Case Study: a Large Milling Company doubles production and avoids drillship workover with SLB ReSOLVE and TuffTRAC

Autonomous Milling of Isolation Valve Doubles Production and Eliminates Drillship Requirement

SLB worked with a large milling company offshore Angola that was seeing high skin and reduced flow from a well after a completion was installed at 1,226 m water depth. An initial check showed the isolation valve was only partially open and was choking production, so the operator wanted a cost-efficient wireline intervention solution that could avoid bringing in a drillship for a workover.

SLB used tandem TuffTRAC cased hole services tractors with the ReSOLVE instrumented wireline intervention service to mill the stuck ball valve from a light well intervention vessel. After system testing and successful valve breakthrough, the well was returned to production and output doubled, adding 5,500 bbl/d. The approach eliminated the need for a drillship and saved the operator millions of dollars.