Well Control for CO2Operations:
A Seminar as Part of the Annual CO2 Flooding Conference
Updated 11/20/12
The Midland Center; Downtown Midland, Texas
Wednesday, Dec 5th, 2012
A first-of-a-kind industry-driven seminar will be held beginning at 8:00 am at the Midland Center (MC) in Downtown Midland on Wednesday, Dec 5th with a working lunch and scheduled for wrap-up at 2:30 pm. This is the 15th in a series of seminars and short courses on the technical aspects of CO2 flooding.
Seminar Description: For 40 years now, the Permian Basin region of West Texas and SE New Mexico has been dealing with carbon dioxide injection for enhanced oil recovery. CO2 injection brings with it special challenges because of the nature of CO2, the gas-like viscosity of the fluid, and the pressures involved. The challenges are unique enough that most well control schools dedicated to drilling wells do not relate to many of the actual practices utilized in the CO2 EOR world. With over 5000 Permian Basin injection wells and nearly 8000 U.S wells in CO2 service, a lot of experience has been gained in learning what are the important parameters for controlling wellsite operations. Outside of an internal company course, we believe this Seminar to be the first well control event designed specifically for CO2 operations.
“Kill” techniques vary company to company and field to field. This seminar will address the key well control methods and the factors that companies, both operators and service organizations, consider when remediating an injection or producing well. Things like depth, permeability, maturity of a flood, and time of day are all key factors to consider when rigging up a workover unit. What are the precursor symptoms (and who needs to have the ‘eyes’ to see the evidence) of a possible problem in controlling the well? A section of the Seminar is devoted to case histories where practitioners will discuss aspects of field operations that pertain to well control problems that were averted and those very few that were not.
The subject material is strongly influenced by field experience and audience sharing knowledge will be encouraged during the panel discussion periods. Some key personnel with years of experienced are present for the instruction. Chad McGehee from Hess Corp., Lonnie Ashley from Legado Resources, Kirby Head from Whiting Petroleum, Rebecca Larkin from BOPCO, L.P., and Ken Goldsmith of MudSmith in Midland have graciously committed to come share their knowledge on the subject with the audience.
The Seminar is scheduled for Wednesday, December 5, 2012 at the Midland Center in downtown Midland, Texas. Make plans to attend and get your hotel reservation early as Midland and Odessa are very busy places these days. On-line registration is available at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2441873710.
Course Outline
I. Welcomes & Introduction (20 min)
A. Overview of Session
B. Background of CO2 Flood well control issues1. Differences to Waterflood
2. Common Practices
3. Other (depth, maturity, other framing statements)
4. Reminder to save questions
II. Speaker Session Presentations
A. Major topical coverage
1. Shallow fields (0 – 4000’)
2. Medium depth (4000’ – 7000’)
3. Deep fields (7000’+)
4. Type of killa) Top kill
b) Conventional (Circulate kill fluid to bottom)
c) Live well (“Snub” approach)5. Mud
a) Types – pros and cons
b) Quality Control (QC)
c) Plant / onsite blending and testing
d) Reconditioning
e) Handling gas-cut mudB. Additional topics
1. Safety and environmental
2. New vs. Mature flood
3. Kill weight determination
4. Managing offset injection during well work
5. Injector vs. Producer well control distinctions
6. Daylight vs. 24 hour operations
III. Panel and Audience Discussion and Q&A (1.5 hr.)
A. Lead off topics
1. Lessons Learned
2. Indicators of changing well conditions
3. Potential complications (pulling swelled packer, etc.)
4. Company philosophies/Key practices
IV. Evaluations and Adjourn at 2:30