Bigbore Well Completions: A New Completions Technique for Arun Field

ABSTRACT The prolific Arun Field in North Sumatra, Indonesia continues to produce substantial amounts of natural gas and condensate. However, the massive carbonate reef reservoir is beginning to require special measures for more complete exploitation and recovery of the large quantities of hydrocarbon remaining in the formation. Optimization of production requires combined efforts from Arun geologists, reservoir, production, drilling, and operations personnel as well as technical advisors. Although the Arun Field wells typically produce 30 to 100 MMSCFD per well, increased production rates are being achieved by utilizing larger bore wells and modifying the drilling and completion techniques accordingly. Substantial increases in gas and condensate production rates are being realized with a savings in investment over previous Arun Field drilling and completion methods utilizing conventional 7″ completions. Previous completion techniques utilized 7" production tubing with either cased or open hole completions. The "Big Bore" completion technique has 9-5/8″ production tubing with an open hole completion to maximize deliverability. The primary purpose of the technique is to boost field productivity in order to meet gas demand, enhance condensate optimization, and allow flexibility in operations. This new completion technique required extensive equipment design and testing to meet anticipated production and stimulation conditions. This is the first time a completion of this type has been utilized in Indonesia, and as far as we know, these are the largest bore, gas producing well completions in the world. This paper discusses the performance of the wells and the various components utilized in this new "Big Bore" completion technique.