Unlocking Hydrocarbon Potential in Tight Gas Reservoir in Onshore Abu Dhabi Through Different Completion Technologies

Abstract

Abstract This paper will discuss some case studies on how to unlock the tight gas reservoirs potential in onshore field of Abu Dhabi through different drilling/completion strategies. Various technologies are tested i.e., Underbalanced Coiled Tubing Drilling (UBCTD), Smart Liner (LEL), Hydraulic Fracking (HF) and Fishbones (FB). The well performances after technology application are then evaluated to see any benefit from completion technology deployments to increase the production. The selection of wells for technology implementation was carried out; 3 wells for Hydraulic Fracking, 1 well for LEL, 1 well for UBCTD and 1 well for FB. The technology implementation was preferentially applied on new wells because it gives better customization to design and implement completion technology tailored to the specific reservoir conditions and production requirements. In addition, retrofitting the existing wells with advanced completion can be more challenging and costly, making it more impractical although in certain case it can be justifiable. Observation reveals that the laterals placement on the right hydrocarbon sweetspots are the utmost important key element of the successful well production. The application of drilling technique/new advanced well completion technologies will increase the chance of production success. Thorough evaluation was performed to learn what extent the application of the techniques can improve the production. The finding reveals that the success story is as the result of combination of good lateral placement technique in the potential sweetspots and the type of the technology selected. So far pilot well with UBCTD technology has been found to have the most remarkable success among other pilot wells. Investigations were also performed to find-out what can be wrong with the failed wells with the technology deployment. The analytical study also reveals that the advanced well completion technology in a new single horizontal well can outperform the performance of a conventional multilateral well and even it can double the production of a single open-hole lateral well with non-technologies implementation at this time.