Abstract
Frac packing is one of the preferred completion techniques for deepwater wells in need of sand control. Frac pack completion performance and reliability can have a significant impact on the economic viability and profitability of a project, particularly for deepwater developments where the cost of intervention and completion failure can be very high. This work discusses key lessons learned and best practices identified from look back studies conducted on frac pack completions in deepwater fields across the world. The frac pack completion scorecard, a tool that provides a normalized means to evaluate the quality of the completion, thus avoiding possible bias based on reservoir parameters or wellbore architecture, focuses on key aspects of the well design and installation process, including rock stresses and well orientation, debris management, perforating, frac design and execution, fluid loss management, and mechanical issues with hardware components. The tool has been validated with data collected from more than 100 wells over a period of eight years, and has proved to be a valuable workflow for root cause analyses to identify probable causes for sand control completion failures, increasing skins and declining productivity index (PI) values over time. It has also been effectively used as a predictive tool for future well performance and to make data-driven, risk-weighted decisions concerning well deliverability thresholds. When the design and installation processes and procedures are shaped around scoring well on the scorecard, the results are better wells not only initially, but for the life of the project.
