Completions are the conduit between hydrocarbon reservoirs and surface facilities. They are a fundamental part of any hydrocarbon field development project. They have to be designed for safely maximising the hydrocarbon recovery from the well and may have to last for many years under ever changing conditions. Issues include: connection with the reservoir rock, avoiding sand production, selecting the correct interval, pumps and other forms of artificial lift, safety and integrity, equipment selection and installation and future well interventions.
This course is focused at taking a basic awareness of wells and completions and expanding it to cover the design process and all the key decisions that are made in completion design. The focus is on the overall design rather than the detail of completion equipment from specific vendors. It assumes some knowledge of general well intervention methods (slickline, coiled tubing, etc.), but does not significantly expand this knowledge – unless these components are required. The course covers land, platform and subsea wells if required.
This course has evolved over 20 years and is maintained up-to-date by the trainers being Completion consultants. Major updates to the material are performed at least once a year.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, the delegate will be able to:
Comprehend overall well completion philosophy.
Understand well completion design process and its best practices.
Recognise common issues on well completion and how to manage them.
Appreciate new well completion techniques and challenges.
Course Methodology
The course includes the book Well Completion Design. Over 700 pages and in full colour, this book is published by Elsevier
Informal lecture
Course handouts
Videos
Exhibit
Practical Group Exercises (20% of time)
Who Should Attend?
Completion, workover, well intervention and drilling engineers and anyone involved in the well and completion design process (e.g. production chemists, reservoir engineers, equipment specialists and subsea engineers). The course is targeted for persons with general wells and oil / gas industry awareness.
Course Outline
Day 1
Types of completions
Inflow performance, skin and formation damage
Perforating
Selection, deployment and interface with rest of completion.
Day 2
Non-conventional wells
Types and when / where to use them (multilaterals, smart (intelligent) wells).
Stimulation and impact on completion and flow performance with coverage of modern horizontal multifrac tools
Open hole, non-sand control completions including open hole packers and horizontal well clean up
Day 3
Sand control
When do you need it, basic types and selection guidelines.
Includes standalone screens, ICDs, various gravel packing techniques, frac packs and expandable screens.
Tubing sizing, flow estimation and liquid loading
Artificial lift
Types and selection criteria, interface with drilling, reservoir and facilities.
Includes design of gas lift and ESPs.
Day 4
Production chemistry impacts on completion, prevention and removal (scales, wax, asphaltene, hydrates, and souring)
Metallurgy, corrosion, and erosion
Metal types and selection of.
Elastomers and plastics
Types and selection of.
Day 5
Tubing stress analysis
Picking the grade and weight of tubing, plus selection criteria for packers and expansion devices.
Interface between tubing stress analysis and casing design.
Completion equipment
Basic types of equipment, reliability and selection criteria for each (tree, safety valve, mandrel, packers, expansion devices etc.)
Completion installation
Importance of wellbore clean-out, function and types of brines, pointers for efficient completion installation.
SAGD, CO2 sequestration, CBM
About Expert Trainer
Expert Trainer is an author and consultant on well completion design with over 30 years of experience in Oil & Gas industry. He has delivered over 300 training sessions around the world for 40 clients in 40+ countries.
A first-class degree in geophysics and a master’s degree in Petroleum Engineering was a prelude to 6 years with BP as a petroleum engineer. Expert Trainer left BP and following a short spell in Camco, jointly founded ICE Energy.
After 6 years of completions and petroleum engineering consultancy, knowledge management and technical training, ICE Energy merged with TRACS International where he continued with engineering studies, leading integrated teams and developing / delivering training courses.
Expert Trainer now actively works and uses his thirty years of completions related experience to provide impartial advice and expertise to oil / gas companies, service companies and potential investors.