Life of Well /

Main phase in
completion
 Well

Types of wells
At Production Phase:

1-Oil Wells
 Naturally Flow Producing Wells
 Lifted Producing Wells

2- Gas Wells

3- Water / Gas Injection Wells

 Well

Types of wells
An Oil well is any boring through the earth surface that is designed to find and
acquire liquid hydrocarbons; usually some natural gas is produced along with the
oil

A Gas well that is designed to produce mainly gas, sometimes may be this gas is
associated with oil

Water injection well or water flooding refers to the method in the oil industry
where water is injected into the reservoir, usually to increase pressure and
thereby stimulate production, can be found on and offshore
Life segment of Oil & Gas well

Life segment of an oil or gas well

• Planning

• Drilling

• Completion

• Production

• Abandonment
Life segment of Oil & Gas well

Planning
• Planning

Objective: the objective of well planning is to formulate from many variable a program for
drilling a well that has the following characteristics: safe , minimum cost and usable.

Well type completion: the drilling engineer is required to plan a variety of well types,
including : wildcats well, exploratory holes, step-outs well, in-fills and re-entries .

Formation pressure : the formation, or pore, pressure encountred by the well significantly
affects the well plan. The pressure may be normal, abnormal (high) or subnormal
Life segment of Oil & Gas well

Drilling
The well is created by drilling a hole into the earth using a drilling rig that rotates a string with a
bit attached.

to drill we need:

1) A way to descend (DRILL PIPE)

2) A way to rotate the pipe (KELLY or Top Drive)
3) A place to hold the pipe (Derrick)
4) A way to raise & lower the pipe (draw works)
5) A cutting tool (BIT)
6) A media to remove cutting (MUD)
Life segment of Oil & Gas well

Drilling
The Rigs come in a variety of configurations and designs for surface environments that range
from Arctic to desert, ocean to midcontinent and just everything in between

Types of Drilling Rigs:

1) Land or Onshore rigs

2) Offshore Rigs which classified to:
a) Jack –Up Rigs
b) Submersible Rigs
c) Semi-submersible Rigs
d) Platform Rigs
e) Drill ships
Life segment of Oil & Gas well

Drilling crew
The Crew who are going to operate the rig consists of the following :

1) Rig supervisor
2) Tool pusher
3) Driller
4) Mechanics & electricians
5) Derrick Man
6) Crane Operator
7) Floor Men
8) Rough Necks
9) Motor Man
 Life segment of Oil & Gas well
Drilling
After a hole is drilled, sections of steel pipes
(Casing) slightly smaller in diameters than the
borehole are placed in the hole.

Cement is placed between the outside of the

casing and the borehole to provide structural
integrity to a newly drilled well and isolate
pressure zones from each other and from the
surface

Modern wells often have two to five sets of

subsequently smallest hole sizes drilled inside
one each other. Each is cemented with a casing.
 Life segment of Oil & Gas well
Drilling
Mud is the drilling fluid pumped down the inside of the drill pipe and exists the drill bit.

Drilling mud is a complex mixture of fluids, solids and chemicals that must be carefully tailored
to provide the correct physical and chemical characteristics required to safely drill the well

There a 2 type of mud:

 Oil base mud

 Water base mud

 Life segment of Oil & Gas well
Production

The production stage is the most important segment of the well's life when the oil and gas are
produced from the attached reservoir

At this stage the rig or the work over installations has moved off the wellbore and the top is
fitted through the christmass tree to production network
 Main phase in Completion
Main phase in completion

Well completion may involve different phases and the order of those phases can vary, the
procedure below is only one among many possible solutions since certain phases can be carried
out at other times or may prove unnecessary :

• Checking and conditioning the borehole

• Remedial cementing
• Re-establishing pay zone – borehole communication
• Well testing
• Treating the pay zone
• Equipment installation
• Putting the well on stream and assessing performance
• Moving the rig
• Later operation : measurements, maintenance, workover and
abandonment
 Main phase in Completion
Checking and conditioning the borehole

This operation consist in checking the condition of the borehole .

In an open hole this usually means simply running bit back in the hole to the bottom and
circulating in order to get uniform mud

For the cased hole the operations are more numerous :

- A drill string equipped with a bit and a run in
- the top of the cement in the casing is checked with the bit
- The area where the packer is to be set is scrapped
- Logs are run to check the cement bond quality
- Depth checking logs are run : using gamma ray and casing collar locator CCL
 Main phase in Completion
Remedial cementing

In case of the cement bond quality is inadequate, the casing is usually perforated and cement is
injected under pressure opposite the area that were improperly cemented .

Re-establishing payzone borehole communication

In a cased hole, the barrier consisting of the casing and the cement between the reservoir and
the wellbore must be bypassed, doing a perfoartions are only the way to restoring this
communication

Well testing

All wells must be tested in order to ascertain the productivity/injectivity index and any possible
damage
 Main phase in Completion
Treating the pay zone

Well treatments mainly encompass sand control and well stimulation (acidizing , fracturing )

Equipment installation

The basic conventional equipment (packer, downhole equipments, tubing, wellhead) may also
be supplemented by specific safety or artificial lift equipement

Putting the well on stream

Putting the well on stream include a clearing or unloading phase if treatment carried on the
layer, or putting the well on production from the layer by eliminating the killing fluid
 Main phase in Completion
Moving the rig

Rig can be moved once all of the operation have been concluded or as soon as the permanent
equipment has been installed

Later operations

Equipment requires maintenance to keep the well producing properly, it may also undergo
workover for repairs or to modify production conditions