This proposal describes a Joint Industry Project (JIP) for “Completion Best Practices for Deep and Hostile Wells” to provide an accepted process and guidelines for designing and executing land based complex and hostile completions, usually deeper wells. These hostile wells can be defined as having higher equivalent mud density pore pressures (>1500 kg/m3 or 12.5 ppg) and/or elevated temperatures (>120oC or 250oF) and/or very hostile fluids (>3% CO2 and >5% H2S). The recent trend for many operating companies to exploit resource opportunities that exist in these more hostile wellbore environments has resulted in the utilization of typical “plains type” of completions design and execution approaches that rely on well developed “rules of thumb”. The absence of detailed engineering for the completions planning, design, and execution has resulted in numerous incidents and “near incidents” over the past several years. In order to provide clear accepted processes and guidelines for designing and executing effective hostile well completions, RPS Energy is offering to lead a collaborative JIP that will identify the issues and develop a completely cross referenced manual for Hostile Well Completion Best Practices. This effort will incorporate the ISO/API developments and standards being currently being finalized.

The primary technical objectives of the “Completion Practices for Deep and Hostile Wells” JIP are as follows:

- Provide completion planning guidelines and methodologies along with critical factors for hostile well completion design, reliability and execution

- Provide engineering design requirements and equipment specifications and qualifications including metallurgy and elastomer guidelines

- Specify levels of QA/QC detail and when they should apply to various situations

- Provide a manual, that is complimentary to the Industry Recommended Practices (IRP or ARP) documents, which emphasizes the completion engineering design and methodology for complex wells

Several of the numerous benefits of participation will be:

- Practical manual for “Completion Best Practices for Deep and Hostile Wells”

- Enhance land based hostile well completion efficiency and competency

- Provide tools to reduce costs and improve risk management

- Develop flowcharts for critical completion selection and decision criteria thus providing consistent design approaches for these hostile wells

- Ensure appropriate design and execution due diligence is conducted

- To learn from and with many other companies

- To provide a training tool for new entrants into these well environments