For an oil well to remain productive, it must undergo various maintenance and repair operations throughout its working life. It is vital to perform regular maintenance to avoid major problems in the future. A basic understanding of well maintenance and services will help you appreciate these tasks during a well’s lifespan.
An oil well’s servicing consists of all the work done after drilling until the well is capped. A good service involves a broad range of tasks to ensure the oil flows and the suitable components function correctly. Every well’s situation is different. Below are several standard oil and gas servicing needs.
1. Wellhead Care
A wellhead is the most critical component that connects a well to the surface. The integrity of the wellhead is maintained using different technologies. The Christmas tree is a series of valves that control the flow of oil from the well.
Maintenance often involves checking these components and adding grease to keep them lubricated. In older wells, maintenance may necessitate testing the well’s pressure and ensuring that the tree valves function correctly.
2. Wireline
Wireline units consist of strong, thin wire attached to a reel at the surface of an oil well. After that, tools or measuring equipment are lowered into the well using the wire.
The equipment lowered into the well helps with many different tasks. Among these are determining pore sizes, finding casing collars, examining rock properties, and monitoring hydrocarbon pressures.
The designs of some wireline cables, particularly braided lines, may not have cores. Electric cable cores can also incorporate slackline or braided wires to collect and log information about the wells.
You can count on bonafide providers such as Renegade Wireline Services to offer you top-notch diagnostic evaluations, pipe recovery, and other necessary wireline services.
3. Workover
Heavy intervention, also known as a workover, is another type of oil well service. Workovers are by far the most intense kind of good intervention. Workers dig out large portions of the well during this service and make significant adjustments to improve or restore its flow.
Workovers frequently employ a rig and a rig crew to lift the heavy wellhead and other components. For minor workovers, the team will replace any worn, leaking, and damaged parts of the well. To improve access to the well, crews will remove the wellhead. Additionally, they need to use heavy kill-weight mud to bog down the well and halt the flow.
When killing-weight mud is ineffective, snubbing equipment stops the oil flow by pushing the tubing against the well’s pressure. As opposed to killing weight mud, this option doesn’t permanently stop the flow.
It is necessary to test the well after workovers to ensure that it is flowing again and that production resumes. After workover improvements, the production levels of the well should be higher than before.
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Coiled Tubing
Coiled tubing facilitates the delivery of chemicals that help remove sand into wells. It is also possible to deliver certain chemicals using coiled tubing, such as acids, to specific spots in the well. Workers store these tubings as wound coils and, as such, get their names here. Using coiled tubing units, the operators can enter the well without needing to remove the production tubing.
Technicians must unfurl the coil before dropping the tubing down the well. It uses a crane to support a reel of flexible tubing. Coiled tubing and the appropriate tool are introduced into the well to perform remedial activities.
Besides offering drilling assistance, coiled tubing has several advantages, including:
- No need to stop while digging or pulling
- More efficient and safe
- Continually circulating fluids during deployment and retrieval
- Possible to run live wells without having to kill them
- Mobile and compact, which means fewer service personnel are required
- Prevent formation damage and save money
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Well Inspections
During inspections, wells are subjected to many tests to determine their productivity and reliability. Conducting a few preemptive tests helps determine whether a well is healthy. Examples include the number of barrels produced each day and the oil-to-gas ratio.
Sometimes regulatory agencies may need an oil-to-gas ratio test so the findings can go to them. Other assessments of the well’s condition involve visual inspections to check for signs of damage, poor welding, or corrosion.
Inspections include using x-rays through radiography to see inside the equipment and check for integrity issues. Thermography tests help detect leaks in the insulation or pipeline by comparing the temperature changes between the channel and its surroundings.
There are several other tests used to diagnose potential problems. For example, it’s possible to identify which well is affected by a production decline when performing a barrel test, especially if several wells are experiencing a similar reduction in production.
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Well Work
Well work, also known as well interventions, involves repairs and modifications to improve the operation of the well. Interventions of this type can be light or heavy.
Typically, the well service crew is responsible for light interventions. The well can continue pumping to perform these kinds of well work.
To avoid reoccurring blockages, crews may perform wireline or coiled tubing operations. Simple interventions include adjusting down well pumps and valves or collecting data from the well’s bottom.
Diagnose Issues Before They Worsen
Over their lifetimes, oil pumps put in a lot of work. However, they might become less effective as they age or need maintenance more frequently. A pump’s critical operations typically follow a predictable pattern.
As such, it is vital to regularly check the pump’s operation and compare it to its age to know if you should replace it. Maintaining the well to operate at its best for as long as possible is essential.
