconnect tool releasing sleeve ID to be used is a
critical part of the pre-job planning. Also critical is conducting pre-job rig site checks to verify
geometries of the dart nose and shoulder OD and confirmation of work string ID through drift and
ensuring no square shoulders are present which could cause the dart to hang up before reaching the
disconnect tool.
6

Figure 5–Releasing dart

The tailpipe used was the completions assembly to be left below the disconnect tool as described above.

Cement placement methodology

A summary of key factors influencing cement job quality
Obtaining a quality cement bond around the EM relay assembly to facilitate data transfer was critical to
the success of the operation. A large amount of focus was given to the design of the cement job to
ensure this could be achieved on the first attempt as there would likely not be an opportunity to carry out
a remedial operation. In order to achieve a high quality cement bond it is critical to displace the well
fluid currently in the annular space. It is widely recognised that there are a number of key factors which
impact the displacement of well fluid during cement placement and many studies have been carried out
to investigate the impact of these resulting in a number of industry accepted recommended practices
(Smith, 1989). These include conditioning the drilling fluid, pipe movement, pipe centralisation, annular
flow rate and spacer and cement slurry design. Each of these will now be considered in turn.
Conditioning the drilling fluid prior to conducting the cement operation is critical to achieving good
displacement efficiency during the job. Preparing the wellbore by conditioning the drilling fluid is
achieved by circulation of the well. The typical recommendation is to circulate a specified volume;
however, to ensure the well fluid is as mobile as possible this should ideally be performed until the
circulation pressures are stable at the maximum possible rate and well fluid properties coming in and out
of the well are consistent.

Pipe movement including rotation (Moroni et al. 2009) and reciprocation (Guzman et al.,2018 ) have
been proven by fluid displacement modelling and field experience as key factors in improving cement
job quality and are recommended to be implemented both while conditioning the wellbore fluid and
during the placement of cement.

Another key factor influencing the quality of cement placement is pipe centralization. Poor well fluid
displacement is likely to be achieved in an eccentric annulus as the cement will tend to take the path of
least resistance up the wide side of the annulus leaving a channel of well fluid on the narrow side
(Figure 6). Achieving quality centralisation is a particular challenge in deviated wells as the pipe tends
to lie on the lower side of the wellbore and the stand-off achievable is dependent on both the type and
number of centralisers able to be run.
 7

Figure 6–Pipe centralization leading to poor mud displacement on narrow side

The flow rate of fluids in annulus is also recognised as having a significant impact on the displacement
efficiency of fluids, with a number of studies investigating this in detail. Large scale model testing
revealed that increasing the flow rates had a positive impact on the displacement efficiency (Smith,
1989). Therefore it is industry recommended practice to maximise the circulation rates during the
cement job within other pressure limitations such as surface equipment and formation fracture pressures.

The design of the spacer and cement slurries is another important factor in ensuring good
displacement efficiency and proper attention needs to be paid to both elements while planning a cement
job. The volume of spacer selected should be sufficient to clean the wellbore and provide adequate
separation of mud and cement, ensuring that it is compatible with both fluids. Furthermore density and
rheological fluid hierarchy from mud-spacer-cement is important to be achieved to optimise
displacement efficiency (Singh et al. 2017). An important part of designing the spacer and cement
systems is through thorough lab testing and conducting 2D hydraulic and 3D fluid displacement
simulations to verify that the designed properties can meet the overall objectives of the job.
Cement Job Design
Due to the critical impact achieving isolation of the gauge assembly had on the overall objectives of the
operator a great deal of focus was placed on the design of the cement job. It was identified that due to
the complexity of the tailored assembly to be used, some of the factors highlighted in the previous
section as being key to achieving efficient well fluid displacement were not able to be fully
implemented. For example, pipe movement was ruled out due to the presence of open hole packers in
the string which eliminated the ability to rotate or reciprocate the assembly when they were set.
Centralisers were installed on the tail pipe with one positioned directly above and below the EM relay
assembly to reduce fluid channeling, however the stand-off achievable was limited due to the available
centraliser OD being under gauge and the high deviation across the cemented interval (50 degree
inclination). Therefore, additional focus was applied to optimising other key factors to ensure the
objective of achieving competent cement could be achieved with the chosen placement methodology.

Detailed instructions for pre-job circulation were provided in the work plan with a minimum of 1.5 x
bottoms-up to be pumped or continued until the pressures were stable and well fluid properties coming
in and out of the well were consistent. Simulations using the cementing contractors modelling software
were also conducted during the pre-job planning in order to optimise the circulation rate during the well
fluid conditioning to improve displacement efficiency while remaining safely within pressure
limitations. In this case the limitation was identified to be the open hole packer activation pressure of
8

1300 psi which it was deemed mandatory to keep below. The simulations indicated that a circulation
rate of 10 bpm would result in a pumping pressure of approximately 1000 psi giving a safe working
envelope that the operator was comfortable with (figure 7).

Figure 7–Calculated surface pressure showing 1000 psi predicted pressure while circulating at 10 bpm.

