Bi-Directional, Dissolvable Plugged Nozzles, Designed to Maintain Mechanical Integrity for 15-Hours in 10.6 Ppg Brine, Subsequently Surviving a Min of 10 Hours in Low Ph Breaker-Fluids

Abstract ADNOC-offshore with their partners conceived and developed the concept of Dissolvable-Plugged-Nozzles (DPNs'), developing an inflow-control-device (ICD) with dissolvable elastomeric-plug to be installed on limited-entry perforated-liners in their extended-reach and deviated (ERD) injection-wells (Bachar et al. 2004, Beaman et al. 2016, Clews et al. 2018, Jackson et al. 2017, Kiyoumi et al. 2019, Mayer et al. 2014, and Sau et al. 2019). Benefits of DPNs' encompass significant savings of the order of several-million-dollars for the client due to one or more of the benefits (a) Not having to pick-up a dedicated displacement work-string, thus significant time-savings of up to 5-days (b) Increase probability of running liner to TD through the ability to wash to bottom (c) Less fluid losses to the reservoir formation (d) Effective wellbore cleaning, among others. These are detailed in our published papers (Roy et al. 2021, Roy et al. 2020, and Shamshy et al. 2023). To bridge technology gaps of such an embodiment reliably operating at elevated temperatures and pressures, a DPN with a degradable metallic-material core, with ability to operate under 5,000 psi differential pressure (DP) across the nozzle, was successfully qualified to (a) retain its mechanical-integrity up-to 48 hours of exposure to brines of varying specific gravities, (b) to break-through in less than 14-days after RDFNAF-to-brine fluid sweep (patent granted). Increasing the length of extended reach deviated (ERD) / maximum reservoir contact (MRC) wells from 10,000 feet to 50,000 feet adds to the complexity of completing the laterals. First, drilling ERD/MRC wells can be extremely difficult, as it requires maintenance of wellbore stability and management of higher torques over longer distances. Jarring of completions for days to reach total depth and related constrains are compelling floating the completions as commonly done in unconventional shale reservoirs; Second, difficulty in hole cleaning, possibility of collision and subsurface deviation inaccuracies increase. In addition, to maximize reservoir recovery from horizontal wells, filter-cake breaker placement has led to enhanced wellbore cleaning and improved well performance. However low pH filter-cake breakers compromises pressure integrity of DPNs' used with plugged LEL technology deployed with Limited-Entry-Liner (LEL) lower completions combined with Remote Close Shoes (RCS). This called for design of a DPN with ability to survive a minimum of 8 to 10 hours in low pH breakers. Fast-track engineering to expeditiously deploy new technologies in upstream oil and gas heavily relies on timely agreement and synergy between the engineering team and stakeholder on (1) tool architecture, thus specifications (2) qualification criteria(s) (3) operational envelope and RIH environment (4) verification & validation strategy, among others. Here we present a "Case Study" where the DPNs' were tailored to survive 3500-psi differential in NAF for up-to 20-days with subsequent holds at 250 °F, 3500psi differential (a) for 15-hours in 10.6 ppg (NaBr/NaCl) heavy-brines followed by (b) up to 10 hours in breaker fluids having a pH as low as 1.5 at elevated temperatures. Current design also encompasses a multilayered plug with distinct rates of reaction in client specified fluids (patent pending). *Patents-Pending.