Near Real Simulations with Wireline and Production Testing Surveys in the Oil and Gas Industry

Abstract

In this highly competitive industry, technology and perfection in service delivery makes an organization stand out from the rest. One of the key contributors to achieving the highest level of service delivery is equipping the workforce with the required procedures, knowledge, and skills. The blended learning approach must include sufficient classroom sessions. A well-designed hands-on training infrastructure emulates the field environment under the controlled conditions of a training center.

A training facility was designed with the objective to simulate as many challenges and scenarios encountered in field operations. The facility design enabled the field crew to understand and safely apply procedures to deliver services above customer’s expectations.

A project that included drilling four wells was incorporated in the near-real simulations. The facility was equipped with an overhead gantry to enable lifting operations and interventions as well as labs to survey the wells with e-line. An additional Testing and Production Services flow-loop facility equipped with conventional and recent-generation multiphase-measurement equipment can also interact with wells. Bringing several product lines together under one roof has the potential to optimize resources and to deliver packaged solutions to the customers. One such example is the collaboration of Wireline Services with Testing and Production Services.

The core objective of this facility was to design a downhole environment focused on the concepts of well integrity, well isolation, production logging, cased-hole and open hole evaluation. Initial simulations in the facility enabled understanding of cement evaluation with different cement slurry weights. These simulations also enabled evaluating casing integrity with different casing thicknesses and different internal and external casing anomalies, which led to appreciating the vertical resolution capabilities of downhole sensors. Furthermore, the simulations enabled cement evaluation through fiberglass pipe, or glass-reinforced plastic (GRP).

The created environment will facilitate witnessing the behavior of modern sensors to evaluate anomalies through adjacent casings. It will provide an environment to test pulse-neutron tools to evaluate and detect water fluid movement behind casing. It enables grasping the concept of electrical log correlation for perforating services with gamma ray, casing collar locator (CCL), or tubing-conveyed perforating (TCP) assemblies, and it instills confidence to place the assemblies at the correct depth in a well. It was also planned to provide visualization while running production logging sensors with different flow and volume rates of water, oil, and air in conjunction with the Testing and Production Services flow-loop capabilities.

Such a blended-learning approach that covers multiple product lines creates immense value.