Project summary
Production well workover and recompletion.
Service categories
- Well engineering & operations
- Project delivery
Project overview
Lochard Energy manages the Iona gas storage and production complex in the Otway Basin. We were engaged by Lochard Energy to manage and supervise the workover and recompletion campaign for their Iona 3 & 4 gas injection / withdrawal wells within the Iona complex. The wells were targeted for recompletion to increase their maximum rates of injection / withdrawal to meet gas demands.
Wellsafe services
The workover and recompletion program was conducted within the Iona Gas Plant. A temporary fence was erected to delineate the workover program from simultaneous production and maintenance operations.
For each of the wells, we delivered the program utilising the drilling contractor Wild Desert. The program consisted of the following steps:
- Removal of the existing 5.5″ completion and production packer,
- Clean-up of the well-bore production casing,
- Evaluation of the condition of the production casing and cement with electronic logs,
- Installation of a permanent downhole gauge,
- Recompletion of the wells with 7″ tubing to improve production performance and integrity of the well in the long term, and
- Clean-up of the wells to a level that met production team requirements.
Performance outcome
The Iona 3 & 4 workover and recompletion program was conducted successfully over 31 days during April and May in 2017.
Key highlights of the project:
- The successful application of Halliburton K‐Max™ protecting the reservoir sands for the duration of each workover.
- The recovery of both packers with mechanical tools without the need to resort to milling or chemical cutting.
- Both new completion strings were run with production packers successfully set, and the downhole pressure gauge (DHPG) and control lines operating as designed.
- Both wells were cleaned up to a level that met pre‐campaign reservoir and production team requirements.
- Clean‐up activities on Iona 4 were conducted off the critical path, thus allowing rig operations to continue on Iona 3, reducing project time and cost.
- All workover operations were conducted in a safe and environmentally-friendly manner, with no accidents or incidents recorded.
- A comprehensive rig acceptance process was implemented prior to commencing full rig operations, and any potential HSE issues were captured and addressed via the HSE action register.
- Several audits were conducted on service companies with no significant shortcomings or non-compliances identified.
