Case Study: North Sea Operating Company achieves high waterflood injection rates with SLB's CemFIT Shield cementing system

North Sea Operator Improves Cement Bonding to Achieve High Waterflood Injection Rates Near a Weak Shale Zone

SLB worked with North Sea Operating Company on a new injector well in the UK North Sea, where a deviated 300-m well segment passed through unconsolidated sandstone and a weak shale caprock. The customer needed reliable cement isolation across the shale to support high-pressure water injection for a waterflood, but mud removal constraints made it difficult to achieve strong cement bonding with conventional methods.

SLB used the CemFIT Shield mud-sealing cement system to improve bonding by interacting with residual oil-based drilling fluid and reducing mud channeling. An 11 m3 volume was pumped successfully, and ultrasonic logging showed highly competent cement across the 288-m cemented interval, including 63 m of highly bonded cement in the sandstone, with no mud channels. The operator then perforated the sandstone and confirmed the well could inject water at the desired high pressure to optimize the waterflood.