TM 3207 – Well Completion

and Workover

Well Completion Mode

Selection
Dr.-Ing. Bonar T. H. Marbun
Ardhi Lumban Gaol, Ph.D.

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Outline
• Requirements of Well Completion Mode
• Well Completion Modes
• Perforated Completion
• Open Hole Completion
• Slotted Liner
• Gravel Pack
• Hydraulic Fracture (Shale/Tight Hydrocarbons)

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Outline
• Requirements of Well Completion Mode
• Well Completion Modes
• Perforated Completion
• Open Hole Completion
• Slotted Liner
• Gravel Pack

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Requirements of Well Completion Mode

1. The optimum condition of communication between

reservoir and wellbore should be retained to reduce
formation damage to the full extent.
2. The flow area between reservoir and wellbore should be
provided as fully as possible in order to decrease the
resistance to oil and gas flow into the well as far as
possible.
3. The oil and gas reservoirs and aquifer should be effectively
isolated in order to avoid gas and water channeling and
interlayer interference.
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Requirements of Well Completion Mode (cont’d)

4. Sand production should be effectively controlled in order to

prevent the borehole wall from sloughing and ensure long-
term production of the oil well.
5. The oil well, which is run in after the well is completed, should
not only meet the requirements of flowing production, but suit
the need of artificial lift production in the later stage.
6. The conditions of downhole operations and measures,
including separate-zone water injection and gas injection,
separate-zone fracturing and acidizing, and water shutoff and
profile control, should be provided.

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Requirements of Well Completion Mode (cont’d)

7. The requirements of steam injection should be met during

the thermal recovery of heavy oil.
8. The conditions of side-tracking should be provided in the
later stage of oil field development.
9. The conditions of drilling horizontal branch holes of a
horizontal well should be provided.

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Requirements of Well Completion Mode (cont’d)

10. The corrosion caused by H2S, CO2, and salt water with a
high salinity should be effectively prevented.
11. The creeping of salt rock bed and salt paste bed should be
resisted.
12. Simple and convenient operations and good economic
benefits should be provided.

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Outline
• Requirements of Well Completion Mode
• Well Completion Modes
• Perforated Completion
• Open Hole Completion
• Slotted Liner
• Gravel Pack

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Well Completion Modes
At present, the most common well completion modes include
casing (or liner) perforation completion, open hole
completion, and slotted liner completion, which can be
further subdivided into completion with a slotted liner at the
bottom of the casing and completion with a slotted liner run
in the open hole. It is important to understand the
distinguishing features of various completion modes due to
their different applicable conditions and limitations.

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 Liner
Open-
Hole Tieback
Casing
Liner

Slotted Well
Perforated
Liner Completion

Gravel
Pack

Fig. 1. Well Completion Modes

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Outline
• Requirements of Well Completion Mode
• Well Completion Modes
• Perforated Completion
• Open Hole Completion
• Slotted Liner
• Gravel Pack

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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Perforated Completion
Perforated completion is the most important and widely
applied completion mode in China and abroad and includes
casing perforation completion, liner perforation completion,
and tieback liner perforation completion.

