Quality Control Plan Prevents Deployment of Unacceptable AMS-5663 Alloy 718, A Switch from API-6A in Critical Offshore Asset

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Abstract ADNOC-offshore with their partners conceived and developed the concept of Dissolvable-Plugged-Nozzles (DPNs’), an embodiment with a dissolvable elastomeric-plug to be installed on pre-drilled limited-entry liners in their extended-reach and deviated (ERD) injection and production-wells (Bachar et al. 2004, Beaman et al. 2016, Clews et al. 2018, Jackson et al. 2017, Kiyoumi et al. 2019, Mayer et al. 2014, and Sau et al. 2019). Deployment of this technology has resulted in significant savings and mitigated HSE risks. They are the result of (a) Not having to pick-up a dedicated displacement work-string, thus significant time-savings of 5 to 7-days (b) Increase probability of running liner to TD through the ability to wash to bottom (c) Less fluid losses to the reservoir formation (d) Effective wellbore cleaning, among others. These are detailed in SPE-193036-MS and our past publications (Roy et al. 2021, Roy et al. 2020, and Shamshy et al. 2023). To bridge technology gaps of such an embodiment reliably operating at elevated temperatures and pressures, a DPN with a degradable intermetallic, bulk metallic glass (BMG) core, with ability to operate under 5,000 psi differential pressure (DP) across the nozzle, was successfully qualified to (a) retain its mechanical-integrity up-to 48 hours of exposure to brines of varying specific gravities, (b) to break-through in less than 14-days after RDFNAF-to-brine fluid sweep (patent granted). With extended reach deviated (ERD) / maximum reservoir contact (MRC) island wells now reaching > 50,000 ft., often having a lateral length of > 30,000 ft., substantial resistance is encountered during deploying completions string to total depth (TD), necessitating jarring of the LEL assembly while running in hole (RIH), resulting in days of delay. An approach, common in unconventional shale reservoirs is being looked into for adoption (a) floating of the completion string, while also (b) reducing the liner size from 6 5/8-inch to 5 1/2 -inch. Use of acidic (low-pH) filter-cake breakers to reduce differential sticking, and enhanced wellbore cleaning, used with plugged Limited-Entry-Liner (LEL) / Remote Close Shoes (RCS) technology is now being deployed. This necessitates qualifying a DPN wherein it retains mechanical integrity in acidic breaker fluids for a minimum of 8 to 10 hours in low pH breakers. Breaker resist (BR)-DPNs’ were engineered to survive 3500-psi differential in NAF for 20-days with subsequent holds at 250 oF, 3500-psi differential (a) for 15-hours in 10.6 ppg (NaBr/NaCl) heavy-brines followed by (b) up to 10 hours in breaker fluids having a pH of 2 at elevated temperatures (patent pending). API 6A 718 was approved for production of 500 BR-DPNs’ bound for field introduction. Here we present a "Case Study" where deviations from industry standard practice and failure of an offshore Tier-1vendor to follow established protocol, resulted in a catastrophic-near-miss. API 6A 718 approved by operator, service provider and technology developer was switched to a substandard AMS 5663 718 and used for manufacturing DPN blanks. No non-conformance reported (NCR) by vendor. During factory acceptance testing several BR-DPNs failed to qualify. Quality controls in place were able to identify the change. A key root cause identified resulting in this failure was knowledge gap in recognizing difference between API 6A vs. AMS materials grades, as such specs. To remedy, all 500-unit DPNs’ manufactured had to be scrapped and re-worked, onshoring manufacturing for a better control of process integrity.

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