Getting Past the Deepest Barrier Using Plasma Based Punctures: A Case Study on the Mature Panna Field, Western Offshore, India

Abstract

Abstract Panna field is located in the western offshore region of India and produces oil and gas from Middle Eocene and Early Oligocene Bassein limestone. Production is taken mostly through 3 ½" or 4 ½" tubing through a packer set in 7″ liner. The Panna-Mukta-Tapti Joint Venture (PMT JV) took up a plan to revive wells addressing well integrity issues and limitations associated with old completion jewelry for increasing the production. Work-over campaign was planned for four wells on PB and three wells on PC platform to enhance production. The plan was to cut and retrieve the old completion and tubing above the 7″ permanent packer and install improved completion, having facilities of Permanent Down Hole Gauges (PDHG), Gas Lift Mandrel (GLM) and Chemical Injection Mandrel (CIM) through an additional packer set in 9-5/8″ casing. In line with two barrier philosophy, two plugs were set inside the production tubing, one at TRSSV (shallow-set) and another one below the production packer (deep-set). The plug below the production packer doubled-up to also hold back the workover fluid, which may have hampered the productivity of an already sub-hydrostatic reservoir, if losses occurred. However, at the end of workover operations, the retrieval of this deep set plug could not be done even after various attempts and spending valuable rig time. This problem was faced with three out of the first four wells, which proved to be a challenge and forced the team to devise a new strategy for remaining wells. At this point, an ingenious solution was devised to employ Plasma Based Punctures (PBP) to puncture the tubing in the limited space between the packer and the deep set plug to kick back the wells into production. Rig based PBP operations were carried out on two PC wells and Rig less PBP operations were carried out on three PB wells to get them online post work over operation. This resulted in saving several hours of rig time as the deep set plugs could not be retrieved in the conventional planned slick line operations. This paper intends to highlight the challenges faced, and how PBP proved to be the optimum solution, by simplifying operations and ensuring the timely delivery of production. The PBP operations proved viable through savings on energy, resources, time and cost associated with work-over jobs. The potential savings were roughly 780,000 bbls of oil which were significant for the aging asset. It is therefore, a potent alternative to other costly solutions in a scenario that often fails to deliver objectives, as happened in this campaign.