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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Perforated Completion
Casing Perforation Completion
Casing perforation completion includes drilling through the
reservoir to the design depth, running-in production casing to
the bottom of the reservoir and cementing, and perforating
with perforator to perforate through the production casing
and cement sheath, and penetrate into a certain depth in the
reservoir in order to make channels to allow the oil and gas to
flow into the well.
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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Perforated Completion
Casing Perforation Completion
Casing perforation completion can achieve selective
perforating oil reservoir with different pressure and physical
properties in order to avoid interlayer interference, can keep
clear of inter-bedded water, bottom water, and gas cap, keep
away from collapse of interbed, and provide the conditions of
separate-zone operations, including separate-zone injection
and production and selective fracturing and acidizing.
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 Fig. 2. Casing Perforation Completion
(Source: Wan Renpu, Advanced Well Completion Engineering)
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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Perforated Completion
Liner Perforation Completion
Liner perforation completion includes running-in intermediate
casing and cementing after drilling to the top of the reservoir,
drilling through the reservoir to the design depth using a
smaller size bit, running in a liner using drilling tools and
hanging the liner on the intermediate casing (with a overlap
section of the liner with the intermediate casing not less than
50 m), and then cementing and perforating
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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Perforated Completion
Liner Perforation Completion
During liner perforation completion, by reason that the upper
formations have been sealed by the intermediate casing, drilling
fluid compatible with the oil reservoir can be used to drill in the oil
reservoir under a balanced or underbalanced pressure, thus
providing favorable protection of the reservoir. In addition,
perforated liner perforation completion can decrease the weight
of casing string and the cement slurry volume, thus decreasing the
completion cost. At present, oil and gas wells with a greater depth
are mostly completed by this method.
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 Fig. 3. Liner Perforation Completion
(Source: Wan Renpu, Advanced Well Completion Engineering)
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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Perforated Completion
Tieback Liner Perforation Completion
Liner perforation completion mentioned earlier is only
suitable for oil and gas wells with a medium or low
pressure. Under the conditions of no packer or
malfunctioning of packer on the tubing string, the
intermediate casing functions practically as a
production casing and has difficulty withstanding high
pressure of oil and gas.
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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Perforated Completion
Tieback Liner Perforation Completion
Currently, liner tieback perforation completion is commonly
applied to deep and ultradeep oil and gas wells and to high-
pressure and superhigh pressure oil and gas wells and includes
generally running liner in, cementing, running in production
casing to tie back liner, cementing into intermediate casing-
production casing annulus under atmospheric pressure and
returning cement slurry to the surface, and then perforating at
the liner
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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Perforated Completion
Tieback Liner Perforation Completion
thus ensuring the cementing quality at the oil reservoir and
throughout the whole wellbore above the oil reservoir and
achieving safe production of the oil and gas well. If the liner is
a screen pipe, the procedure is the same as just mentioned,
but perforating is unnecessary.

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 Fig. 4. Tieback Liner Perforation Completion
(Source: Wan Renpu, Advanced Well Completion Engineering)
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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Perforated Completion
Perforated completion is applicable to most oil reservoirs. The
specific service conditions are listed in Table 2-13 later on in
this chapter.

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Outline
• Requirements of Well Completion Mode
• Well Completion Modes
• Perforated Completion
• Open Hole Completion
• Slotted Liner
• Gravel Pack

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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Open Hole Completion
Open hole completion means that the oil reservoir is
completely exposed during completion of a straight or
horizontal well. There are two types of procedures for open
hole completion.

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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Open Hole Completion
1. After drilling to the top of the oil reservoir, the
intermediate casing is run in and the well is cemented.
After the cement slurry is returned to the predetermined
design height, a bit with a smaller diameter is run in
through the intermediate casing, and the cement plug is
drilled through. Then the oil reservoir is drilled in to the
design depth and the well is completed (Figure 5).

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 Fig. 5. Initial Open Hole Completion
(Source: Wan Renpu, Advanced Well Completion Engineering)
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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Open Hole Completion
Open hole completion is also suitable for some thick oil
reservoirs. If a gas cap on the top or a water-bearing bed
near the top boundary exists, the intermediate casing may
be run across the oil–gas interface and the upper part of
the oil reservoir is sealed and then open hole completion
follows. If necessary, the oil-bearing interval is perforated.
This type of well completion is known as composite well
completion

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 Fig. 6. Composite Open Hole Completion
(Source: Wan Renpu, Advanced Well Completion Engineering)

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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Open Hole Completion
2. The bit is not changed. The oil reservoir is drilled directly
through to the design depth, the intermediate casing is run
to the top of the oil reservoir, and the well is cemented.
During cementing, the oil reservoir is padded with sand in
order to prevent the oil reservoir below the casing shoe
from damaging by cement slurry;

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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Open Hole Completion
the drilling fluid with low fluid loss and high viscosity is
displaced in order to prevent the cement slurry from
settling; or an external casing packer and cement stinger
are set at the lower part of the casing in order to retain the
cement slurry in the annulus and prevent the cement slurry
from settling. During well completion using this procedure,
the target can be drilled through using a set of drilling tools.

