Shifting four sliding sleeves on E-line

A deviated development well featured a dual-zone completion where each of the two independently completed zones included two sliding sleeves that needed to be opened. Braided line had made various attempts to shift the valves but was unable to reach the desired well depth due to the well geography. The shifting tools kept hanging up in the 3.562” ID no-go nipple further up hole, which was believed to be caused by the deviation of the well.

The alternative to using Welltec’s e-line operated technologies was to run a shifting tool on either rig tubing or coiled tubing; however, both solutions were considered to be too time consuming.

Instead, the Well Tractor® 318 and Well Stroker® 318 were mobilized to location and run in hole with a Welltec® casing collar locater. A third party shifting tool was run beneath the Well Stroker to engage the shifting profiles of the sleeves.

The goal of the operation was to open all four sliding sleeves on e-line in as few runs as possible. It was decided to run six inches of spacer pipe between the Well Stroker and the shifting tool to locate the anchors of the Well Stroker in the 5”, 18# blank pipe located immediately above each set of sliding sleeves. By adding the spacer pipe, it was expected that all the sleeves could be opened in one run by ensuring that the anchor section of the Well Stroker would be located inside the 5” blank pipe.

During the operation, the anchors of the Well Stroker locked the upper part of the toolstring in place while the stroking rod below the anchor section applied the necessary pushing or pulling force. The dimensions of the tools run in hole dictated that the anchors needed to be located inside a pipe with a flush ID less than 4.7” because setting the anchors inside a sleeve could have damaged the valve.