SPE 99997

Injector-Well Completion Designs for Selectively Waterflooding Up to 18 Zones in a

Multilayered Reservoir: Experiences in the Cerro Dragon Field
Ezequiel Massaglia, SPE, Darío Baldassa, SPE, Carlos Ponce, Bernabé Zalazar – Pan American Energy LLC

Copyright 2006, Society of Petroleum Engineers

The mayor achievement at this point of the process have been
This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2006 SPE/DOE Symposium on Improved Oil successfully running an injector-well completion of a total of
Recovery held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.A., 22–26 April 2006.
19 packers and 18 injector mandrels (with an average of 12
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE Program Committee following review of
information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper, as
packers and 12 mandrels out of 48 completions ran on the first
presented, have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to half of 2005).
correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any
position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Papers presented at
SPE meetings are subject to publication review by Editorial Committees of the Society of
Petroleum Engineers. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper
The objective of this paper is to serve as a reference guide for
for commercial purposes without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is injector-well completion designs in multilayered fields where
prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than
300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous a vertical expansion of the waterflooding projects is intended.
acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper was presented. Write Librarian, SPE, P.O.
Box 833836, Richardson, TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435.
Introduction
Abstract The Cerro Dragón field is located in Golfo San Jorge basin, in
The Cerro Dragon asset, located in the highly mature area of the provinces of Chubut and Santa Cruz, Argentina. It has an
Golfo San Jorge Basin, Argentina, has around 30 producing area of 860,000 km2, being exploited since 1958.
structures; each one containing from 20 to 50 separate, highly The field currently has 2240 oil and gas producing wells with
heterogeneous, reservoir horizons, from 6 to 30 feet thick. an average depth of 7500 feet. Actual production rate (January
From 1999 to 2005 proved reserves increased threefold and 2006) is 90,574 BOPD, 804,170 BFPD and 257 MMscf/D.
non proved reserves increased fourfold, moreover, oil About 46% of the oil production comes from 46 secondary
production grew from 48,000 BOEPD to over 116,000 recovery projects comprising 402 injector wells and a total
BOEPD, largely due to optimization and expansion of water injection rate of 714,000 BWPD. Almost all of the
waterflood projects. injector-wells as well as the producer-wells are completed
The aim of these projects was to increase the water injection with a 5 ½ in. casing.
rate from 248,000 BWPD to 714,000 BWPD along with the
1999 average of 5 reservoirs accessed per injector-well to an Golfo San Jorge Basin is a Mesozoic extensional basin filled
average of 12, with a maximum of 25, in 2005, keeping at the with Jurassic lacustrian and Cretaceous fluvial deposits with
same time the highest possible control over the injected-water Tertiary compression and wrenching superimposed on earlier
flow rate on each layer. extensional features. The main reservoir consists of Middle to
Late Cretaceous sandstones of the Comodoro Rivadavia
In an experimental process started in 2000, injector-well Formation that average about 20 % porosity and 10-50 md
completions were designed and tested in several wells with permeability. A secondary reservoir consisting of altered
different reservoir properties. The experience acquired with tuffaceous sandstones and siltstones is also present in the
the analysis of these completions was used to improve them as upper part of the Cretaceous aged Mina Del Carmen
well as to develop new ones. Today, this process continues, (tuffaceous) Formation. The main hydrocarbon source is the
testing and enhancing new designs to fulfill the needs of the lacustrian shale of the Mid to Lower Cretaceous D-129
upcoming waterflooding projects. Formation. Hydrocarbon traps consist of tilted horst blocks,
faulted anticlines and structurally enhanced stratigraphic
This paper shows the experience acquired from 401 injector- pinch-outs. Oil and gas producing layers are generally found
well completions over the past 6 years, discuss the successes in the Comodoro Rivadavia and Mina Del Carmen Formations
and problems encountered with each completion design under from 600 to 8700 feet deep. There are around 30 producing
different reservoir conditions (i.e. differential pressures structures each containing 20 – 50 separate reservoir horizons,
between layers). In addition, it contains information about the 3 - 26 ft thick. Within many of the structures there is a high
procedures and technology used to reduce the completion set degree of fault induced compartmentalization. In total, there
up cost and to extend its useful life by solving leakage are more than 9000 separate, highly heterogeneous reservoir
problems without replacing the completion installation. units.
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Understanding the benefits of accessing more bottom packer the tubing must be strained up about 3,000 lbf
reservoirs per injector-well and turned right-hand 6 to 8 turns.
Water injection in Cerro Dragon began as early as 1969, but
primarily as a means of water disposal more than an effort to Completion experience
manage reservoir pressure. In 1991 investments on This completion serves perfectly well to isolate and flood
waterflooding projects start growing towards a better reservoir up to 6 zones even nowadays with an average well-head
exploitation, increasing reserves and secondary recovery oil injection pressure of 2500 psi. But having a completion with
production (Fig. 1). more than 5 tension tandem packer is unadvised by the
By 2000 the profitability of the secondary recovery packer’s supplier because of the stress that the packing
investments on the field was well known and, having the element of the upper packer suffer when setting the
global oil price recovered from its 1998 drop down, new completion. The upper packer is the first to have its packing
investments in waterflooding projects were made. This time, element pressed when straining up the tubing, thus, this
at a faster pace, as it can be seen in Fig. 2 by the growth of the packing element rubs against the casing all the way up until all
water injection rate and the amount of injector wells. Not only the lower packers have their packing elements pressed as well.
had the pace of the projects growth changed at that time, but Is for this that the more tension tandem packers the
also their objectives. Up to 2000 waterflooding projects had completion has the more the upper packers’ packing elements
been expanding horizontally but not vertically; from 1991 to will suffer and the more the effectiveness of the seal will be
2000 the average amount of reservoirs acceded per injector- compromised. Also for this is that the upper tension packer
well was fixed at five reservoirs out of and average of 30 has 2 packing elements while all the rest has 1 packing
reservoirs passed over, but didn’t flooded, by the injector-well. element. However the stress the tandem packers’ packing
So from this time on waterflooding project’s objective was to elements will suffer depends too, on some well’s properties
expand vertically as well as horizontally. This way, acceding such as well’s depth, temperature and injection pressure, and
more reservoirs per well, would yield a bigger profit since the this parameters could be so that enable to set in that injector-
well would be more efficient and more reserves would be well more than 5 tandems without having any problem on the
added (from 1999 to 2005 proved reserves were doubled and packing elements. Since 1978 there have been done 356
non proved ones increased fourfold). injector’s completions using these mechanical packers, 143
Fig. 3 shows injector-wells’ average amount of packers, were composed of 7 packers or more and 206 composed of 6
injector mandrels, selectively flooded zones and well’s depth packers or less. 24 % of the firsts had to be re-completed
throughout the years. It can be seen here as well, how from because of the failure of the packing elements seal while only
2000 on, the injector-well’s designs changed radically from an 15% of the seconds had this problem. Our experience tells us
average of 5 packer and 5 injector mandrels design towards a that despite there were cases were a successful completion was
more and more packers and injector mandrels design every achieved with more than 5 tension tandem packers and 1
year. Nowadays new tools are still being experimented with mechanical packer, therefore selectively flooding more than 6
and new completion’s designs developed seeking to improve zones, the completion with these packers is not advisable to
injector-well efficiency by selectively flooding more selectively flood more than 6 zones (1 mechanical packer and
reservoirs. 5 tandem packers; Fig. 4).

