SPE 68410

A New System for Coiled Tubing Reentry of Multilaterals

L.J. Leising (Schlumberger), P.C. Bunaes (Schlumberger), N.J. Walle (Schlumberger), T. Abun (Schlumberger),
[Link] (DPC), J.C. Stekly (DPC)

Copyright 2001, Society of Petroleum Engineers Inc.

reenter laterals of a well with CT. So far, the key objective of
This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE/ICoTA Coiled Tubing Roundtable held in the HoleFinder tool has been matrix acidizing. Various acid
Houston, Texas, 7–8 March 2001.
types are used as treating fluids to stimulate production from a
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE Program Committee following review of
information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper, as
damaged formation. This is achieved either by creating new
presented, have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to flowpaths, as is the case with carbonate formations, or by
correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any
position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Papers presented at dissolution of the permeability damaging materials, as is the
SPE meetings are subject to publication review by Editorial Committees of the Society of
Petroleum Engineers. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper
case when acidizing sandstones. A common solution for
for commercial purposes without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is acidizing multilateral wells has been bullheading the treating
prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300
words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous fluid from the surface in the hope that it would reach into all
acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper was presented. Write Librarian, SPE, P.O.
Box 833836, Richardson, TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435.
laterals and treat the formation along the entire damaged
interval. By bullheading, however, there is no control of where
the treatment fluid will go. Sections of high permeability and
Abstract the heel of the lateral, which is first encountered by the
treating fluid, would therefore take most of the treatment
Multilateral wells are quite common in today’s oil & gas while low permeability sections would usually remain
industry. Access to a specific lateral is usually made possible virtually untreated. Proper placement of the treating fluid and
by inserting sophisticated completion equipment near the coverage of the zone of interest is therefore critical to the
junction. However, completion equipment is both expensive effectiveness of the treatment. The HoleFinder tool allows
and must be installed at the time of drilling. Most multilateral entry of CT into the lateral that bears the zone of interest.
wells (over 66%) are sidetracked out of openhole or cased
hole and completed open hole (some with hung-off slotted The HoleFinder tool itself is a controllable bent sub (CBS)
liners). These types of laterals are classified respectively as that connects to the end of the bottomhole assembly (BHA).
Level 1 and Level 2 according to the Technical Advancement The tool has two primary functions: to detect the multi-lateral
of Multilateral wells (TAML) classification. A majority of window and to steer the CT into the appropriate lateral. It
such wells are located in the Middle East and North and South works in conjunction with a rotational device, i.e., indexing or
America. orienting tool (OT), above the CBS that rotates the CBS to
change its orientation. Once the lateral is entered, a
The Schlumberger HoleFinder* tool has made it possible to multinozzle, hydraulically actuated circulating sub is used to
reenter Level 1 and Level 2 multilateral wells with coiled pump the acid at high rate.
tubing (CT). The simplicity of the tool makes it easy to use.
No downhole wires or electronics are needed to operate the
tool. A pressure signal is used as feedback to custom software Reservoir and Completion Strategy
that helps the operator with locating a multilateral junction.
The need to access and produce more reserves from
The feasibility of the HoleFinder tool was successfully existing wellbores requires better ways to drill, stimulate and
proven during field tests in the Middle East in May and produce from those wellbores. The evolution of multilateral
December 2000, where the tool was used to stimulate newly drilling has allowed access to more reserves. However, there
drilled Level 1 and Level 2 multilateral wells. was still a need to develop better ways to reenter laterals for
stimulation to insure what is drilled is productive.
Introduction The carbonate formations produced in most of the Middle
East have proven to be competent enough to be stimulated and
Applications such as acidizing, cementing, logging and fishing produced openhole. This simplifies the drilling of sidetracked
are examples of the advantages of being able to selectively
2 L.J. Leising, P.C. Bunaes, N.J. Walle, T. Abun, [Link], J.C. Stekly

