It is inevitable. Over time, wells develop issues: low productivity, production or injection profile distribution, early gas or water production or simply normal reservoir depletion. Solutions for correcting well behavior are selected based on the amount of remaining reserves and are evaluated for economic feasibility.

In most cases, an integral solution takes into consideration both inflow issues (related to the reservoir and near wellbore) as well as outflow issues (related to completion, artificial lift and surface facilities).

Solid expandable liners are solid steel liners that are expanded downhole to isolate sections of an existing wellbore. This type of solution addresses outflow issues (access in and out of the reservoir) without compromising inflow conditions.

Any effective reservoir exploitation strategy must maximize final recovery of reserves. Solutions for mechanically sealing problematic perforations are designed to solve:

• Production or injection profile problem
• Shutting off gas or water zones
• Re-completing wells in a commingled configuration
• Re-fracing unconventional gas wells

However, many solutions reduce and/or restrict production rates, causing formation damage or deferring production, and do not address completion integrity. This is where solid expandables provide the greatest advantage.

Maximizing Internal Diameter

By their nature, solid expandables minimize internal diameter (ID) loss (average reduction of the current hole is less than 9.8% - Figure 1). Maximum ID enables existing complementary completion technologies and running traditional or special logs, which in turn ensures high production or injection rates.

Minimizing Formation Damage

Formation isolation with the solid expandable system does not force fluids into the reservoir; therefore, there are minimal risks to the formation. Additionally, other remediation methods that force fluids (chemicals and cement) into the wellbore require new perforations programs that penetrate further out of the wellbore to bypass damage. Alternatively, since the expandable liner is benign to the formation, all perforation energy can be focused on creating maximum penetration, cleaner channels and usable length for well connectivity.

Reducing Defferral Production

Fast completion of workover activities makes production available soon. Solid expandables have a proven track record (97% reliability), and they are timely — two installations have been done by the same crew in two different wells in one day.

COMPLETION INTEGRITY

Casing integrity is fundamental for maximizing an asset's lifecycle and final recovery. Solid expandable technology supports current and new exploitation strategies because it provides a new solid casing inside the old existing casing. This allows the same wells to be used for continued recovery of remaining reserves, allows diversified exploitation strategies, and reduces capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operational expenditures (OPEX).