Mechanical-set packers’ completion Mechanical and hydraulic packers’ completion

The injector-well completion used from 1978 to 2000 In order to access more reservoirs per injector well in 2000 a
combined a retrievable mechanical production packer with completion combining hydraulic and mechanical packers with
several retrievable tension tandem packers to isolates the tubing fishing On-Off tools was developed and used ever
injection zones. 2.875 in. injector mandrels in between packers since. The tubing on-off tool enabled to increase the number
were used to lodge a wire line-set 1.5 in. valve which enables of packers ran down per injector-well completion by doing so
to control the water flow rate injected to the zone between in stages of an average of 4 to 6 packers and injector mandrels,
packers (Fig. 4). running down the hole and setting each stage separately. Fig.
5 shows a typical 3 stages completion.
Mechanical packer and tandem packer description
Setting mechanisms. The mechanical packer need to be set Completion’s tools description
first as it has an anchoring system and the tension tandem Hydraulic packer. The packer is 5.25 ft long and it is set
packers don’t. The first one is set by rotating the tubing right- by applying hydraulic pressure inside the tubing, moreover,
hand 4 to 5 turns then applying weight and straining up the the setting mechanism works without any movement of the
tubing. With the mechanical packer fixed to the casing, the tubing, enabling simultaneous packer setting in stacked
tubing is strained up with about 20,000 lbf and then hanged installations. Each packer also counts with an anchoring
from the well-head to retain the strain, and in this way, by a system that prevents the packer to move once it is set and
pressing mechanism acting over the packing elements of the fixed to the casing. These two features are particularly useful
tandem packers, an effective seal is obtained. when it is needed to isolate zone very close to each other (13 –
Releasing mechanisms. The tandem packer need to be 16 ft) where the movement of the packer during or after being
released first by slacking off the tubing to release tension set could cause the isolation to fail because of misplacement
applied over the packer and then rotating each packer 1 to 3 of the packers. To release the packer, tension must be applied
turns to the right to lock the setting system, then, to release the
SPE-99997 3

