Innovative Extended Metal Expandable Open-Hole Annular Barrier: Enhancing Reliability in Three Zone Open-Hole Completions in Brazilian Clt Wells

Brazil's pre-salt reservoirs have driven the need for increasingly complex well completion strategies, particularly in ultra-deepwater environments, where heterogeneity, long pay zones, and high fluid losses pose significant engineering challenges. In this context, intelligent well completions have become a key enabler for enhanced reservoir management, allowing selective production and reducing the need for intervention. However, implementing these systems in open-hole configurations, especially across two to four distinct zones, introduces critical challenges related to zonal isolation, equipment integration, and overall reliability. This paper presents a pioneering application of Metal Expandable Packer (MEP) technology with feedthrough (FT) or pass-through capabilities in an intelligent completion system designed for a three-zone open-hole well and the introduction of new engineering features. It also introduces new engineering features that address critical requirements such as mechanical integrity, annular isolation, and the ability to route multiple control lines through the packer body — enabling efficient installation of interval control valves (ICVs), chemical injection valves (CIVs) and pressure/temperature gauges (PDGs) in each zone. The wells and respective fields utilizing this technology are located approximately 180 km off the Brazilian coast in the pre-salt region (Oliveira, J.O.A.I., 2021). These wells are characterized by significant depth, complex geological composition, and high-pressure reservoirs with elevated temperatures and contaminants. To optimize hydrocarbon recovery, intelligent completion systems have been implemented, notably open-hole Metal Expandable Packers (MEP) for zone isolation, which simplify well architecture and enhance operational and well reliability.