Pragmatic and Resilient Approach in the Resuscitation of a High Impact Well Post Shut- In for Production Curtailment in the Onshore Niger-Delta– A Case Study of Nkabra-41 Dual Completion Well

Periodic well shut-in is a common practice in the oil industry. It entails isolating production from the affected well by tripping subsurface safety valves and/or shutting-in the tree valves on the surface. The challenge with shut-in is that sometimes it may not come back to pre-shut-in potential or will fail to come back on production after it is opened back to flow. This phenomenon is becoming frequent and a major cause for concern in the industry. However, it can be caused by varying reasons and thus the restoration of such well back on production can be approached using many methodologies and some of these approaches can be very costly. NKABRA-41 (NKB-41) well is a dual string high impact oil producer in the Onshore Area of the Niger-Delta. The well has hitherto produced problem free until there was a production curtailment request by Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) aimed at managing market forces. The well was shut-in for three months and when the request came to restore production, both strings of the well failed to flow. All efforts to restore both strings of the well on production were initially unsuccessful even after costly remedial well interventions. This paper showcases the pragmatic and resilient approach in restoring both strings of NKB-41 back on-stream over a period of three years, post- production curtailment. The methodologies utilized include sequential restoration procedures, due diligence in subsurface diagnostics and assessments by the Petro-Tech team, extensive multifunctional collaboration and stakeholders’ engagement and alignment. The pragmatic and resilient approach led to production restoration of approximately 3,600 BOPD in the well.