to the tubing with a surface value equal to the addition of the Why to complete the injector-well in separated stages of
tubing weight plus the cut value of the release system. packers
Hydraulic packer with rotational release system. The As it has been stated before the amount of tension tandem
packer is 4.5 ft long and it is set by applying hydraulic packers to be used for an efficient seal to be obtained
pressure to the tubing. It also counts with a setting mechanism shouldn’t exceed 5, so to selectively water-flood more
that works without movement of tubing and an anchoring reservoirs a different kind of packer had to be used. The
device that fixes the packer to the casing once it is set. This hydraulic packer described above was used for this purpose,
enables, as the hydraulic packer before, to fix the packer on a but beside its advantages, discussed above, this packer also
very precise depth. The packer’s release system works like the has a limitation. As its release system requires to strain up the
mechanical packer’s seen before, the tubing must be strained tubing to a certain cut value, when used stacked, the cut value
up about 3,000 lbf over tubing weight and then turned right- of each packer on the completion could add up and exceed the
hand 6 to 8 turns. pulling capability of the rig tower operating the completion.
Tension tandem packer. This is the same packer described The amount of hydraulic packers that can be stacked together
previously with a length of 1.64 ft. In this completion, instead in a certain length depends on several factors. A 2.375 in.
of using a mechanical packer as the anchoring point to strain tubing stretch more than a 2.785 in. tubing under the same
up the tubing and set the tension tandem packers, the hydraulic strain thus a completion with the first tubing could have the
packer with rotational release system is used. There are two packers closer to each other without having the cutting value
main reasons to use this packer and not other, first it doesn’t of the release system adding straight up. Also for the same
need any movement of the tubing to be set and fixed to the reason the larger the separation between packers the more
casing where the mechanical packer does need it and that packers that can be stacked since the tubing will stretch more
movement can cause the on-off tool to be disconnected and under the same strain. The cut value of the release system is
leak. The second reason is that the rotational release system configurable and this affects as well the minimum separation
enables to strain up the tubing as necessary, in order to set the limit. But despite the limitation imposed by the release system
tandem packers, without any risk of releasing the packer; the there is a way to still ran down as many packers as necessary
hydraulic packer released by straining the tubing could not be by using the on-off tool described before and setting each
used for this purpose. stage separately. In this way, each stage is fixed to the casing
Tubing fishing On-Off Tool. It enables tubing connection and stays mechanically free from one another, so that non
and disconnection, keeping a seal at connection position. It is strain is transmitted from one stage to the other when the
full-bore and designed to leave tubing either with weight, installation needs to be released. Of course, the downside of
tension or neutral. A "J" system enables for connecting the this solution is that for each stage, one tubing run of the rig
tubing and hanging the lower string from the upper string. tower is needed thus raising the cost of the completion.
When used on injector-well completions to connect one stage
to the other, once the packers of the first stage are set and Looking to address and diminished this side effect, by the end
fixed to the casing the upper stage is ran down the hole with a of 2004 an automatic on-off tool, was developed. This on-off
flat connector instead of a “J” connector at the lower part of tool differ from the standard on-off in that it doesn’t need the
the stage, so that an effective seal can be obtained between the tubing to be rotated in any direction to connect or disconnect
two stages while leaving the above stage mechanically free the tubing, instead, the connection and disconnection
from the below stage. In this case, to pick up the lower stage, operation is done by simply applying weight over the on-off
it is needed to pull out the upper stage first and then set a “J” and then pulling the tubing up. It counts with an automatic “J”
connector on the tubing and run this down to fish the lower system that when weight is applied the on-off automatically
stage. connect the tubings, and when weight is applied again the “J”
Injector Mandrels. Mainly used are the 2.375 in. injector system shift to the disconnect position, maintaining the seal
mandrels with a 1.5 in. regulator valve pocket. Also used for until the upper tubing is pulled up. This grants the ability to
some wells are the 2.875 in. mandrels with an either 1.5 in. or run two stages of a selective installation in only one tubing run
1 in. valve-pocket as well as the 2.375 in. mandrel with a 1 in. because it eliminates the need to use a flat connector to obtain
pocket. The reason for using mostly 2.375 x 1.5 mandrels the mechanical freeness between the upper and lower stage
responses to the fact that most of the wells have a 5.5 in. while keeping the hydraulic seal (mechanical freeness is
casing. 2.875 x 1.5 mandrels are used in 7 in. casing wells (26 needed to avoid release cut values of both stages’ packers
out of the 402 injector-wells on the field have a 7 in. casing). adding up). To set a two stages completion using this on-off,
Mandrels with 1 in. valve pocket are used for wells with the bottom stage of packers needs to be set first by applying
restrictions problems where a lesser diameter of the tools is hydraulic pressure inside the tubing, thus all the packer must
preferred in order to be able to pass through these restrictions be configured for that purpose, then with the lower stage fixed
(dog legs, casing damage). However 1.5 in. valve-pocket to the casing, weight must be applied so that the “J” system of
mandrels are preferred, whenever it is possible, because of the the on-off tool at the bottom end of the upper stage shift to the
greater robustness of the 1.5 in. valves which made the wire- disconnect position, leaving the upper tubing mechanically
line operations easier and more efficient. free from the lower tubing, then without pulling the tubing up,
in order to maintain the on-off tool hydraulic seal, the rest of
the packers can be set by applying hydraulic pressure. To
summarize, what this automatic on-off tool makes possible is
to reduce the runs needed for the completion to one per every
4 SPE-99997

