Well services

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Well services is a department within a petroleum production company through which matters concerning existing wells are handled. Having a shared well services department for all (or at least multiple) assets operated by a company is seen as advantageous as it allows the pooling of talent, experience and resources for managing wells.

Oil well boring in the Earth that is designed to bring petroleum oil hydrocarbons to the surface

An oil well is a boring in the Earth that is designed to bring petroleum oil hydrocarbons to the surface. Usually some natural gas is released along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce only gas may be termed a gas well.

Contents

The term may sometimes be used to encompass the larger section of the industry responsible for wells including the supplier companies as well the operating company's wells department.

Remit

A well is initially drilled and completed under the control of the drilling and completions department operating under the request of the asset. Once the well is completed, control is transferred to the asset's production team, who will operate the well as appropriate for their purposes. Should any issues of well integrity or any requirement for well work arise, the asset will refer the issue to the well services. During interventions, control of affected well is handed over from production to the well services crew at the well site, a practical action involving transferring control lines from the production control panel to the well services control panel.

Structure

Offshore/Well site

When well work is required, it is the responsibility of the WOE to assemble the team and arrange their dispatch to the well site. The team will consist of a well services supervisor and other operators. The well services supervisor is a dedicated worker who is sent to oversee well services operations at well sites and take responsibility for all well services personnel. At offshore sites, there will commonly be two, to cover both day shift and night shift. The other operators will usually consist of personnel from supplier companies, who are trained in the relevant field, such as wireline, coiled tubing, wellhead maintenance, etc.

Wireline (cabling) lunité travail au cable

In the oil and gas industry, the term wireline usually refers to a cabling technology used by operators of oil and gas wells to lower equipment or measurement devices into the well for the purposes of well intervention, reservoir evaluation, and pipe recovery.

Coiled tubing

In the oil and gas industries, coiled tubing refers to a very long metal pipe, normally 1 to 3.25 in in diameter which is supplied spooled on a large reel. It is used for interventions in oil and gas wells and sometimes as production tubing in depleted gas wells. Coiled tubing is often used to carry out operations similar to wirelining. The main benefits over wireline are the ability to pump chemicals through the coil and the ability to push it into the hole rather than relying on gravity. Pumping can be fairly self-contained, almost a closed system, since the tube is continuous instead of jointed pipe. For offshore operations, the 'footprint' for a coiled tubing operation is generally larger than a wireline spread, which can limit the number of installations where coiled tubing can be performed and make the operation more costly. A coiled tubing operation is normally performed through the drilling derrick on the oil platform, which is used to support the surface equipment, although on platforms with no drilling facilities a self-supporting tower can be used instead. For coiled tubing operations on sub-sea wells a mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) e.g. semi-submersible, drillship etc. has to be utilized to support all the surface equipment and personnel, whereas wireline can be carried out from a smaller and cheaper intervention vessel. Onshore, they can be run using smaller service rigs, and for light operations a mobile self-contained coiled tubing rig can be used.

Wellhead Component at the surface of a well that provides the structural and pressure-containing interface

A wellhead is the component at the surface of an oil or gas well that provides the structural and pressure-containing interface for the drilling and production equipment.

See also

Well intervention

A well intervention, or well work, is any operation carried out on an oil or gas well during, or at the end of, its productive life that alters the state of the well or well geometry, provides well diagnostics, or manages the production of the well.

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