Continuous Improvement and Innovative Downhole Tool Combinations Used in the United Arab Emirates to Break Boundaries with Mega-Reach Coiled Tubing Interventions

The upstream oil and gas industry operating in carbonate formations has progressively adopted the use of long horizontal wells with extended reach laterals to enhance reservoir contact area and improve production per well while reducing the total number of wells required and lower the drilling costs. This is especially the case for Artificial Islands in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where mega-reach wells were implemented, stretching the Total Depth (TD) of the newly drilled wells over time to eventually reach 53,000 ft MD with production laterals surpassing 33,000 ft. The complex carbonate field geology characterized by fractures, faults and diagenetic features leads to inter-reservoir communication, flow fingering and water breakthrough in parts of the reservoirs. With that in mind, the ability to monitor flow conformance with production logging and carry out wellbore cleanout, pin-point acid stimulation and water shutoff operations in mega-reach wells is required over the life of the wells to establish production/injection conformance, delay water breakthrough, maximize production and avoid pockets of unswept oil. Additionally, the complicated wells trajectories combined with extended wells lengths have resulted in higher Friction Coefficient (FC) than is typically encountered, on both E-line cables and Coiled Tubing (CT) interventions. Rigless well intervention has been lagging behind the drilling progress and is unable to reach the required depths needed for the intervention scope in mega-reach wells, thus hindering well objectives along the life of the well. Challenges to extend the CT intervention envelope span from the pipe manufacturer to the downhole tool provider and cooperation of all stakeholders is needed to overcome said challenges. This paper examines the identified aspects that have facilitated successful interventions with CT in mega-reach wells and the aspects that are stalling further extension in CT accessibility.