two stages of the selective installation. This tool has been Hydraulic packers’ completion
being used over every completion done, ever since it was The firsts packers to be experimented with at the beginning of
developed, as a standard to reduce completions costs. 2004 were two hydraulic packers, one of them with an
anchoring mechanism and very similar to the one used in the
Completion experience hydraulic-mechanical completion but shorter (hydraulic
Since the year 2000 there have been done 173 injector’s packer used on the hydraulic-mechanical completion is 6.3 ft
completions using this design. From 2000 to 2003 90 length) and the other one without any anchoring system.
completions were done, 85 with two stages and an average of
10 packers and 5 completions with 3 stages and an average of Completion’s tools description
13 packers. In 2004 and 2005 the aim was to increase even Hydraulic packer. A 4 ft length packer with and anchoring
more the number of selectively flooded zones (Fig. 3). So out system and a setting mechanism that works, without any
of 83 injector-wells completed with this design, there were 46 movement of the tubing, by applying hydraulic pressure inside
with 2 stages and an average of 10 packers, 34 with 3 stages it. To release the packer, enough tension must be applied to
and an average of 14 packers, and 3 were completed with 4 the tubing in order to cut the release-mechanism’s shear-
stages, 2 with 16 packers and one completed in 01/26/2005 screws.
with the maximum number of packers ran down by this kind
of completion so far, which is 19 packers with 18 injector Hydraulic tandem packer. This is almost the same packer
mandrels, thus selectively flooding 18 zones. as the one described above but without the anchoring system
The average completion design used over this 173 which left the packer with a total length of 2.8 ft. The lack of
completions done with this tools since 2000 consist of an an anchoring device is why this packer is designated as a
upper stage combining one hydraulic packer, rotationally tandem packer. Also is this lack of anchoring which enable
released, with 5 tension tandem packers; and one, two or three this packer to be stalked in any necessary amount, according
lower stages, as necessary, each assembled with 4 hydraulic to the zones to isolate. Not having an anchoring system the
packers as seen in Fig. 5. In between packers, an injector only force opposing to the straining of the tubing during the
mandrel with its valve is used to regulate de injection rate. The release operation is the friction of the packing elements
reason for using tension tandem packers on the upper stage against the casing, this force is not a problem to be overcome
instead of just adding another hydraulic packer’s stage is by a rig tower pulling up, so the tandem packers will be
solely economic. Tension tandem packers work fine and they eventually moved up till the cut values are reached and they
are more economical than the hydraulic packers. are released, therefore the sum of the cutting values of each
Technically the design doesn’t have any limitation in the packer won’t happen in this kind of selective installation.
number of packers that can be run, while it is done by adding
more stages of hydraulic packers; only one stage of tension Completion experience
tandem packers can be used since they need the tubing to be The first completion design tried out with these packers
strained up and hang from the well head to be set. However combined two hydraulic packers on the ends of the selective
each stage increases the cost of the completion, even using the installation with several hydraulic tandem packers in between
automatic on-off tool, so is a matter of cost / benefit solution them as shown in Fig. 6. The setting operation consists of the
since, as it will be presented ahead in this paper, there are bottom hydraulic packer being set and fixed to the casing and
other completions more suitable for selectively water-flooding then straining up the tubing about 6,000 lbf and setting all the
a large number of zones. rest of the hydraulic tandem packers and fixing the upper
hydraulic packer. To do this, bottom packer’s release system
Last two years completions development cut value has to be smaller than the rest of the other packers
During 2004 and 2005 several completion designs using cut value.
different kind of packers were tried out and experimented with Since most of the packers in this completion design are
looking forward to develop a completion capable of tandem packers of only 2.8 ft, the selective injection
selectively flood the same amount of zones the hydraulic- installation end up having a much greater flexibility than the
mechanical completion does, but without the need to complete mechanical-hydraulic completion seen before, therefore
the well in separate tubing runs. Another drawback of the enables to pass through casing restrictions, completing
hydraulic-mechanical completion is the length of the hydraulic injector-wells otherwise impossible to complete.
packers with anchoring system, this makes the whole Technically there is no limit in the amount of tandem packers
installation more rigid which could be a problem when it is to be used in between the two anchored packers but, as it will
been ran down a hole with dog legs or casing’s damages. be explained ahead, there are some considerations regarding
Therefore, the aim also was to develop a reliable completion zone’s pressures to take into account when deciding whether
which could be more flexible to run pass dog legs and/or to use this design or not. The maximum number of hydraulic
casing’s damages restricting the path. Having many of the tandems used so far in a completion was 12, with 2 hydraulic
injector-wells been converted from old producer-wells packers, one on each end of the selective installation (Fig. 6).
restricting casing’s damages is a recurrent problem during the This completion ran down the 06/06/2004 on Z-132 well is
injector-well completions in Cerro Dragon field. still working perfectly fine without any leakage problem.
However, despite the capability of this completion to run
down as many packers as needed in only 1 stage, it was found
useful to split the completion in 2 stages, connecting them by
SPE-99997 5

