Design Considerations and Lessons Learned in the Application of Intelligent Completions

Includes a Live Web Event on 06/29/2023 at 11:00 AM (EDT)

Intelligent completions are becoming increasingly common, particularly in deep, horizontal, or remote wells. By reducing the required well count, reducing intervention costs, and accelerating production, they can enhance overall project economics. In some cases, intelligent completions have been a development-enabling technology.

The webinar provides an overview of deepwater, subsea, intelligent completion design commonly deployed in the Gulf of Mexico and West Africa, with emphasis on downhole sensors and interval control valves. Most of what is discussed can be applied to any completion with subsurface data collection or downhole flow control devices.

As some intelligent completions have failed to meet the project teams’ expectations, this talk emphasizes the need for robust system engineering, particularly with trees and the remote control system. The root causes for some commonly seen anomalous behaviors are shared.

Considerations for intelligent completion system and component selection are shared, along with design and operational lessons learned. The benefits and risks of “choking” versus “on-off” type Inflow Control Valves (ICVs) are discussed. The presentation concludes by sharing some new ICV designs and the rationale for their development.

This webinar is categorized under the Completions technical discipline.

All content contained within this webinar is copyrighted by Ron Nelson and its use and/or reproduction outside the portal requires express permission from Ron Nelson.

Ron Nelson

Ron Nelson is a deepwater completion engineering consultant, based in British Columbia (BC), Canada. His career also included lead roles as a production engineer, subsea systems engineer, and as a deepwater well test specialist.

Ron grew up in western Canada and earned his BSc in Petroleum Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 1990. His career started in the US Gulf of Mexico and his first deepwater role was as a subsea systems engineer on BP’s Pompano Phase II in 1994. Since then, he’s worked on deepwater subsea projects and exploratory well tests in the Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, the North Sea, and the Mediterranean. He returned to Canada with his wife and infant daughter in 2002 and continued to work internationally, rotating for twelve years as a rig-site supervisor and in-country engineer before changing roles to support projects remotely from his home office.

Ron ran his first intelligent completion in Equatorial Guinea in 2005 and became progressively more involved in intelligent well design and equipment performance validation. He works closely with ICV and gauge suppliers and is an active member of SEAFOM TSD-01, developing improved validation standards for subsea optical and electrical feed-thru connector systems.

Ron is now the proud father of three engineering students. He’s been a member of SPE since 1988. He has written and presented papers on intelligent completions, water injection wells, sand control, and novel subsea tool deployment systems.

Karen Olson (Moderator)

Karen Olson is a senior completions advisor for Well Data Labs and an independent consultant. She previously was technology director for Southwestern Energy Company. Olson has been a completion/ reservoir engineer for more than 37 years, starting her career as a fracturing engineer for The Western Company of North America. She has also worked at S.A. Holditch and Associates, Mobil Oil, and BP.

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