Multilateral Jetting Technology Results in Increased Production in Offshore Field

A well offshore Abu Dhabi was deemed a success despite deployment challenges during the lower completion phase. Opportunities to address these challenges existed for a succeeding well, and in the search for improvement to the productivity index (PI), multilateral acid-jetting technology was adopted as a more-effective approach than typical drainage methods. Following successful adoption of this technology, the well has been producing for 1 year at the time of writing with positive results.

Introduction

The subject reservoir consists of a carbonate multilayer formation with differing porosities and permeabilities. The conventional method to inject or produce from these layers is by drilling slanted or horizontal holes followed by acidizing using conventional 15 or 28% hydrochloric acid (HCl). These holes sometimes do not meet the target because of low productivity (high drawdown) caused by tight reservoirs with less surface contact even after acidizing because the acid tends to propagate more in the highly permeable streaks than in the low-permeability ones.