an automatic on-off tool and using anchoring hydraulic the water column height only. When the pressures of the zones
packers in both ends of each stage as shown in Fig. 7. With to flood are other than this, detailed calculations of the
this, still only one run of the rig tower is needed to set the resulting forces over the packers should be done before
selective installation and in addition, having an on-off tool in deciding to use this completion in order to assure its
the middle of the installation, enables to pull out, repair and effectiveness. If the zones’ pressures are not well known it is
run back down the upper stage, in case any problem appear on not advisable to use this type of completion. In general, this
it, without having to move the lower stage. This is an completion is used in Cerro Dragon for mature waterflooding
additional benefit that could be exploited or not, but always projects where pressures are stabilized and not used for
good to have it since the cost involved is only the cost of the injector-well completions where the waterflooding project is
automatic on-off tool and the gain is not having to release and being vertically expanded.
re-set a perfectly working part of a waterflooding selective
installation. To understand the significance of this benefit it is Multiple anchoring-packers completion design
good to remind here that most of the injector-wells in Cerro Analyzing the behavior of the 2 3/8 in. tubing under tension
Dragon are aged wells, about 20 years old, and each time they and compression forces along with the packer supplier’s
are completed and tools pass down and up through the upper technical stuff, a new completion design was develop where
part of the casing where there is no cement behind it, there is a anchored packers must be placed at a distance from each other
chance of damaging it and causing a restriction so no more not farther than 689 ft and not closer than 197 ft. The first
tools could be deployed thus leaving the well unusable. This length restriction attends the buckling problem by assuring a
explains why a mean to diminish the amount of tools passing length between anchored points shorter enough so that not any
through the casing becomes a benefit in this field. tandem, between those two anchored points, could be pushed
The experience done with this kind of completion in Cerro enough to compress the tubing to the point it would buckle.
Dragon consists of 32 completions ran down along 2004 and The distance was calculated for 2 3/8 in. tubing under a
2005. compression force generated by the thrust of a 2 3/8 in.
tandem packer sealing a 5 ½ in. casing under 1500 psi of
Limitation of the anchored ends design differential pressure. The second length restriction attends the
Out of these 32 completions done following the design adding up of the release system’s cut value problem, and it is
explained, 15 of them had to be re-completed because of a the minimum distance between anchored packers, calculated
failure on the selective installation. Nine of the selective to be able to release the installation having a cut value for each
installation failures were passage restriction inside the 2 3/8 packer of 30,000 lbf.
in. tubing, making impossible for the wire-line tools to pass A scheme of this completion design can be seen in Fig. 8. The
through the selective installation and therefore, to measure and ends of each stage could have whether anchored hydraulic
/ or regulate the flow rate passing through each injector packers or tandem hydraulic packers but it is advisable to have
mandrel. The other 6 failures were leakage through one of the anchored packers above and below the tubing on-off tool
hydraulic packers and defective seal of the packing elements. connecting two stages in order to avoid the risk of a tandem
From the analysis of each of the fifteen wells having the same packer moving and disconnecting the on-off tool and the
failure it was found out that there was a common factor in resultant leaking problem.
those 15 wells that wasn’t present on the rest of the wells From out of sixteen injector-wells completed following this
where the completions worked fine. This factor was that at the design 6 had to be re-completed because of leakages through
completion of these 15 wells new zones were opened packers and failure of the packing elements’ seal. The
(perforated) to be flooded together with other zones already buckling problem of the 2 3/8 in. tubing was solved but
been flooded by a previous installation, meaning that these another problem arose. Analyzing these wells it was
wells’ completions were vertical expansions of already understood that the cause of the problem was, again, the
existing injector-wells. Then, as each zone is isolated by differential pressure acting over the hydraulic tandem packers.
packers, some of the packers ended up by being in between a The tension force applied over the tubing by a tandem packer
zone pressurized by years of water injection and a zone with were, in these wells, in between certain zones, enough to reach
normal or below normal reservoir pressure, if already being the release system’s cut value of the packers below that
produced in a nearby producer-well. The packer was, tandem packer, thus releasing that packer and losing its seal.
therefore, subject to differential pressures, and when this This was the reason why 6 of 16 completions failed
difference of pressures was present in between a tandem prematurely.
packer (none anchoring system) that packer acted as a piston Therefore, this design could be used, without having any
moving towards the zone with smaller pressure. Hence if the buckling problem, to complete wells where the differential
lesser pressure zone is the one above the tandem packer, then pressure in certain zones is larger than normal but not enough
the tubing above it will be subject to a compression force and to thrust the tandem packers with the necessary strain to
the tubing below it to a strain force. This compression forces release the other packers. For Cerro Dragon’s injector-wells
over the tubing whether downward or upward makes the this is a differential pressure lesser than 1500 psi, this is, using
tubing to buckle, as it was observed from several of the 2 3/8 in. packers with their release system set for 30,000 lbf
tubings pulled out of each of the 15 wells. running in a 5 ½ in. casing. Another option could be to
Knowing this limitation, the design could be perfectly used for identify those zones where differential pressure could reach
waterflooding projects where the reservoir pressures are this value and use anchored packers to isolate those zones
normal and differential pressure between zones correspond to
6 SPE-99997

