Reducing the Impact of Experience Gap and Increasing Service Delivery by Automating the Coiled Tubing Intervention

Abstract

Abstract The current coiled tubing (CT) industry as know is changing as a major service experience shift is being experienced; the generational crew-change is ongoing; the net result is a reliance on a smaller pool of qualified personnel. From a historical root-cause analysis across a variety of industries, we can contribute the human factor to more than 50% of Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) and service delivery incidents. The solution presented in this paper highlights mitigating this potential risk by introducing several degrees of automation into CT interventions. The foundation of the human-centered automation approach revolves around a software suite that incorporates pre-job modelling, real-time operational feedback, and active control of surface equipment during CT interventions. This approach updates operational parameters, to enhance safety and efficiency, and to increase the certainty of success. This paper describes the process of bringing together the pre-job simulation with well intervention operating limits and real-time data acquisition, resulting in an automated programmable logic controllers (PLC) driven intervention that can intervene if/when deviations from job design occur. Five case histories are reviewed, and the benefits confirmed during field operations are presented. These findings outline the versatility of the automated system, resulting in the predictability of successful operations for operators.