Workover Systems

By-
Gaurav Bhopale
Shahnwaz Khan
Vishal Wani
 What is Well Work-over ?
 After drilling a well, the formation is evaluated to
know if it contains Oil in commercial quantity. If it
does, the well is completed and placed on stream.
At a point in the producing life of the well, the initial
conditions of the well may change leading to a
decline in the performance of the well.

 If the reservoir still contains a reasonable

amount of hydrocarbon something has to be
done to improve the performance of the well or
reservoir.
 Work-over continued…..
 The term Work-over, is used to refer to a kind
of well intervention that is aimed at enhancing
the performance of a well. It involves
recompleting already completed well for
improved performance.

 The process of performing major maintenance

or remedial treatments on an oil or gas well
after initial completion . In many cases, work -
over implies the removal and replacement of
the production tubing string after the well has
been killed and a work-over rig has been
placed on location.
 Work-over continued…..
 The operations involved in maintenance
and servicing, repairing, installation of
down - hole production equipment etc. in an
initially completed well (production well) is
termed as workover operation.

 To some degree Workover operations varies

depending on the reasons for which they are
carried out. The first basic operation done during
workover is well killing.
 Work-over continued…..
 Well killing involves circulating a fluid (called
workover fluid e.g. Brine) into the well whose weight
is appropriate to control the formation pressure.

 The workover begins by removing the well head and

possibly the flowline, then lifting the tubing head
from the casing hanger thus beginning to pull out
the tubing from the completion.

 Workover Operations involves well killing operations,

retrieval of tubing and completion hardware, re-
perforating, stimulating, running of completion and
wellhead hardware equipment and tubing
 Conventional Production Rigs
 Rig Utilization
Following recommendations should be used to guide
utilization of equipment for completion and workover
operations :

 Drilling Rig Vs. Production Rig

• Average day rate of drilling rig may be four to six
times that of a 10 hour day workover unit.
• Drilling crew lack sufficient training to perform
specialized completion operations as running tubing
and setting packers.
 Conventional Production Rigs
 Shutdown at night : operate production rigs in daylight
hours only except –
 In offshore operations
 Where procedures are sufficiently hazardous to
preclude overnight shutdown – prolonged fishing jobs
– high pressure situations
 Where time is of prime importance in returning the
well to production.
 Conventional Production Rigs
 Use of proper workover unit :

 It is often economical to release one type of

production rig and move in another suitable to
accomplish more suitable to accomplish the particular
job at hand.
 Failure to utilize the proper rig even if operations are
delayed several days, results in additional rig time,
special time, tool rental and costly mistakes.
 Production Rig Selection
On basis of
1. Depth or the load capacity
2. Breaking Capacity
3. Derrick Capacity
4. Drawworks horsepower
 Operation Efficiency
 Operational efficiency refers to the efficiency or speed
per unit of overall cost with which the required
operations can be performed.
 Primary rig operation include:
 Move in
 Rig up
 Tear down
 Pulling and running tubing and rods
 Rotating and circulating
 Proper choice of accessories maximizes operational
efficiency
 Move In- Rig Up -Tear Down
 The efficiency of move in rig up and tear down
depends upon several factors:
 Roadability – Most modern rigs are designed to move
over good roads at speeds of about 40 mph.
 Mobility on location- A drive-in rig is somewhat easier
to position than back-in type. Positioning must be fairly
precise in order that the hook is centered over the
wellhead without excessive adjustment of the derrick.
 Type of mast-The hydraulically raised self guyed
derrick has reduced time requirement for this
operation almost insignificance.
 Pulling and Running Rods and Tubing –
Repetitious operations in pulling and running rods and
tubing lead themselves to automation.
• Air-operated slips- Air slips controlled by the rig
operator are proved time savers. Button slip minimize
pipe damage.
• Hydraulic Tubing Tongs-Hydraulic tubing tongs reduce
time to make and break tuning.
Performance characteristics of a typical hydraulic
tubing tong are:
Torque range, high gear- 100 to 800 ft lbs
Maximum torque, low gear 2500 ft Ib
RPM, high gear 110
RPM, low gear 30
Hydraulic requirement 25 gpm at 2000 psi

Hydraulic rod tongs- They are justified primarily on the

basis of providing controlled makeup torque. With 5/8in
and 3/4in rods these appears to be little speed advantage.
With 7/8in and larger rods a slight speed advantage may
result .
 Maximum torque of 1370 ft-lb .
 Maximum speed of 100 rpm.
 Hydraulic power requirement of 12 gpm at 2000 psi.
 Continuous Motion Block-
They also known as split block.
They are time saver probably 20% on rig pulling
singles from 6000 ft, saving can be greater if pulling
can be double.

 Time Analysis
 A typical time analysis is in table for service job on a
6000ft
well with 23/8 in tubing
Typical time analysis -6000 ft well -23/8 in tubing.
Sr No. Operations Time required
1. Spot rig and sills for derrick 15
foundation
2. Raise and level derrick 15
3. Pull rods (manual rod wrench) 55
4. Rig block to pull tubing 10
5. Set BOP 20
6. Pull tubing 90
7. Run tubing 70
8. Flange up wellhead 15
9. Rig block to run rods 10
10. Run rods 45
11. Tie block back-clean tools 10
12. Lay down derrick 15
370
 Analysis of single joint cycle time
average of 6000 ft trip

Operation Time required pilling - Seconds Running

Loaded block motion 8 4

Empty block motion 5 5
Makeup or breakout 12 10
Operate slips 2 2
One complete cycle 27 seconds 21 seconds

Cutting one second off the time required to cycle one

joint of tubing in and out would reduce trip time on a
typical 6000 ft well by 4%.
 Rotating and circulating
They required in workover during operation such as
Cleaning out, drilling cement or permanent packers.