instead of tandems; only if the distance between zones enables present. Furthermore, the use of more tools derives as well on
to do so. a more expensive completion.
Again, if the zones’ pressures are not well known it is not To conclude, the completion worked as expected fulfilling part
advisable to use this type of completion because of the high of the requirements, but because the completion to be
risk of failure due to the causes already explained. presented next, counts with the same advantages and some
more, is better recommended instead.
Hydraulic packers with rotational release system’s
completion Next step on hydraulic-set rotationally-released completion
By the start of 2005 the limitations of the hydraulic packers’ design
completion described before were well known and the focus Having the experience made from the previous completion
was on the development of a completion that offered the same design the next step was to work along with a local tool’s
advantages of that hydraulic completion, less stages, more provider to obtain the tools for a completion which could
packers and more flexibility, but also was able to withstand attend the specific requirements of being able to withstand
any differential pressure existing between zones. differential pressures; to isolate as many zones as needed,
running the completion in only one tubing run; being flexible
First hydraulic-set rotationally-released completion design and being economical. Thus a new packer and on-off tubing
The first step towards these objectives was a selective tool was developed.
installation assembled totally by hydraulic packers with
rotational release system (same packers described previously Completion’s tools description
on this paper) and a telescopic joint below each packer (Fig. Hydraulic-set rotationally-released packer with split
9). The reason for using a telescopic joint below each packer mandrel. This packer is 4.6 ft long, set by applying hydraulic
is that since the release system of the packer requires to turn pressure inside the tubing without any movement of it and also
the tubing right-hand 6 to 8 turns, if several packers had to be counts with an anchoring system to be fixed to the casing once
released at once and no telescopic joints were present, all the set. To release it, tubing weight must be set on neutral at the
torsion forces need to release each packer would add up packer depth and then turn it right-hand 3/4 to 1 turn. One of
together making the final torsion force required too high for the differences with the previously seen packer is that this one,
the rig tower to achieve and thus, the selective installation only needs 3/4 to 1 turn to be released instead of 6 to 8,
impossible to release. making the selective installation easier to be released. The
Telescopic joint, when closed (weight applied), enables the other difference is the packer’s split mandrel, which enable to
tubing to be rotated freely, no torsion is transmitted from the keep the tubing above the packer without transferring
upper tubing to the lower one, and when opened (tubing rotational movement to the tubing below until that packer is
strained up) torsion is transmitted. released. This characteristic enables the packers to be released
Setting operation. To set this completion, the bottom one by one without the problem of torsion forces adding up,
packer has to be set first by applying enough hydraulic therefore, an injector-well could be completed with as many of
pressure inside the tubing, then weight has to be applied for all these packers as needed in only one tubing run and without the
the telescopic joints to get closed and finally the rest of the need of telescopic joints.
packers should be set by applying a higher value of hydraulic Hydraulic-set rotationally-released tandem packer with
pressure. To set the bottom packer before the rest of the split mandrel. This is the same packer as the one described
packers, the bottom packer’s setting value must be set below above without the anchoring system, thus the packer length is
the rest of the packer’s value. of 3.5 ft.
Rotating on-off tool. This tubing on-off tool operates in
Completion experience the same exact way as the standard on off tool explained
Three completions were done following this design on wells before, but counts with an additional mechanism that enables
where the other completions failed and they have worked the on-off not to transfer rotational movement until a
perfectly. No further completions where done following this mechanism is activated. To activate this mechanism enough
design because the main goal was to experiment with it and weight has to be applied over the on-off tool in order to shear
make a first step towards the completion it will be presented some screws and lock the upper tubing with the connector,
ahead. Therefore, the maximum number of packers ran down thus granting the capability to transfer rotational movement to
on a completion like this, in Cerro Dragon, was of only 5.The the lower part of the selective installation. The use of this
rotational release system of the packers plus the use of the device between two stages of a selective installation using
telescopic joints enables, in theory, to stack as many packers rotationally released packers ensures that the upper stage
as necessary without any problem to release the completion.. could be released independently from the lower stage.
Furthermore since all the packers count with an anchoring
system, there isn’t any movement of the packers that could Setting procedure
buckle the tubing or release the packers. The differential To set a tow stages selective installation using these tools, the
pressure limitation was therefore surpassed by this bottom packer must be configured for a hydraulic setting value
completion; however it is not very flexible, in fact a lot more lower than the rest of the packers of the two stages in order for
tools are added to the whole installation because of all the the bottom packer to be set and fixed first when hydraulic
telescopic joints needed, thus making the design more rigid pressure is applied. With the bottom packer fixed to the
and not suitable for aged wells where restrictions could be casing, tubing should be strained up about 7000 lbf and in that
SPE-99997 7

