Challenges of Gas Wells Killing Operation with Emphasis on Reservoir & Completion Integrity Issues

Well killing always remains a most radical part during the life cycle of gas production wells with reservoir and completion integrity issues. In moderate permeability gas reservoirs, it will be more challenging due to below issues; Low pressure gas reservoir with moderate reservoir permeability where hydrostatic head of water is almost double the formation pressure Well with the sustainable annulus pressures (Production & first cemented annulus) Well with complex layered scale / asphalting deposition Completion jewelry component integrity breached Recycle reservoir with pressure maintenance Noise logs / corrosion logs generally conducted in order to assess the downhole completion jewelry and potential leak source prior any attempt for killing the well. To achieve the desired accessibility extensive scale analysis for better designing of scale clean out operation carried out specially to access the SPM. Variation of reservoir permeability considered for designing of optimized kill fluid for Depleted horizontal gas reservoir to cater challenge of complete losses. Effective fluid loss solutions designed and implemented to avoid abnormal fluid losses. Further more Polymer based gels used to kill and prevent the gas peculation to surface. Wells having completion and reservoir integrity issue isolated by considering cement zonal isolation, salt plugs, thru-tubing bridge plugs and nipple less plugs. All these barriers having their advantages and disadvantages with reference to work over objectives and their application limitations with respect to well conditions and detail study conducted for each candidate prior execution. Depletion Gas well killing and securing operation considered to be complex in nature and may result serious concern of rig intervention or well future objectives in case of improper execution. Gas wells having reservoir integrity issues and in case of 1st cemented Annulus pressure can be isolated by using thru-tubing bridge plugs. For retrieval of dummy from SPM must be done after setting of downhole plug to avoid any heavy suction for wire line operation. Cement plug operation is not suitable for such wells due to severe losses and fluid circulation limitation. Adequate selection of kill gel fluid as per reservoir characteristics will improve the killing efficiency.