Surge Ahead: Integrated Perforating and Completion Design Maximizes Well Performance

Abstract High fracture-breakdown pressures prevented the initial frac-pack completion of the first controlled dump flood injection well in a highly depleted field offshore deepwater Gulf of Mexico. A fast-track study was sanctioned to better identify the key mechanisms and their cause. Several hypotheses were proposed including wellbore strengthening (stress cage), damage from highly overbalanced drilling and damage during completion operations. Resolving the problem was particularly important to inform the completion design of a subsequent producing well in the same deepwater sand. A comprehensive laboratory program was designed to test some of the hypotheses. The program included large-scale perforation and flow tests to simulate the damage impact of drilling and completion operations at the sand-face and in the near-well region. This paper discusses the lab program, the test results and the frac-pack completion design for the subsequent producing well. The novel and counter-intuitive solution was endorsed by management based on the physics-based, integrated and quantitative approach.