Society of Petroleum Engineers

II
SPE 30648
UNDERBALANCED COMPLETIONS
by Tim Walker, SPE, Baker Oil Tools and Mark Hopmann, SPE, Baker Oil Tools
Copyright 1995, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Inc.
This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Annual Technical Conference & Exhibition held in Dallas, U.S,A., 22-25 October, 1995.
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Abstract
The majority of wells today are drilled and completed
conventionally. That is, they are drilled with kill-weight fluids
which mayor may not be detrimental to the formation. Wells
that are drilled underbalanced, with less-than kill-weight fluid,
foam or air, are often exposed to damaging fluids during
completion operations. Technology new to the industry or
currently being developed will help eliminate these problems
and allow for a true underbalanced operation. This technology
includes two-stage drilling, downhole lubricators, downhole
swab valves, and isolation equipment used in fracturing
operations. This paper addresses these issues and the
importance that they play in a successful underbalanced
completion.

with conventional drilling and completion methods include:

emulsification of drilling fluids with formation fluids;
precipitation of solids; reduction of relative permeability to
gas by the presence of a third immiscible fluid; and redtTttion
of relative permeability to oil due to increased irreducible
water saturation (Gatlin, pet eng-drilling and well completions,
pp239).

Why complete wells underbalanced. Completing wells

underbalanced is a natural extension to drilling underbalanced
and provides numerous benefits, including:
Reduced fluid loss
Improved productivity
Minimized formation damage.
If a well is drilled underbalanced then killed and completed
overbalanced, it defeats the primary purpose of having drilled
underbalanced. The well must be completed underbalanced to
prevent formation damage and fluid loss and to maximize
productivity.
Underbalanced completions meet the need for well
development not available through simple open-hole
completions. For example, production, slotted-liner and sand
control completions offer conventional well control options
that ensure long-term stability.
A large majority of underbalanced drilling is accomplished
via coiled tubing. Underbalanced completions are a natural
extension of coiled tubing underbalanced drilling. Therefore,
a need exists to successfully deploy long bottomhole
assemblies such as screens, liners
and TCP guns
underbalanced.

IntrOduction
The primary goal of underbalanced drilling and completions is
to protect the producing formations from damaging effects
associated with fluids lost while drilling and completing. A
secondary goal is to eliminate excessive losses of expensive
drilling and completion fluids.
Presently, most underbalanced completions are simple,
open-hole or "barefoot" completions where the producing
interval is left uncased. A classic example is the Austin Chalk
play in southeast Texas. The drawback of these open-hole
completions is that they leave the reservoir susceptible to
damage from reduced relative permeability due to excessive
fluid loss. (Relative permeability is the ratio of the effective
permeability to the absolute permeability.) [Craft/Hawkins,
Applied Pet Res Eng, pp356] What often happens is that the
formation clays, which are incompatible with the
drilling/completion fluids, will swell, effectively reducing
permeability. Other types of formation damage consistent

Conventional completion options.

Open-hole completions. An open-hole completion is one in
which the casing is set immediately above the anticipated

185

producing horizon and cemented into place. The well is then

drilled to total depth and completed open hole. Most
horizontal wells are completed in this fashion. Open-hole
completions offer advantages of simplicity, low cost and low
maintenance. However, they sacrifice the ability to effectively
control the well. Another disadvantage is that long-term
borehole stability is questionable.
The open-hole completion method is limited to well
consolidated formations. In this application, hydrocarbons are
produced directly into the open well bore, which must be
consolidated enough to prevent collapse. Exposed problem
formations above the pay zone may impair the well through
fluid losses, bore collapse and production of unwanted fluids,
such as gas or water.

with cased holes and options for performing operations with

minimal fluid losses and formation damage. Coiled tubing
deployment methods can be utilized for all but the multi-zone
isolation wells.

Old completion methods.

Flowing well. During a flowing well completion, the liner is
run into the open hole while the well is flowing. This
completion technique has been demonstrated on numerous
occasions in the Austin Chalk play of southeast Texas. Coiled
tubing is an ideal deployment vehicle for this method because
typical drill pipe deployment is inefficient when the well is
flowing.
Drilling and completing a well while it is flowing is optimal,
as no extraneous fluids are allowed to contact the formation.
This allows for the well to be completed in its "natural state".
However, the flowing-well method presents obvious safety
concerns, which causes some operators to refuse to adopt it.
For instance, the completion is not appropriate for highpressure or high GOR wells, and considerable thought should
be given to sour wells, also.

Slotted liner completions.

An expansion of an open-hole
completion is the use of a slotted lined. Slotted liners come in
various forms, namely elongated slots cut into a standard liner
or holes bored into a standard liner. Using a slotted liner
increases borehole stability. Gravel pack operations are often
carried out in slotted liners as well. However, as with openhole completions, well control is difficult with slotted liners.

Two-stage drilling. Two-stage drilling (Fig. 1) also allows for

Cased hole completions.

