Novel Downhole Annular Barrier Solution for Water Shut Off – Kuwait Case Study

Globally, significant numbers of wells are impaired by poor cement quality in well annuli leading to inadequate sealing of zones and reduced well integrity. Subsequent undesired flow in well annuli such as from connected water sources can result in both significant "locked in" production potential and environmental risk. Downhole Annular Barrier (DAB) (or Downhole Annular Repair (DAR)) systems can be employed via well intervention to correct integrity and conformance control issues and extend the productive life of wells in a safe and cost-effective manner. New and emergent DAB technologies can provide novel solutions to difficult well annuli problems, where traditional remediation solutions such as annular remedial cementing would not be appropriate, efficient, or otherwise have a low chance of success. This paper will review the planning and successful execution of one such novel DAB intervention by Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) for Water Shut Off (WSO) in an onshore conventional oil well. The intervention objective was isolation of the poorly cemented casing / wellbore annulus to prevent, or significantly reduce, water flow due to OWC (Oil Water Contact) rising across the open production perforations. WSO was successfully achieved utilizing the pinpoint injected resin technology. This technology entailed injecting epoxy resin into the annular space at desired isolation depth, forming a 360-degree pressure barrier. This was world's first application of the service company product technology (CS) for WSO in a sandstone oil well.