Well Intervention Market

Opportunity: Increasing oil and gas well discoveries

The surge in oil and gas well discoveries led to massive opportunities for regional well intervention in all markets within North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Maximized production faced operators amidst the newfound reserve when they conducted the exploration regarding the oil and gas discoveries. Some kinds of betterment in a well performance requires some kind of interventions to obtain an improvement of such productivity asset for a lengthened lifecycle along with its generalized performance reservoir.

The high concentration of shale formations in North America led to a series of well discoveries, and with that increased demand for intervention services, the only thing that this could do was maintain the level of production. Other discoveries were made through field explorations, both onshore and offshore, conducted in Europe and the APAC region, where oil and gas operators are investing in well intervention solutions to capitalize on these finds. The growth opportunity for the well intervention market is huge due to the increasing number of oil and gas well discoveries around the world, which in turn fuels technological advancements and market expansion.

Challenges: High competition and volatile crude oil prices

Oil and gas reserves are exhaustible resources, which implies that production activities have continuously depleted such reserves. This has always made upstream players keen to explore hostile terrains in the form of High-Pressure high-temperature (HPHT) wells. The reason for the increasing demand for operations in HPHT wells in the Gulf of Mexico Kvitebjørn, Kristin, and Huldra fields, North Sea, among others, is the increasing commercial feasibility of previously economically infeasible gas reserves and thermal recovery methods. Drilling HPHT exploratory wells, however, is an expensive and risky operation and may prove to be a challenge to the well intervention service providers.

Ultradeep wells can be drilled up to a depth of more than 10,700 m, and such wells generate hydrostatic pressure greater than 30,000 psi. All the drilling assemblies, LWD tools, wireline logging equipment, well testing tools, completion hardware, and well intervention tools are exposed to such extreme pressures and can lead to the failure of these components, potentially blocking the wellbore. Upstream operators apply a wide range of aerospace and nuclear power energy, sealing technologies, and metals and alloys to counteract the high pressures. However, its applications in oil & gas often are limited by the constraint of wellbore sizes, especially in deepwater wells. It has been challenging to manufacture logging, drilling tools, and other well intervention equipment that could withstand high-pressure extremes as well as being able to fit into small diameters of wellbores of ultradeep wells. Well intervention tool design may be complicated for a company when it requires electronic components that would be used exclusively for the high-temperature conditions found in HPHT wells, and equipment failure is relatively more expensive than in the case of a conventional well. Consequently, new products and services intended for application in hostile environments must be tested and qualified extensively before being applied downhole so that they are capable of tolerating more hostile conditions. Various codes and practices have been produced to be used as guide intervention operations in HPHT wells. For example, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, US produces a code of Federal Regulations applicable for HPHT well completion in the Gulf of Mexico. Among these requirements are Subsurface Safety Valves, and Related Equipment in an HPHT Environment as practiced under 30 CFR 250.804. In January 2012, The American Petroleum Institute published the technical report 1PER15K-1 Protocol for Verification and Validation of High-Pressure High-Temperature Equipment that defined a well as high pressure when exceeding 15,000 pounds per square inch with its pressure having a temperature higher than 350 degrees Fahrenheit, equivalent to 177 degrees Celsius.

This standard concerns equipment and acceptable materials that are usable in HPHT operations according to the design specifications. It also specifies the testing specifications for well control and completion hardware to ensure safety, suitability, and integrity. ONGC, India's national oil company, has categorized HPHT wells as specially challenged wells wherein the pressure is above 10-15 ksi and the temperature is above 350°F. Such wells have special cementing slurry to keep them isolated.