Many wells completed today are

cased-hole completions. These occur either in the form of a
production casing run to the surface from TD or in the form of
a production liner. Typical sizes range from 3112" linert09
5/8" casing. These casing strings are run into the well after
TD is reached.
Cased-hole completions offer distinct advantages over open
hole. Wellbore stability problems are eliminated; Flow
control over the well is now available over the entire interval
through the use of sliding side doors, flow nipples and
packers. The well is controllable. Cased-hole completions
also have the advantage of being cemented in place or using
external casing packers to isolate productive horizons. Zones
are then isolated.
The primary disadvantage to cased-hole completions is that,
for well control while running the casings, kilL-weight fluid
must be used so the well will not flow.

the optimal drilling of a well. Conventional rotary rigs are

used to drill to a point immediately above the proposed pay
horizon. An intermediate string of casing is run and cemented.
At that point, a coiled tubing drilling rig is moved in arid the
well TD reached via coiled tubing drilling(CTD). The drilling
of the production z6'fle is performed underbalanced, and a liner
is placed across the prodlictioh interval.
Two-stage drilling lends itself to all well situations where
flow is anticipated and safety issues are at risk. It also lends
itself to liner-type completions.
The two above scenarios have been available to the industry
for some time now. Following are descriptions of new
techniques thatshould give an edge to underbalanced
completions.

New completion methods.

Downhole lubricator. One concern when running liners or
other long assemblies under balanced is that the well will start
to flow. This poses a potentially serious safety hazard. In
order to prevent dangerous flow, a new method to temporarily
plug the wellbore has been developed. This method involves
the use of an inflatable bridge plug as a temporary barrier.
After drilling the open-hole section of the well
underbalanced, the drilling assembly is removed from the
wellbore. An inflatable bridge plug (Fig. 2) is then run and set
in the intermediate string ata depth that will allow the liner to
be run above it. Setting can take place on electric line, drill
pipe, or coiled tubing.
'
The casing above the bridge plug is bled off to check the
mechanical integrity of the bridge plug. The bridge plug can
be pressure tested from above' as well. The intermediate
casing now acts as a subsurface lubricator. The liner is then
run into the hole with a standard type J-overshot attached to
the bottom (Fig. 3). A crossover is made back to the
conveyance medium and run to just above the inflatable bridge
plug. When using drill pipe, snubbing or stripping operations
may be required.

Conventional wisdom. The above scenarios typically have

one aspect in common: They are all drilled in an overbalanced
condition where the hydrostatic column of fluid is greater than
the formation pressure. In a large majority of wells, this does
not present a problem. However, in areas where formation
damage occurs easily or where severe losses of drilling fluids
create an economic nightmare, methods should be employed to
eliminate these losses. Conventional wisdom must be
changed.

Underbalanced completion methods. This paper evaluates

five underbalanced completion methods. They are:
Flowing Well
Two Stage Drilling
Downhole Lubricators
Downhole Swab Valve
Multi-Zone Horizontal Isolation
The first three methods deal with setting casing while the
well is flowing or is in a balanced condition. The last deal

186

Once the liner comes into contact with the inflatable bridge
plug (Fig. 4), the inflatable bridge plug is engaged and
released by the overshot. After the packing elements have
relaxed, the liner is run to depth and cemented in place as
required. The inflatable bridge plug and overshot are left in
the hole Completions have also been made where the
inflatable bridge plug was of the through tubing variety and it
was actually retrieved through the ID of the liner after the liner
was temporarily suspended in the casing.
This techniques can also be used to run other long downhole
assemblies such as TCP guns and sand screens underbalanced.
Coiled tubing once again it the preferred conveyance method
as it allows more or less continuous snubbing of the assembly
into the well.

The method is called Perforate, Stimulate and Isolate(PSI)

(Fig. 6). The PSI system is composed of a TCP gun, service
packer, production packer, sliding sleeve, and locator tubing
seal assembly(LTSA). Ref. 2
The system operates as follows: A permanent sump packer
is set with a hydraulic setting tool. Just above the hydraulic
setting tool is a side-mounted TCP gun which is oriented so
that charges face away from the tubing. The gun is spaced
out, and a ball or dart is pumped down the work string. The
ball lands in a seating nipple. Continued pressuring creates a
differential across the firing head, causing the guns to
detonate. The setting tool and guns are pulled from the hole.
The frac/production bottomhole assembly (BHA) is made
up as above and tripped in the hole. The service packer is set
and the well fracture stimulated. Flow back is attempted to
remove as much proppant as possible. The service packer is
unset and the well reverse circulated to remove remaining
proppant. The BHA is slowly lowered to the sump packer
while circulating. A pressure increase indicates the LTSA is
entering the sump packer. Additional weight is applied to seat
the LTSA. A ball is dropped to set the hydraulic retrievable
production packer. The newly fraced zone is now isolated.
The work string is picked up to shear out of the packer. Now
the TCP guns can be positioned for perforation of the next
zone.
This process can be repeated numerous times. One North
Sea operator has completed as many as 18 zones in a single
wellbore using this method. The method additionally allows
for flow control of the well via coiled tubing shifting tools to
open and close the sliding sleeve.