moment a higher value of hydraulic pressure should be applied the tubing increases the resistant towards the movement of
to set and fix the rest of the completion’s packers. tandem packers by differential pressures, thus restricting their
capability to move and to buckle the tubing. To achieve
Completion experience maximum flexibility, it should be used only 2 anchoring
Four injector-well completions have been done, using these packers one on each end of the installation and complete the
tools. The firsts two of the completions done combined the rest with tandem packers. A design similar to the one shown in
packers with anchoring system and the tandem packers in a Fig. 6 but using hydraulic-set rotationally-released anchoring-
design similar to the one used for the multiple anchored points packer and tandem-packers with split mandrels instead. This
hydraulic packers completion shown in Fig. 8. One difference completion should be done with the knowledge that if there
with that completion design is that the rotating on-off tool is are differential pressures in the well between zones there will
used between the two stages instead of the conventional be certain movement of the tandems packers, thus affecting
automatic on-off. The other difference is that the minimum their sealing capabilities in some degree and deriving over a
distance restriction between anchoring-packers is not present period of time on a leakage problem of the selective
in this completion since the packers are released by rotation of installation and its consequent need of replacement. Of course
the tubing and count with a split mandrel, therefore, no forces that this is not desirable and the possibility of the tandem
of any kind will add up during the release of the installation packers loosing its sealing capabilities would be only
and therefore packers and tandem packers could be used as acceptable in wells where the passage restriction is so bad that
close as necessary to each other. The only restriction to the not other completion design will pass through it.
design is the maximum length between anchoring-packers Keeping in mind the previously stated about reducing the
having one or more tandem packers present between them; the amount of tandem packers used on a completion and since the
restriction prevents the tubing to buckle for the reasons two well’s casings presented no passage restrictions, the last
explained previously on this paper for hydraulic packers’ two of the four completions done using these tools were
completions. It is important to note that unlike the hydraulic assembled exclusively by packers with anchoring system. The
packers’ completion, differential pressure acting over a recommended design combines two stages of the necessary
tandem packer in this completion won’t be able to release any amount of packers connected by a rotating on-off tool as
of the other packers because of the release system being shown in Fig. 10. So far, in Cerro Dragon, the maximum
rotational. Therefore, in theory, this design could be use for number of packers ran down on a completion following this
any type of injector-well’s completion, whether it was a design is of 14, but technically, there is no limitation and it has
vertical expansion’s completion, a mature waterflooding been already planed completions, with this tools, of up to 19
project’s completion or a new project’s completion. anchoring-packers for the first half of 2006. As for the design
However, despite the differential pressures won’t have an combining anchoring packers with tandem packers the
effect over the packer release system and won’t buckle the maximum amount of packers ran down on a completion, in
tubing if maximum distance are complied, they will do move Cerro Dragon field, is of 11, combining 4 anchoring packers
the tandem packer, rubbing its packing elements against the with 7 tandem packers in 2 stages connected by a rotating on-
casing. This will be so in a degree according to the distance off tool and of course complying with the maximum length
between the tandem packer being moved and the anchored between anchoring packers’ restriction.
packers, thus the effect over the packing elements and their
sealing capabilities will vary. It is important to notice at this Leakage temporary solution
point, that the movement of the tandem packers between zones As a mean of extending the useful life of injector-wells’
with abnormal pressures will occur each time a regulator valve selective installation, by the start of 2005 a wire line-set tool
of an injector mandrel next to the tandem packer is released similar to a patch, has been being used with very good results
and set, each time the surface injection pumps are turned off in Cerro Dragon field. The patch consists of an inside-tubing
and back on, in general, each time an injection pressure anchoring device and two tubing-packers. For the patch to be
fluctuation occur. Therefore, it is advisable to reduce the set inside the tubing where the leakage problem is, it requires
number of tandem packers used to complete injector-wells two separate wire-line runs. The first run fix the anchoring
where high enough differential pressures could be present and device below the leaking zone and the second one is to get
whenever the flexibility loss, for using packers with anchoring down and set the two tubing-packers, connected by a 1.315 in.
system instead, is acceptable. However, if flexibly is crucial tubing, around the leaking zone. Fig. 11 shows a scheme of
and tandems must be used for that matter, it is advisable when how the patch works bypassing a tubing on-off tool leakage.
fixing the selective installation to leave it under strain. This is The patch enables to postpone the replacement of the selective
done by configuring the bottommost packer’s setting system installation by a rig tower, by temporary solving the problem.
to be activated with a lower pressure value than the rest of the This is very useful in Cerro Dragon where there are 2642
packers of the completion and applying enough hydraulic operating wells and only 33 rig towers and the wells could
pressure so that the packer is set and fixed to the casing before have to wait a long time before the replacement can be done.
the others, then the tubing should be pulled up until the desire The standard operation before setting a patch is to pull out all
tension over string weight is reached and in that moment the the injector mandrels’ regulator valves that will be left below
rest of the packers need to be set and fixed in order for the the patch, and replace them with new valves. This is done
whole stage to retain the strain applied. In Cerro Dragon field because once the patch is set no wire-line tool can pass
the usual strain to leave the selective installations with in these through it, thus no replacements of the mandrel’s valves can
cases is about 10,000 lbf. In this way the remaining tension in be conducted then. However if necessary, the patch can be
8 SPE-99997

