There’s nothing worse than a drilling programme that goes off-track. Costs and delays creep in with the cutting and pulling of casing strings often taking days and many thousands of dollars. Similarly, well plugging & abandonment activities need to be put on hold if well integrity isn’t assured, generating an ongoing drain on revenues.
The Meta Casing Reconnect allows operators to replace damaged or stuck casing, avoid costly side tracks and lengthy fishing operations, and stick to original drilling programmes. In addition, if operators embark on sidetracks, the Casing Reconnect supports their development as well as securing well integrity for P&A activities.
By cutting the original damaged casing and deploying the Casing Reconnect, the metal-to-metal technology reconnects the existing casing to the new casing to create a high axial load bearing connection. No elastomers, no reduction in ID, 98% reliability and a well integrity solution across the life of the well.
Reduction in ID: 0
Life of well seal: 50 years
Reliability: 98%
Application:
•Casing Integrity：Whether damaged or stuck casing, corrosion, or incidents such as damage to the tubing hanger in the wellhead, the Meta Casing Reconnect® protects casing integrity, limits downtime and costly intervention work, and enables operators to continue on the original well plan with no reduction in ID.
•Plug & Abandonment：The Meta Casing Reconnect® allows operators to quickly and easily regain integrity for P&A activities
•Sidetracks：The Meta Casing Reconnect® allows operators to reuse existing well architecture for sidetrack operations when they are looking to produce from new zones in the well.
•Wellhead Replacement： The Meta Casing Reconnect® allows operators to easily replace a wellhead without having to pull existing casing.
•Stuck Casing：Whether damaged or stuck casing, corrosion, or incidents such as damage to the tubing hanger in the wellhead, the Meta Casing Reconnect® protects casing integrity, limits downtime and costly intervention work, and enables operators to continue on original well plans with no reduction in ID.
Case Study – Centrica Energy （Region: Southern North Sea）
Challenge
Centrica needed to reinstate pressure integrity of its 9-5/8” casing string. It had lost significant rig time attempting to regain integrity on a 9-5/8” leaking casing string by utilising expandable technology, which proved to be unsuccessful. As a consequence, costs of the project were escalating and a solution had to be implemented within a small operating window to ensure integrity was regained.
Solution
Quick to design, deploy and install in short duration, therefore meeting the demands of Centrica’s tight timescale, the Meta Casing Reconnect™ system was mobilised and expedited to the rig. Successful installation allowed subsequent placement of a metal-to-metal connection of the existing 9 5/8” casing string to surface to enable a V0 rated gas tight seal with load bearing bi-directional capabilities qualified to ISO13679 and ISO14310. Planning a Meta Casing Reconnect™ into the architecture of the well ensures our clients have a safe solution that will get them back on the original well plan.
Results
This successful completion allowed Centrica to continue with planned operations, limiting operational downtime, costly intervention work and delayed production from gas producer.
Meta’s technology enabled the reinstatement of a life of well gas tight seal qualified to over 5,000 psi allowing the casing to carry over 600,000lbs in tension and compression. Value Meta’s Casing Reconnect devliered a potential saving of around $4 million in direct operational costs.
Case Study – North Sea Operator
Challenge
In 2013, as part of a slot recovery programme a North Sea operator planned to sidetrack a depleted well to access a new area of the reservoir.
When the client pulled the tubing to start the sidetrack operation they discovered that the seal face for the tubing hanger in the wellhead was damaged and could no longer be used.
The only way to replace this seal face was to replace the entire wellhead, which would involve cutting off the old wellhead and attaching a new one to regain well integrity for producing the well.
A further challenge was the tight time-frame for delivery as the failed liner seal was not identified until the tubing was pulled at the start of the redrill operation.
Solution
The client required a timely solution that would allow them to reconnect a new 10- 3/4” casing string to the existing cemented 9-5/8” casing string with no loss of ID, full mechanical integrity and a life-of well gastight connection. This would then allow the casing string to be part of a gas-lift completion. Meta was contacted to see if it could offer a solution which would reinstate well integrity, for the life of the well, with no compromise to allow the original drilling plan to continue.
Meta’s Casing Reconnect was the perfect solution to meet these challenges as the casing interval to be morphed was not pre-determined and this system allows flexibility to space out between the two fixed points such as the new wellhead and the existing casing top.
Results
Using Meta’s Casing Reconnect allowed the client to cut the existing 9-5/8” casing anywhere above the top of the cement.The resultant casing stump was dressed and morphed into Meta’s Casing Reconnect over-shot receptacle run on the bottom of the new casing string.
The morph created a permanent full-bore connection, capable of withstanding over 1,000,000 lb of axial loading, and provided a metal to metal V0 gas-tight seal.
Existing well architecture was able to be re-used, and a new well drilled without the need for an additional platform slot.
Benefits
The operator was able to continue on its original drilling plan. It was able to avoid having to carry out a further expensive and lengthy side-track and didn’t have to defer production in order to replace the wellhead.
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