Paper: Squeeze Cement Treating Matrix Improves Communication, Increases Efficiency, And Reduces Administrative Costs in Multi-Well Squeeze Project

The Wickett Field in the Permian Basin, located 40 miles West of Odessa in Ward County, Texas, is a mature field where squeeze operations occur approximately once per week on each workover rig. Historically, squeeze designs and success ratios have been evaluated individually on a "job by job" basis; this has maintained squeeze cementing costs at a very high level for both the operator and the service company. These costs can include factors such as initial and repeated cement laboratory testing on varying cement slurries, on-site pumping services, cementing additives, surface and down hole equipment, administrative and engineering time of both the operator and service company personnel, rig time, and repeated costs with each squeeze attempt. For some operators, additional factors can contribute to the complexity of this process such as limitations on a consistent methodology or organized approach to the operational aspects of a squeeze operation. Variations can exist within engineering, field supervisory, and service company personnel as to proper on-site pumping techniques, cement slurry design, or necessary volumes of cement for initial or subsequent attempts. Often times, a very limited established or organized method is in place for "looking back" on the success or failure of any particular cement slurry or operational technique. Finally, an overwhelming amount of selections are available in the design process concerning slurry design and operational techniques. We will show how an operator, in close association with a service company can establish specific guidelines to manage these complex variations. We will present the methodologies that have reduced the complexity and increased the manageability of an ongoing process. Through these efforts, laboratory testing, administrative and engineering time commitment by the operating and service company personnel, and overall costs in remedial squeeze cementing have been reduced. In addition, these methodologies have improved communications, helped standardized operational considerations, and have increased the probability of successful squeezes on the first attempt.