Erodibility simulations were conducted using the planned properties of the well fluid (PV= 22, YP= 36 ,
10s/10m/30m gels =10/20/25) and these predicted that 100% hole cleaning during pre-job circulation
could be obtained if a circulation rate of 10 bpm could be achieved even considering the pipe stand-off
to be less than optimal (Figure 8).

Figure 8–Erodibility profile using software simulation indicating 100% hole cleaning achievable at 10 bpm circulation rate

The displacement rate was also optimised to 6 bpm to improve displacement efficiency with this being
confirmed within the maximum recommended displacement rate of the disconnect tool drill pipe wiper
dart to prevent damage.

A spacer volume of 80 bbls was chosen to be pumped ahead of cement providing an annular fill of
approximately 186 m deemed sufficient from 3D fluid displacement modelling to adequately separate
 9

the mud from cement and also clean the hole in preparation for cement. The spacer was designed to be
compatible with the mud as confirmed by rheology testing of various compositions of the intermixed
fluids in accordance with API RP 10B-2.

The density and rheologies of the spacer and cement system were tailored to achieve fluid hierarchy
based on the planned properties of the well fluid. With well fluid density planned at 11.60 lb/gal, a
spacer density of 12.5 lb/gal and cement slurry density of 16.0 lb/gal were selected which provided
strong density hierarchy to assist in fluid displacement. The cement density chosen was also considered
suitable to provide quick compressive strength development in order to obtain a hydraulic seal around
the EM gauge assembly as quickly as possible. Rheologies of all fluids were lab tested prior to the job in
accordance with API RP 10B-2 and simulations conducted to verify strong rheological hierarchy was
achieved at the planned displacement rate of 6 bpm (Figure 9).

Figure 9-Rheological hierarchy of fluids to be pumped.

Furthermore, for this specific application where the cement was to be pumped through frac sleeves, tight
fluid loss control of the cement slurry was deemed important to prevent dehydration of the slurry which
could potentially lead to plugging off the frac sleeves and failure to complete the job. Stability of the
cement slurry was also important to ensure safe placement and particularly so in this highly deviated
well in order to prevent low side channeling caused by slurry sedimentation or high side channeling
caused by excessive free fluid. Both free fluid and API sedimentation tests were therefore conducted in
accordance with API RP 10B-2. A summary of the key cement slurry properties for the slurry used on
the job are given in Table 1 below:

Property Result
Fluid Loss < 100 cc/30mins
Free Fluid 0% at 45deg
Sedimentation 0% difference top-
bottom
UCA Compressive >3000 psi / 24 hours
Strength
Thickening Time ~ 7 hours / 70 Bc
Table 1-Cement slurry properties
10
 11

In order to verify that the planned job design would meet the objectives of the job, the cementing
contractor performed 3D fluid displacement simulations. The results of these studies (Figure 10)
indicated that complete annular coverage across the gauge assembly with approximately 80% cement
displacement efficiency was predicted to be achieved and deemed sufficient to provide the competent
hydraulic seal required for isolation of the gauge assembly.

Figure 10-3D fluid displacement modelling results

Results
The tailored assembly was run in hole without any issues. The open hole packers were successfully set
with applied pressure and the frac sleeves activated, which was confirmed with circulation of the well
fluid. Pre-job circulation of 1.5 x Bottoms-up was performed and the circulation pressures and mud
properties in/out confirmed stable. The cement job was then executed flawlessly (figure 11). 80 bbls of
12.5 lb/gal spacer was pumped followed by 111 bbls of 16 lb/gal cement slurry. The drill pipe wiper dart
was successfully launched from the subsea cement head and displaced with 345 bbls of well fluid at the
planned rates. There was a clear pressure indication at the end of the displacement that the disconnect
tool had successfully released with pressure increasing to approximately 2750 psi before dropping
immediately to 0 psi. Disconnect was confirmed successful when the upper work string was retrieved to
surface.
12

Figure 11–Real Time data chart confirming that all parameters were as per design and disconnect successful.

After running the completion in the main well bore, data transfer from the EM gauge in the pilot hole
thru rock to the receiver in main bore completion during the well clean-up was verified. This confirmed
that the EM gauge assembly had been successfully cemented in place with a competent seal providing
“rock-to-rock" contact with the formation. The system was later used as part of a well to well transient
flow/pressure interference test which confirmed zonal isolation had been achieved between the upper
and lower sands.

Conclusion
Close collaboration between the operator and relevant service contractors allowed a tailored assembly to
be designed to meet the operator’s objective of obtaining key reservoir data for the future development
of the field. In particular, the inclusion of the disconnect tool as part of the assembly allowed the
operation to be performed in one run and further operations to continue without the need to trip, saving
considerable time and cost to the operator. A high degree of focus on the cement job design including
implementation of recommended practices, pre-job simulations and lab testing as well as flawless job
execution resulted in complete isolation of the EM relay and EM gauge assembly being successfully
achieved in what was a complex and challenging placement methodology.

Acknowledgements
The authors express their appreciation to Energean and Halliburton management for their permission
and support to write and publish this paper.
 13

References
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