Abstract
As the oil and gas industry moves to more unconventional completions and drilling of ultra-deep, high-pressure wells, emerging technologies will be required to increase reliability while maximizing performance and minimizing operational costs. The development of a high-strength disintegrating metallic (HSDM) is one such technology, as it incorporates high ultimate compressive strength (UCS) and an engineered disintegrating mechanism tailored per application. The high-strength rating of HSDM pushed the development of disintegrating gas lift valves (GLV) and frac balls capable holding 15 ksi frac pressures. The ability for the new composite metallic to disintegrate in common wellbore fluids provided flow assurance by eliminating production risks provided by common frac balls. These applications proved the reliability of the material with hundreds of GLVs and thousands of frac balls utilized in wells around the world. This smart material has since been incorporated into ball seats and high-impacting telescoping ports (HITP) to increase the efficiency of delivery systems in hydraulic fracturing or acid stimulation treatments. The disintegration mechanism of the HSDM allows the ball seat to completely dissolve, eliminating the need to run a mill-out operation to increase the flow area of the production string. The HSDM is highly compatible with oil-based mud systems allowing this smart material to be incorporated within drilling liners or extended-reach production strings while operating as a fluid loss barrier. This application enables the operator to ensure proper fluid placement, while having the option to displace to brine systems or acid to remove the HSDM barriers to provide formation access. This paper will outline the development of this innovative smart material and discuss the inclusion and functionality of HSDM within the described applications.