wells and eliminates the need for slotted liners within the Development of the HoleFinder Tool
producing intervals. It also allows the intervals to be
selectively stimulated with the use of a Coil Tubing Spray For the reasons previously described, an engineering
Assembly after the completion system has been run. The project was established at the Schlumberger Reservoir
drilling of multilaterals (typically 3000 to 4000 ft in length) Completions (SRC) product center in Rosharon, Texas to
within the openhole portion of the well is easily accomplished develop and extensively test the HoleFinder tool and
with an openhole sidetrack and drilling the second lateral to a methodology. The aim was to keep the HoleFinder tool
new landing point. This is classified as TAML Level 1. simple, inexpensive and easy to use. No downhole wires or
However, once the well has been openhole sidetracked, the electronics are needed to operate the tool. A key part of the
original lateral is not always easily reentered for stimulation methodology is the software that is required to help profile the
after the drilling is completed. Utilization of a HoleFinder tool window.
allows this.
In order to facilitate the extensive testing of the concept,
the existing vertical test well in Rosharon was fitted with a
Previous Methods and Attempts window and a 400-ft long horizontal test facility with five
lateral junctions (Fig. 1) was fabricated. Because the ultimate
Several attempts to selectively reenter Level 1 and Level 2 challenge was considered to be crossing a low-side sidetrack,
multilaterals have been made prior to the development of the the test facility included a low-side sidetrack in 7-in. casing at
HoleFinder tool. In 1996, an attempt was made onshore in the the beginning, which the tool needed to pass before reaching
Middle East with a similar device, which used an orienting any of the other laterals. The other lateral junctions were in the
tool for azimuthal control and a kick-over tool. The up, left and right directions, and one included a simulated
methodology was, however, very different because locating washout. The main lateral also consisted of a 60 degree/100-ft
the window relied purely on depth measurement. Although dogleg test section. After the tool and the methodology had
yard testing showed considerable promise, it was unsuccessful been extensively tested at the SRC product center, it was field
as the window of the lateral could not be located and entered. tested in the Arabian Gulf.
After three days of trying, the attempt was abandoned.

In 1997, a Level 1 multilateral with 3-3/4 inch openhole HoleFinder Operation

was drilled as part of a three well offshore CT-drilling
campaign. For the purpose of stimulating the barefoot A schematic of the HoleFinder assembly is shown in Fig. 2.
completion, the nonnatural lateral was reentered with CT As stated earlier, the HoleFinder tool is used to guide the BHA
using an orienting tool, a fixed-bent sub, MWD and a drop into the appropriate lateral by pivoting the elbow joint at the
ball circ-sub. For this paper, the term nonnatural lateral is end. The angle of the pivot arm is a function of pump rate. No
defined as the lateral that the BHA will not enter when the or low flow rate will keep the arm straight while a high flow
BHA is RIH straight. The small 3-3/4 inch openhole size rate will cause the arm to bend to its maximum. It is important
allowed for successful reentry. However, although a circ-sub to be able to pump in both straight and bent configurations
was used to divert the acid from the MWD during acidizing, because of the debris that might be present in a horizontal
the MWD was still partly damaged by the acid. In addition, junction.
subsequent post-job analysis of the tubing forces pointed out
that only a minor hindrance in the borehole would have caused An orienting tool (OT) is used to orient the HoleFinder tool
the CT to lock-up. A problem with the fixed-bent sub is that it until it becomes aligned with the window. Pump rate is also
induces a drag force and increases the chances of tagging up used to operate the OT. The OT rotates 30 degrees every time
on nipples and washouts. the pump flow rate is cycled. Since the HoleFinder tool can be
run either straight or bent with the pumps on, it is possible to
As described in the previous section on Reservoir and alternate between the two configurations without affecting the
Completion Strategy, since it was important to develop a orientation of the OT. The two tools work as a system for
method to reenter multilaterals for stimulation; this same BHA locating the window.
was subsequently used in February 1999 to try and reenter a
triple Level 1 multilateral well with 6-1/8 inch openhole. It In order to locate a lateral window, it is necessary to know
was, however, only a partial success because only one of the the approximate depth of the window. Once the tool is at this
nonnatural laterals could be reentered. Furthermore, the target depth, the area needs to be profiled with the aid of
margin of accuracy of the MWD data gave conflicting specially developed software to locate the window. A pressure
azimuthal direction near the junction, making it impossible to signal is used as feedback to the software when a multilateral
get immediate confirmation of entry. window is located. This procedure, which is shown in Fig. 3 is
called profiling a window. Once the window has been located,
the software also keeps track of the toolface orientation.
SPE SPE 68410 A NEW SYSTEM FOR CT REENTRY OF MULTILATERALS 3