Rotating – The power swivel or power sub is well

adapted to workover rig rotary operations. The larger
capacity subs are suitable for deepening jobs in 51/2in
or 7-in casing.

Circulating- Pumping operation involve drilling or

milling where relatively high circulating volume is
required .
• Drilling and Milling –
They lift the cutting with typical saltwater workover
fluids annular velocities of 150 ft.
• Reverse circulation –
where the rig pump is limited on volume reverse
circulation may provide sufficient raising velocity.
Can be categorized as:

 Concentric Tubing Workover Rigs

 Snubbing Units
 Coiled-tubing Units
 Wireline Systems
 Non-Conventional Workover
Systems
 Concentric Tubing Workover Rigs - A concentric tubing
workover is one in which a small diameter workstring is
run inside the permanent tubing string.
 Snubbing Units:
 Long stroke : Comprise of a concentric tubing rig and
have pulling and rotating capacity of a larger workover
rig. They have the ability to work under surface
pressure.
 Short Stroke : These have ability to work under
reasonable surface pressure and are portable. These
have inability to rotate and the time required to run
tubing is more.
 Non-Conventional Workover
Systems
 Coiled-tubing Units have been used for operations
such as washing, spotting, or displacing fluids.
Advantage – Speed of running pipe. Currently units
are available with 1-in., 11/4 –in., or 11/2-in., OD pipe.
Limitation : inability to rotate for drill-out operations.

 Wireline Systems can handle operations such as

plugging back, bailing or removing tubing obstructions
as well as well maintenance functions.
Concentric Tubing Workovers
 The term refers to a system where a small work string
of “macaroni” tubing or drill pipe is run inside the
existing well tubing.
 This system offers a rather simple and economical
means of working over a well without removing the
existing production tubing.
 The macaroni tubing can be snubbed in without killing
the well, in case of a high pressure well.
 Concentric Tubing Workovers
Concentric tubing workovers should be considered in
these situations:
• Wells with tubing set on a packer with gelled mud or
other packer fluid in casing-tubing annulus.
• Multiple completions.
• Offshore wells.
• Tubingless completions.
 Equipment for Concentric Tubing
Workovers

 Hoisting and Rotating Unit

 Blowout Preventers
 Macaroni Workstring
 A high-pressure low-volume
pump
 Small bits or mills
 Snubbing Unit
 Snubbing is a process of performing heavy well
intervention operations in a well by inserting tools when
the back pressure or kick is being examined.
 It can be done in an existing well or in new well without
the removal of the blowout preventer (Christmas tree)
from the wellhead.
 Snubbing can only be carried out in a live well, i.e., when
a well is not killed and is still under pressure.
Snubbing Unit
 Process –
 In this process, the bottom hole assembly (BHA) on a drill string is
run down into the wellbore with the help of a hydraulic workover rig,
without removing the blowout preventer (BOP).
 Since the BOP’s are not removed while carrying out this operation,
this introduces pressure in the wellbore on the cross sectional area of
the tubular which thereby exerts sufficient force on the drill string to
overcome the wellbore pressure
 Thus the drill string can be pushed or snubbed back into the
wellbore.

 To perform Snubbing operations, rigging organizations have small

Snubbing units as well as large Snubbing units.
 Snubbing Unit
To conclude, a snubbing unit is a hydraulic rig that can do
everything a rig can do, plus it can perform under pressure
in an under balanced live well state.

Applications :
 The unit can be employed for fishing, milling, drilling,
side tracking or any task, like, a cement job or deepen
wells.
Snubbing Unit
Coiled Tubing System
The coiled tubing, or reeled tubing, workover system
primarily supplies a means of running small diameter
tubing through the usual well tubing, thus providing a
circulating path to the bottom of the well.
Coiled Tubing System
 Advantages :
 Can be run in the well against reasonable surface
pressure, thus the well can be controlled with a low
density clean fluid.
 Transportation is facilitated to offshore platforms.
 Tubing can be run at relatively high speeds.
Circulation is possible while running and pulling.
There are no collared connections in the string.
 Components of Coiled-tubing Unit
 Injector Hoist Unit
 Continuous Tubing
 Storage reel
 BOP stack
Concentric Tubing Operating
Practices
Operations performed with concentric tubing
techniques include:
 Squeeze Cementing
 Perforating
 Sand Washing
 Sand Control
 Acidizing
 Deepening
Wireline Unit
 Wirelines are electric cables that transmit data about
the well.
 Consisting of single strands or multi-strands, the
wireline is used for both well intervention and
formation evaluation operations.

In other words, wirelines are useful in gathering data

about the well in logging activities, as well as in
workover jobs that require data transmission.
Maintenance through Flow Line and
Workover Techniques
 Locomotive
 Auxiliary Tools and Maintainance operations
 Workover Operations
 Surface Control Equipment