Sand Control Completions for Raven Field in Egypt

Abstract

This paper presents the results of design and field execution of sand control completions for Raven High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) gas field in Egypt. The reservoir contains stacked channel formation sands, that require sand control completions. The completions design is complicated due to combination of sand control and HPHT environment where industry has limited experience. The selected completions type was an Open Hole Gravel Pack (OHGP) with a pre-drilled liner. A series of lab testing has been conducted to design and qualify completions fluids. The lab test program included formation damage tests, shale stability tests under dynamic and static conditions, materials and fluids compatibility tests and others. The downhole completions hardware was specifically designed to allow effective displacement from oil based mud to completion brine fluid with subsequent gravel pack placement. The circulating gravel pack placement technique was selected using Cesium Formate brine as a gravel carrier fluid. The field installation campaign of the selected completions method is currently underway with 4 wells already successfully being completed. All completed wells demonstrated excellent well performance results with very low completions skin. The well flow-back and test results exceeded expectations, indicating the entire reservoir sand was contributing to flow, demonstrated greater than predicted Productivity Index (PI) with minimal skin damage. Sand control integrity was achieved with full gravel pack efficiency.