Paper ID : 20100909 Analysis of main benefits using Intelligent Completion on three isolated productive zones in offshore deepwater Nigeria

This paper describes the process adopted by operator in order to analyze the main benefits gained using intelligent completion technology on multilayers reservoir, up to three productive zones, in deep water offshore Nigeria. Following a feasibility and risk analysis study performed by the operator, a single well with a triple zone the IC was selected as the best completion solution compared to a dual zone or single wells cluster solutions. CAPEX related of intelligent completion are justified by reduction in overall CAPEX related to the project and specifically to drilling. Saving a drilling phase and having anticipated reservoir's lower layers production, this technology must be considered the unique solution applicable. While two zones IC can be completed with the flow control valves run above the gravel packed zones, the same cannot be done in triple zone IC; in this case, to allow fully independent zonal monitoring and control, two out of three of flow control valves and gauges needs to be run inside the lower zone gravel pack assemblies, bringing a complete new set of interface challenges between the upper and lower completion equipment. Before to commence execution phase, it has been conducted an internal HAZOP (Hazardous Operations) in order to identify the criticalities of this completion configuration and achieve the best procedure to run this completion without damages. The well was completed across November and December 2008 with no incident and lost time and the completion solution adopted proved not only to solve all the initial reservoir challenges but also to reduce the number of well interventions, workover costs and risk. The well was successfully started up in February 2009 with a NPV increment of 15% and a reservoir recovery factor increase of 6%.