The plan was to acidize the nonnatural lateral followed by

Operational Considerations the natural lateral in one run. To protect the MWD and to
maximize the pumping rate, a ball-drop circulating sub was
In order for the HoleFinder system to work as intended, it is used to pump the acid. The drawback with this plan was that
necessary that the well has a clearly defined natural hole. For all control over the HoleFinder tool would be lost once the ball
this paper, the term natural hole is defined as the well (mother was dropped. However, if the existence of a natural hole
well or lateral) that the BHA will enter when the BHA is RIH proved to be true, the CT would automatically enter the
straight. Experience has shown that this is the case for most natural hole after having acidized the nonnatural hole by
multilateral wells. The existence of a natural hole is important simply pulling out past the junction and RIH again. The CT
because a reference is needed from which one can find the would then have to be RIH to tag TD in order to confirm
other, or nonnatural, hole. If there is a 50-50 chance that the which lateral had been entered.
BHA will go into either one of the laterals when RIH straight,
another algorithm (i.e. poke and hope) or additional feedback In the first pass, the HoleFinder tool was RIH straight 100
(i.e. MWD) is necessary to navigate the HoleFinder tool. ft past the junction at 9740 ft. With the CT remaining static,
the pumps were started at 2 bbl/min to get a survey with the
Another requirement of the well is that each lateral has a MWD to determine which lateral was entered. After
distinct total depth (TD). Unless an MWD tool is run with the confirming that the CT had entered into the east lateral, the CT
system, confirmation on which lateral that was entered has to was POOH to start the profiling procedure. The pump rate was
come from tagging TD. reduced to 1.25 bbl/min while profiling the window. The
pressure response from the tool was monitored in the CT unit
The HoleFinder tool is adaptable to any reasonable hole size using the custom software. The CT was again RIH to 9840 ft
bigger than its outer diameter by adding extensions below the to begin another pass. All 12 passes were carried out to get a
pivot joint. 360 degree profile of the window, and every survey from the
MWD showed that the tool entered the east lateral. It was
anticipated before the job that the east lateral would be the
Case History 1 natural hole since it was the last drilled lateral. Besides that,
several unsuccesful attempts had been made to reenter and
The first field test with the HoleFinder tool was carried out in clean out the west lateral with a bent housing drilling
the Arabian Gulf on 23 May 2000 with great success. The well assembly on drill pipe before the CT stimulation.
was sidetracked from a 7-5/8 in., 29 ppf casing at 9435 ft, and
a 5-1/2 in. 17 ppf liner was run from 9202 ft to 9635 ft. Two The CT was POOH past the window and then slowly RIH
horizontal laterals were drilled 180 degrees from each other; to 9840 ft past the window again. The CT was stopped and the
the west lateral was drilled to 13,378 ft MD, while the east pumps were brought back on-line at 2 bbl/min to obtain a
lateral was drilled to 13,545 ft MD. Both laterals were survey from the MWD tool. The survey from the MWD
completed openhole, and the hole size was 4-3/4 in. Both confirmed that the CT had entered into the west lateral, or the
laterals were acidized in one run prior to running the nonnatural lateral. After confirming the CT had entered into
completion. the correct lateral, the CT was RIH. With the CT 100 ft off
TD, a ¾ in ball was dropped to open the circulating sub and
The components of the BHA consisted of a motorhead isolate both the MWD and HoleFinder tool from the acid in
assembly (incorporating a dual flapper check valve, hydraulic order to begin acidizing.
release and a drop-ball circulating sub), orienting tool, MWD,
filter sub and the HoleFinder tool. After acidizing the west lateral, the CT was POOH into the
liner shoe at 9640 ft MD. While maintaining the pump rate as
Although not required for this field test, the BHA included low as possible, the CT was RIH again. To confirm that the
an MWD tool to verify and learn as much as possible about CT had entered into the east lateral, the CT was run past the
the characteristics of the HoleFinder tool. Even though the west lateral TD to 13,495 ft MD. Once this had been
MWD tool was present, it was decided to follow the normal confirmed, the lateral was acidized as per the procedure.
profiling procedure, as if the HoleFinder was run without
MWD. The advantage of having the MWD was that the
natural hole could be confirmed without having to run all the Case History 2
way to TD. Prior to the job, it was decided to get a survey
from the MWD before POOH on each of the 12 profiling The second HoleFinder tool job in the Arabian Gulf was
passes in order to be absolutely certain that the tool did enter performed on 1 December 2000. The well was sidetracked
the same hole every time, thus confirming the existence of a from a 9-5/8-in. casing at 9350 ft. The upper lateral was
natural lateral. drilled first in the upper reservoir zone to 13,576 ft MD, while
the lower lateral was drilled in the lower reservoir zone to
12,580 ft MD. The lower lateral was plugged back to 12,030 ft
4 L.J. Leising, P.C. Bunaes, N.J. Walle, T. Abun, [Link], J.C. Stekly