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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Open Hole Completion
However, after the target is drilled through, the intermediate
casing should be further run in and the well should be
cemented, the cement plug should be drilled, and then the
well should be redrifted. Under normal conditions, this
procedure is not applied due to the complicated operating
sequence, long duration, serious formation damage, and
possible formation collapse (see Figure 7).

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 Fig. 7. Final Open Hole Completion
(Source: Wan Renpu, Advanced Well Completion Engineering)
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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Open Hole Completion
In general, in the same oil and gas reservoirs, the daily
production rate of the open hole completion well is higher in
the initial period; however, after a time, the daily production
rate of the casing perforation completion well is basically the
same as that of the open hole completion well,

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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Open Hole Completion
and finally cumulative production of the casing perforation
completion well is yet higher than that of the open hole
completion well. Casing perforation completion is favorable to
conducting stimulation and various downhole operations and
helpful in stabilized production of the oil and gas field.

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Outline
• Requirements of Well Completion Mode
• Well Completion Modes
• Perforated Completion
• Open Hole Completion
• Slotted Liner
• Gravel Pack

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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Slotted Liner Completion
There are two types of slotted liner completion:
1. Slotted liner completion
2. Hook-Wall slotted liner completion

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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Slotted Liner Completion
1. In Slotted Liner Completion, After drilling through the oil
reservoir using same size bit, a liner at the bottom of casing
string is run to the position and the well is cemented using
external casing packer and cement stinger to isolate
annulus above top boundary of oil reservoir

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 Fig. 8 – Slotted Liner Completion
(Source: Wan Renpu, Advanced Well Completion Engineering)
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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Slotted Liner Completion
2. In Hook-Wall Slotted Liner Completion, Intermediate
casing is run and cemented after drilling to the top of
reservoir. Reservoir is the drilled with smaller bit, then the
liner is hung on the wall of intermediate casing by using the
liner hanger which also isolate liner-casing annulus.

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 Fig. 9 – Hook-wall Slotted Liner Completion
(Source: Wan Renpu, Advanced Well Completion Engineering)
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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Slotted Liner Completion
Factor to consider in slotted liner completion:
1. Shape of slot
2. Width of slot opening
3. Arrangement of slot
4. Size of slotted liner

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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Slotted Liner Completion
Factor to consider in slotted liner completion:
5. Length of slot
6. Quantity of slot
7. Slot cutting of liner

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Outline
• Requirements of Well Completion Mode
• Well Completion Modes
• Perforated Completion
• Open Hole Completion
• Slotted Liner
• Gravel Pack

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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Gravel Pack Completion
Generally adopted toward unconsolidated formations with
serious sand production. First, a wire-wrapped screen is run to
reservoir, then gravel selected at surface is pumped to annulus
between the screen and borehole or between screen and
casing using packing fluid.

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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Gravel Pack Completion
Reason of using wire-wrapped screen instead of slotted liner:
1. Larger applicable range
2. Continous gap and self-cleaning action
3. Made of stainless steel wire with strong corrosion
resistance, long service life, and high economic benefit

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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Gravel Pack Completion
There are two types of gravel pack completion:
1. Open hole gravel pack completion
2. Casing gravel pack completion

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 Fig. 10 – Open Hole Gravel Pack Completion
(Source: Wan Renpu, Advanced Well Completion Engineering)
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 Fig. 11 – Casing Gravel Pack Completion
(Source: Wan Renpu, Advanced Well Completion Engineering)
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Well Completion Modes (Cont’d)
Gravel Quality Requirements
1. Gravel grain diameter selection
2. Qualified degree of gravel size
3. Strength of gravel
4. Sphericity and psephicity of gravel
5. Acid solubility of gravel
6. Conglomeration of gravel

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Reference
Renpu, W. “Advanced Well Completion Engineering”. Gulf
Professional Publishing. US.A. 2011.

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