Wellbore Data: A Wealth of Detail to Guide Completion Strategy
In addition to opens in a new windowseismic surveys that characterize hydrocarbon resources, wellbore data such as logs, gamma ray, and core analyses give engineers a detailed understanding of geology in the completion zone. Combining relevant wellbore data with subsurface data and visualizing it in 3D enables engineers to design the overall completion process by:
- determining how accurately the wellbore has reached and penetrated its target
- locating the production zone in relation to the overall reservoir structure to calculate the ideal number of perforation stages
- understanding the formation rock, its lithology, permeability, and porosity to determine if stimulation treatments are needed
- using data from nearby wells to see how those completions have historically affected oil production
- planning the types, number, and quantities of required production resources such as tubing, fluids, sand, chemicals, pumps, and safety valves
Evaluating and Planning the Completion Zone
The ability to isolate downhole zones, opens in a new windowreview well logs in context of surrounding geology and nearby wells, and visualize the pros and cons of alternative completion strategies enables completion engineers to make well-informed decisions regarding oil well completions. With a detailed understanding of the completion and production zones—facilitated by the ability to combine, visualize, and analyze the various datasets—completion engineers can collaborate with geologists, geophysicists, and drilling engineers to:
- Specify the appropriate casing or liner characteristics.
- Use well logs to select casing shoe location, specify any extra supports required to ensure casing reliability and safety, and ensure proper placement and cementing in place.
- Determine the maximum completable length, accounting for factors like hardlines, buffers, production top, and dogleg severity.
- Develop the initial perforation plan specifying plug offset, cluster spacing, stages, stage spacing, clusters per stage, and perforations per cluster
- Fine-tune the perforation design using wireline data, including lithology, gamma ray, and gas content.
- Schedule the stage-by-stage perforation and fracking sequence.
- Recommend any required stimulations for low permeability—acidizing, fracturing, nitrogen circulation; specify appropriate proppants.
- Proactively plan mitigations for potential restrictions such as formation damage, clays, and solids that impede fluid flows.
Leverage Historical Insight From Nearby Wells
A completion plan can benefit greatly from information on how a reservoir changes over time.
Data Drives Better Oil Well Completions
CoViz 4D, a data visualization analytics software from Dynamic Graphics Inc., gives oil and gas professionals the ability to easily combine, visualize, and analyze all relevant data associated with completion planning. CoViz 4D enables you to explore data relationships, calculate and show inferred data, and analyze how data changes over time, allowing your team to collaboratively make decisions that tailor completion plans to the unique aspects of each reservoir. To learn more about CoViz 4D, contact our team.