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Relief Well Services

Successfully planned or executed over 20 relief wells

Field proven relief well methodology

Drilling a relief well is a unique operation that provides an emergency response to uncontrolled well incidents such as minor well-control events to major blowout situations with catastrophic repercussions.

Every situation is different and requires a specific intervention response. When compared with standard wells, drilling a relief well is very different, particularly from a wellbore positioning perspective. The objective in drilling a relief well is to intercept a very small target, and even occasionally re-enter the uncontrolled well casing, which requires an elevated level of accuracy.

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Planning Phase

The planning phase is key to a successful relief well operation. The goal for this planning phase is to produce a comprehensive project plan, which defines all processes and activities required to meet the final objective. The relief well team, a multidisciplinary team with roles and responsibilities clearly defined at each phase, should undertake live simulation drills to identify any gaps and implementation redundancies.  

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Approach Phase

The approach phase requires a rigorous survey program to be followed. Advanced survey management processes are necessary to drill an accurate well path with the smallest positional uncertainty. This process includes real-time sag correction, Multi-Station Analysis, In-Field Referencing, raw data crosscheck, and multiple tool, survey redundancy.

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Locate Phase

Locating the target well requires the use of ranging techniques. Positive detection requires deriving the relative position between the relief well and the target well by measuring the distance and direction from the relief well to the target well. The locate phase is based on a strategy that allows for investigating the total area of the potential detection zone.

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Following Phase

The objective of the following phase is to track the target well by monitoring its relative positioning with the relief well. It is important at this stage to stay within the detection distance of one of the available ranging techniques. Being at such a close distance from the target well can even allow combining passive and active ranging techniques; hence, optimizing the ranging strategy.

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Intercept Phase & Killing Operations

The interception phase is the final objective in drilling a relief well which is intercepting the target well. The interception angle depends on the communication option chosen; either parallel positioning between the target and relief well in the case of perforating, high-incidence angle in the case of direct intercept, or low-incidence angle in the case of reentry into a milled window.

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