A client was facing scale build up issues in several fields, which had limited productivity and restricted well access. Traditional pump-down operations were not feasible due to a sensitive reservoir that would not be able to handle excessive amounts of fluids. Instead, Welltec® was able to deliver a non-intrusive, e-line solution to remove the scale and add new perforations.

Four pilot wells were chosen, in the first of which a minimum ID of 3.5” was needed to run the perforating equipment, which meant that two nipple profiles also had to be removed.

Welltec mobilized a complete solution consisting of a Well Tractor®, Well Stroker®, Well Miller® and Well Cleaner® to the small platform offshore Indonesia.

The first part of the operation was to remove the nipple profiles in order to gain access. The Well Stroker and Well Miller Nipple Profile Removal (NPR) were used and effectively removed both nipples in two runs.

With the nipple profiles out of the way, the Well Tractor and Well Miller for Scale Removal were run in hole and quickly removed the scale that was restricting access to new perforations being created.

Finally, the Well Cleaner was run in hole to extract the remaining cuttings and recover them to surface for further analysis. As this was the first scale sample retrieved, the client was able to confirm what type of scale was present in the field and thus plan future interventions based on this information.

After Welltec had successfully completed the operation, the client was able to perforate the zones below the previous hold-up depth and increase well production from 1.13 MMSCF to 3.8 MMSCF.

The entire operation was completed in six days with a considerably smaller footprint than alternative situations. The client’s highest interest was to minimize/prevent damage to the formation, which Welltec delivered by performing scale removal without disturbing the reservoir – akin to keyhole surgery.