Offshore in the Middle East, a client needed to remove a permanent bridge plug on wireline in order to re-establish flow from the lower zones. As it was imperative to perform the operation on wireline, the client decided Welltec® would be the best solution. The alternative would have been to mobilize a full coiled tubing unit or a rig, which would have been far more laborious.

Prior to the job, a test was setup at Welltec headquarters simulating the downhole conditions in order to find the optimal customized solution to mill out the permanent bridge plug. It was then
decided to deploy the Well Miller® 3 1/8”, Well Tractor® 3 1/8” XR (Extended Reach)
and Well Stroker® 3 1/8”.

After extensive testing, the intervention strategy involved a 3 step solution:
• Milling out the top ring of the permanent bridge plug
• Milling out the back-up ring on the plug
• Pushing the plug mandrel down

The Well Tractor and Well Miller were applied to mill out the cement plug after
which the Well Stroker was run in hole to push the plug down.

The permanent bridge plug removal took four runs, which were completed in 36 hours (from rig-up to rig-down). The actual time to mill the plug was 3 hours. Very importantly, there was no lost time experienced during the operation and it could be performed as a rig-less intervention.