wire-line removed and pulled out, then the below valves

replaced and then the patch re-set. Conclusions
As it could be seen in this paper, there are a lot of possibilities
Injector-well completion recommendations when it comes to injector-well completions, each of them has
When assembling a selective installation, is always advisable its advantages and disadvantages. From all the completions
to calibrate each tubing and tool in the surface before putting experimented with in Cerro Dragon the hydraulic-set
them in the hole. Also with the selective installation in the rotationally-released split mandrel packer completion looks
hole, ready to be set, whether it was the whole installation or most promising because it complies with all the mayor
just a part of it, 1 or 2 stages, it is advisable to calibrate it requirements. It presents no limitation to the amount of zones
again with a wire-line caliper. These standard operations in to isolate, all the installation can be ran down in one tubing
Cerro Dragon implied an additional expenditure for the run, flexibility is good because of the packer’s dimensions, it
completion but save a lot more when a pass restriction is has no problem dealing with differential pressure and it has an
found because at the time of the calibration the solution is fast average cost. However only 4 completions have been
and cheap but if the restriction is found once the selective conducted following this design so far and despite the results
installation is already set and fixed to the casing the solution were very good there is still much to be tested before jumping
implies pulling the whole installation out and repairing all the to conclusion.
packers which cost is a lot higher. Nevertheless, the others designs, seen here too, are far from
Working with selective installations of and average of 12 being discarded, in this matter it is important to understand
packers, not only means there will be 12 packers on the well’s that the knowledge of the well’s zones pressure expected from
location waiting to be sent down it will also be 12 injector- the zones already being flooded and the zones to be perforated
mandrels, some on-off tools and lots of pup joints, so there is to start flooding as well as the well’s casing conditions are
an important provability of misplacing a tool when assembling critical factors to take into account when deciding what
the installation. To reduce this provability there was completion design to use in an injector-well. As an example it
implemented as standard procedure to dispose all the tools could be said that there won’t be a logical course of action
forming the selective installation over the ground in the order trying to complete an injector-well, which is known to have a
they have to be sent down, according to the selective dog-leg on certain depth, with the hydraulic-set rotationally-
installation’s design for that well, before proceeding with the released split mandrel packer completion if that well is part of
assembling. a mature waterflooding project were pressures are stabilized
For the reason explained before in this paper, the use of the and no abnormal differential pressures are expected. Instead,
automatic on-off tool has been adopted as standard for all the for that well a hydraulic completion like the one shown in Fig.
completion designs except for the rotationally-released 6 would be much more suitable because of the packers being
completion which use the rotating on-off tool. For a 4 stages shorter. However if that same well is known for having high
completion, like the hydraulic-mechanical mentioned before in differential pressure in certain zones or is part of a
this paper, the first and second stage will be connected by an waterflooding project’s vertical expansion, then a completion
automatic on-off as well as the third and fourth stage, the using the hydraulic-set rotationally-released split mandrel
connection between the third and the second stage will be tandem packer and anchoring-packers as the one explained
done by a standard on-off tool, thus the completion will be before on this paper for maximum flexibility, should be used
done with 2 tubing runs, each run carrying 2 stages connected instead.
by automatic on-off tools. For the more recent completion To conclude, it is advisable to analyze properly the well
designs where there are no limitation to the number of packer characteristics in order to be able to design a completion
each stage can hold, the use of an automatic on-off tool is also perfectly suited for the well properties, instead of trying to use
adopted as standard because it enables to run 2 stages in still only one type of completion design for all injector-wells.
only one tubing run plus it grants the benefits explained before
of the upper stage being able to be replaced without having to Acknowledgments
move the lower stage if this last one is working fine. The The authors thank the management of Pan American Energy
common criterion is to split the selective installation design in LLC for the permission and encouragement to publish this
2 stages of approximately the same amount of packers each. paper.
Finally, it is advisable when using all kind of hydraulic-set
packers on the uppermost stage, to use a standard tubing on- SI Metric Conversion Factors
off tool at the top of it. If a leakage appear some place over the ft x 3.048* E - 01 = m
tubing above the selective installation, having an on-off above in. x 2.54* E + 00= cm
it will grant the possibility to replace the tubing without psi x 6.894757 E + 00= kPa
having to move a perfectly working selective installation. An bbl x 1.589873 E - 01 = m3
additional advantage is that if a leakage appear on the lbf x 4.448222 E + 00= N
uppermost packer of the installation, the tubing can be
disconnected and pulled out to be then ran down holding * Conversion factor is exact.
another packer placed right above the on-off upper connector
so that it can be set just above the leaking packer, thus solving
the problem without having to move any stage of the selective
installation (Fig. 12).
SPE-99997 9

800,000 80,000
Barrels of Water Injected per Day
BOPD (Secondary Recovery)
700,000 70,000

600,000 60,000

500,000 50,000
BWIPD

BOPD
400,000 40,000

300,000 30,000

200,000 20,000

100,000 10,000

0 0
1965
1966
1967
1968
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
Fig. 1 – Injected water and secondary recovery oil production

800,000 440
Barrels of Water Injected per Day
Injector-Wells
700,000 385

600,000 330

500,000 275
Injector-Wells
BWIPD

400,000 220

300,000 165

200,000 110

100,000 55

0 0
1965
1966
1967
1968
1968
1969
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005

Fig. 2 – Waterflooding development

10 SPE-99997

20 2500
19 Avg. Packers Avg. Flooded Zones Avg. Mandrels Avg. Depth
18
17
16 2000

15
14
13
12 1500
11

Depth [ft]
Quantity

10
9
8 1000

7
6
5
4 500

3
2
1
0 0
1968
1969

1973
1974

1975
1977
1978

1979

1980
1981

1982
1983

1987
1988
1989

1990
1991

1992
1993

1994
1995
1996

1997

1998
1999

2000
2001
2002

2003
2004

2005
Fig. 3 – Injector-wells evolution
SPE-99997 11

Fig. 4 – Mechanical Packers Completion

Fig. 5 – Mechanical and Hydraulic Packers Completion

12 SPE-99997

Fig. 6 – Hydraulic Packers Completion; two anchored points Fig. 7 – Hydraulic Packers Completion; anchored ends; two
stages; 1 tubing run
SPE-99997 13

Fig. 8 – Hydraulic Packers Completion; multiple anchored points; Fig. 9 – Hydraulic-set rotationally-released completion with
two stages; 1 tubing run telescopic joints
14 SPE-99997

Fig. 11 –Patching of an on-off tool leakage.

Fig. 10 – Hydraulic-set rotationally-released completion with Fig. 12 –.Advantage of having an on-off tool above the
split mandrel packers selective installation