Downhole swab valve.

A method to allow deployment of

additional completion hardware has been developed that is
ideal for new completions which utilizes a surface controlled
downhole valve to accomplish the sub-surface lubricator.
Once the well has reached total depth and casing is run and
cemented, a conventional completion is run to the required
depth. However, in addition to the typical tubing retrievable
downhole safety valve (SCSSSV), an addition device, a
downhole swab valve(DSV) (Fig. 5) and control line have
been added. The DSV is set approximately 100 ft above the
SCSSSV. The tubing-conveyed perforating guns(TCP),
logging tools, or any other BHA are then made up, and the
DSV is closed, creating a subsurface lubricator. The SCSSSV
is also closed at this point, providing two mechanical barriers
for the well. Any pressure is bled off from the tree. The
coiled-tubing BOP equipment and injector head are nippled up
to the tree. Once all safety checks have been performed, the
well is opened, and the completion tools are run into the well.
Additional tools and spacers are added as required. After the
assembly has been lowered below the wellhead, typical coiled
tubing running procedures are initiated. Pressure is bled of
from the DSV, allowing the valve to open. Pressure is then
increased to allow the SCSSSV to open(these steps may not be
necessary in newly drilled wells). The assembly is then
deployed to desired depth and the operations carried out. The
well has just been completed totally underbalanced.
The assembly is retrieved from the well without having to
perform kill operations. Once the assembly is above the
SCSSSV and DSV, the SCSSSV control line pressure is bled,
allowing it to close. The DSV control line is then pressured to
close the valve. Once again, there are two mechanical barriers
in the well. A leak-off test is performed to ensure integrity of
the DSV. Next, the valve is opened and the SCSSSV closed,
and a leak-off test performed. The DSV is then closed again
and pressure applied from above to confirm closure. The
assembly can now be retrieved and the coiled tubing unit
rigged down without killing the well. Ref. 1

Conclusions
Recent advances in completion technology, especially the use
of and advances in coiled tubing technology, have presented
the petroleum industry with methods that previously were
unheard of or were considered too risky. Specifically, coiled
tubing drilling and underbalanced drilling have both proven to
be effective and acceptable methods in industry today.
Several methods have been presented that will allow for the
well to be completed underbalanced. By utilizing theses
methods, the completion process can be carried out while
experiencing the same benefits offered by underbalanced
drilling. The well can be completed with minimal fluid loss,
which will result in reduced formation damage and improved
well productivity. This new approach to the completion
process provides additional opportunities both for completing
new wells and for reentering existing wells.
References
1. Craft, B.C. and Hawkins, M.: Applied Petroleum Reservoir
Engineering, first edition, Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs,
NJ (1959), 356.
2. Gatlin, Carl: Petroleum Engineering: Drilling and Well
Completions, Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ (1960),
239.
3. Walker, Tim and Hopmann, Mark: "Downhole Swab Valve Aids
in Underbalanced Completion of North Sea Well," paper SPE
30421 presented at Offshore Europe 1995 Technical Conference
and Exhibition, Aberdeen, Sept. 4-8.

Multi zone horizontal isolation.

Often it is necessary to
perform stimulation treatments on wells that were not drilled
underbalanced. In wells where multiple fracs are required, a
method has been developed that protect previously fraced
zones from fluid losses, and therefore help to control the frac
itself.

187

4. Damgaard, A. et ai.: "A Unique Method for Perforating,

Fracturing, and Completing Horizontal Wells," SPE Production
Engineering(Feb. 1992) 61.

Figure 1 TWO STAGE DRILLING

Drill and complete
well to formation top
Drill thru production
Interval with coiled
tubing
Run liner to depth
and hang off

188

Figure 2 - DOWNHOLE LUBRICATOR

INFLATABLE BRIDGE PLUG

Set Inflatable bridge plug

on coiled tubing or
wlrellne

......L

a>
CO

Figure 3 - DOWNHOLE LUBRICATOR

Deploy liner conventionally or on

coiled tubing,
Hang liner above bridge plug

Figure 5 - DOWNHOLE
SWAB VALVE

Monobore completion
Figure 4 - DOWNHOLE
LUBRICATOR
Run liner with J-Overshot to
Inflatable packer
Release packer
Run liner to depth - overshot
and Inflatable packer remain In
hole (cost of material remaining
In hole cheaper than rig time to
retrieve)
Run normal completion

co

Goal Is to perforate and retrieve

700 ft of TCPa underbalanced on
coiled tubing

Locator Tubing
Seal Assembly

Figure 6 - PSI SYSTEM

"SC-2PAH" Packer

After all zones are stimulated, run final production packer with millout extension, tail pipe and L.T.S.A. Land
L.T.S.A. in top of hydraulic set retrievable packer and pressure up tubing to set upper most packer. R.I.H. with
coiled tubing conveyed shifting tools and shift all "HL" Sliding Sleeves open.

Liner Hanger

co

Locator Tubing Seal Assembly

7" Liner
"CM" Sliding Sleeve
(Closed)

4-112" Tubing