Fifty-six i-FRAC sleeves were opened with three balls on the Norwegian shelf.
Well technology company i-TEC has developed an innovative lower completion ball drop sleeve system which it claims can bring wells in tight formations online much more quickly than other methods. The company says its i-Frac system recently reduced stimulation of a North Sea well on the Norwegian Continental Shelf – in early paleocene and late cretaceous, carbonate formations – to just 11/2 days, allowing for more than 20 sleeves per stage to be installed in a cemented liner and opened sequentially with a single ball. A number of stages can be run in a single well.
On the Norwegian shelf, i-TEC was able to open 56 valves in three zones by dropping only three balls. Instead of using the most common ‘plug and perf’ technique, i-TEC used different size balls which were pumped into the well to open all the valves in each zone. This technology also enables the inclusion of a far greater number of valves as compared to alternative solutions.
‘Preparing a well for production is a costly and complicated undertaking,’ stressed i-TE C chief executive Roger Antonsen. ‘[I-Frac] not only adds great value in that you are able to start the production in shorter time, but it also provides a greater reservoir contact, which improves the stimulation of the well.
‘Additionally, the utilization efficiency of the oil reservoir is significantly increased, and our solution also allows for conventional cementing around the production string, which improves the zone isolation.’
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