MD. Both horizontal laterals were completed barefoot, and the the CT tagged the bottom of the lower lateral, which
openhole size was 6-1/8 inch. 4-1/2-in. tubing was run to 9451 confirmed entry into it. The lower lateral was acidized without
ft MD prior to the stimulation job, and the BHA was run any problems.
through completion. Stimulation of both laterals was Following the job, the reasons for the confusing junction
performed in one run. signals were determined. Three indexes were missed because
the 3.5 in. MWD tool was in a 40 to 50 degree/100 ft dogleg
The BHA consisted of a motorhead assembly (incorporating a when the flow rate was cycled to actuate the orienting tool. In
dual flapper check valve, hydraulic release and a drop ball addition, pump rate fluctuations on two profiling passes
circulating sub), orienting tool, MWD, filter sub, and the created false junction signals.
HoleFinder tool.

The decision to run MWD with the HoleFinder tool was made Conclusion
when the tubing forces simulator showed the CT locking up
almost 1000 ft from TD in the upper lateral. The CT would The use of the HoleFinder tool has allowed multilateral
require the use of either a pipe straightener or nitrogen to wells to be entered and selectively stimulated to place the acid
reach TD in the upper lateral. Therefore, the MWD was directly on the desired payzone.
needed to confirm entry into the correct lateral in case of not The success of this technology has allowed wellpaths to
being able to determine which lateral had been entered by be planned in advance and multiple zones to be targeted using
locking up before reaching TD. Level 1 and 2 multilateral technology.
System testing of the tool in a horizontal multilateral test
The procedure was outlined to make 12 passes to get a full facility proved to be extremely beneficial and contributed
360 degree profile of the window. The profiling runs consisted greatly to the success of the field testing.
of running the CT 50 ft past the window and then slowly The surface software which plots pressure versus depth
POOH to 20 ft above the window. Once the window had been and keeps track of indexes of the orienting tool greatly
located, the plan was to enter and then acidize the upper lateral simplifies the operator’s task of identifying junctions and
first. knowing the toolface orientation (once the lateral has been
entered).
When confusing signals for window identification were If the pumps are cycled while the BHA is in a dogleg, the
received on the first set of profiling passes, it was decided to torque generated by the orienting tool may not be enough to
RIH in order to verify the lateral with MWD, which indicated overcome BHA bending friction.
that the CT was in the lower lateral. The OT was then indexed Pump flow rate must be kept constant while profiling or
2 clicks, and another pass was made. A signal, allowing the profiling run must be repeated.
identification of the window, was then received. With the
HoleFinder tool bent, the CT was RIH to 9645 ft MD. MWD As more experience is gained running the HoleFinder tool,
reading taken at that depth confirmed entry into the upper more applications will be discovered, which could include
lateral. Another reading was taken at 9810 ft MD, and it too rigless reentries, zonal isolations, water shutoff, logging and
confirmed that the CT had entered into the upper lateral. Once more.
at TD, a ball was dropped to isolate the MWD tool from the
acid, this also disabled the HoleFinder tool. Acidizing was Acknowledgement
carried out through the circulating sub.
The authors thank Schlumberger and DPC for permission to
The CT was differentially stuck at 13,525 ft MD for some publish this paper. A special thanks is also extended to the
time during the initial acid stage. An attempt at pumping crew of the Trident III, Trident 18, Big Orange 25 and Dubai
nitrogen was unsuccessful, until the well was gas lifted, and CT for their help in making the field tests successful.
the CT was finally free. Upon resumption, nitrified acid was
* Mark of Schlumberger
pumped in the initial stages to reduce the hydrostatic pressure
in the CT to prevent it from becoming differentially stuck. The
upper lateral was acidized as per procedure without any
problems.

After pumping overflush, the CT was POOH to 60 ft above

the window prior to RIH again to continue acidizing the lower
lateral. Because the lower lateral was plugged back to 12,030
ft MD, the CT was RIH to 12,303 ft MD in order to verify that
it had entered the upper lateral. It was decided to POOH into
the tail pipe to ensure the BHA would be straightened out
before attempting to RIH again. During the second attempt,
SPE SPE 68410 A NEW SYSTEM FOR CT REENTRY OF MULTILATERALS 5

West Lateral

Sidetrack

Original Hole

East Lateral

Fig. 4 The Well (Case History 1)

Fig. 1 Multilateral Test Fixture

DCN CV OT HF

DCN = Disconnect
CV = Circulating Valve
OT = Orienting Tool
HF = HoleFinder

Fig. 2 BHA Schematic Fig. 5 The Well (Case History 2)

a) b) c) d)

Fig. 3 Profiling Procedure