Welltec has announced the first deployment of a truly cementless completion, in the Republic of Congo during the second quarter of 2019. Building on the experience gained through the continuous deployment of the Welltec Annular Barrier (WAB) in the Moho North Albian field, which was awarded the first quarter of 2017, Total E&P Congo has pushed the boundaries of metal expandable annular sealing technology even further by deploying the world’s first cementless completion using the Welltec Annular Isolation (WAI) in open hole.
The WAI uses multiple metal expandable packers to provide long length open hole zonal isolation to replace the functions of traditional cement, leading to gains in efficiency in the overall well construction process. It significantly reduces the free annulus space between the liner/casing and the open hole, which can be beneficial in highly layered reservoirs of varying permeability where selective production, stimulation or water shut off is required. In addition to the efficiency gains, the simplified well completions operations enabled by the WAI eliminated multiple operational risks associated with the cementing process in depleted and over-pressured reservoirs.
“Total E&P Congo has used innovative technologies and methods to continually improve the drilling curve on the Moho North Albian field development project,” says Ronan Bouget, the Drilling and Completions Manager. “We were early adopters of Welltec’s WAB technology. The WAI was deployed as part of the efficiency drive to reduce drilling expenditure whilst maintaining the beneficial productivity index in this field.”