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201409 - EZ Cutter - SMRIl
- 2. 1
- 5. 4
- 8. Solution Mining Optimization Move Leaching Strings Cut PipesLogging Control
- 10. Explosives Chemical Cutters Mechanical Blades Plasma Torch Cutters run from work-over rigs
- 12. 11
- 14. EZ CUTTER
- 15. EZ CUTTER Light Wireline tool Cuts with Electrical Current Needs Conductive Fluid Clean Sharp Precise
- 16. 15 EZ CUT
- 17. Lab Testing 16
- 18. 17
- 19. 18 7’’ successful EZ - Cut AFTERBEFORE Mechanical Cutter Missrun EZ Cut 7’’Pipe Brine
- 20. 19 Cutting 4’’ ½ pipe inside 7’’ BEFORE BEFORE AFTER AFTER
Editor's Notes
- Good Morning everybody! I am so happy to see such a full room this morning. I know that most of you are getting ready for our lunch break, but let me just take a bit more of your time. I won’t take long, but what I am going to tell you now, may revolutionize the solution mining operations programs as we know them today. First things first, close your books, they will be useless for you during this presentation. Let me first ask you some questions: Who has already been involved or has heard of a pipe cutting operation in solution mining field? Please raise your hand. Good. And out of curiosity, who has been involved or has heard of a pipe cutting operation that actually happened and was not in the initial operational plan? Okay, so there are quite a few of you that are already familiar with pipe cutting operations in solution mining. And you guessed right, this is what I want to talk to you about today. But for real, cutting pipes is just an excuse because what is really at stake here is much more important for each and every single one of us.
- 3 Things :
- Number 1, I believe you will all agree with me, everybody wants to go back home after work… so number 1 is SAFETY Number 2, is TIME, operating time and we all know that in operations, TIME is MONEY, But what would a cheap and fast operation be worth if it did not provide the desired result? So this leads us to number 3. And number 3 is QUALITY. So you got it, SAFETY, TIME and QUALITY. So make sure you remember this 3 words during, AT LEAST, the whole presentation today. Until now, I said nothing new. Let me first start by setting the background here. We had about 50% hands up, plus about 10% not paying attention, so most of you already heard about the need to cut pipes in our solution mining business. For the rest, you may ask, why on earth would we want to cut a pipe downhole ? If you want it shorter, cut it before you run it in the hole, right? This would be too easy… Don’t worry, I am not here to teach solution mining techniques to any of you, as I may be close to the least experienced professional in the room, but as an engineer, I am here to bring SOLUTIONS.
- I don’t know how many of you are familiar with pipes that are removed from a leeching cavity, but I can assure you they often look more like a flexible hose than steel pipes !
- Indeed many cases, the fall of insoluble rocks may cause the pipes to collapse or bend downhole. (CLICK) Under these conditions, no logging control operations are possible, and removal of the entire string may be compromised due to the bent casing. So, what can we do ? (CLICK) Cut the pipe. So let’s go and cut the pipe. Once the pipe is cut, if the cut is clean enough, the way is free and we can safely go ahead and run a sonar or any other logging tool to check the state of the cavity.
- Also, in brine production cavities, a Solution Mining operator may want to change the strings position, usually upwards. For this, he has two options : - The first one, mobilize a rig, remove completely the inner string (assuming it is not bent), raise the external string to the desired position, and lower the inner string to the desired position. Or alternatively, (CLICK) cut the inner pipe one or more times depending on the conditions, then cut the external pipe at the desired depth. Once finished, he only needs to lower the inner pipe again to the desired position. I will let you do the math, but it seems obvious that unless you have a reason to replace the whole string, cutting seems the most efficient solution! Now, let’s take a step back and look at the big picture.
- (CLICK) We have now one ore more cavities so, to efficiently control their production, operators regularly need to do at least 3 operations :
- 1. Move leeching strings up and down (CLICK) 2. Cut Pipes (CLICK) 3. Run logging tools such as sonar, integrity tests, blanket determination Each of them without compromising the other ! For instance, if we cut a pipe in such an irregular way that there is a risk that a logging tool gets stuck….the saving would turn out much more expensive in the end ! -- Next present John
- So, everybody, this is John. John is as a Solution Mining Operator and he regularly has to cut pipes. When facing this kind of operation, he has to: ensure SAFETY optimizing TIME, saving MONEY efficiently cut the pipe Allowing logging operations after the cut. Easy, huh ? He doesn’t seem to think that…. Let’s have a quick look at the options he currently has.
- Explosives Chemical Cutters Mechanical Blades or Radial Plasma Torches And mechanical or abrasive techniques run from a workover rig But none of them offer the perfect solution for his needs. (CLICK) Some, such as explosives, are fast and relatively cheap, but involve handling dangerous materials and logging tools risk getting stuck in the cut. (CLICK) Others, are expensive, very limited in pipe size range, involve hazardous products handling and the corresponding transportation, storage and operation licenses that are costly to maintain. (CLICK) Mechanical cutters and Radial Plasma Torch are safe and light to mobilize, as they can be run from wireline units but are also strongly limited in pipe size range. (CLICK) Any operation involving a workover rig mobilization takes time and is very, very expensive.
- So our friend John still has a problem as none of the available techniques comply to all of his requirements. So, as an engineer, you kinda want to help him out, right? There was still room for innovation on try to help out this guy and not let him fear pipe workovers. What would be the ideal solution for John?
- Pipe operations, for any pipe size, should become, SAFE, LIGHT, FAST, COST EFFECTIVE and of HIGH QUALITY.
- Translating these idealistic specifications into practical considerations, this meant : No dangerous products handling Light and fast overall operation, including mobilization and cut Cost-effective solution Adaptable to a wide range of pipe sizes Controlled clean sharp cut that would allow safe logging afterwards Many years ago, after many delayed operations due to bent or collapsed pipes in the well, this was the ambitious starting point.
- Today, 2014, a new SOLUTION is born. (CLICK) The EZ Cutter.
- (CLICK) A wireline tool that is able to cut only by applying electrical current through the cable, just as any other wireline tool. Its only requirement, a slightly conductive fluid in the well. (CLICK) Its cuts are Clean. (CLICK) Its cuts are Sharp. (CLICK) Its cuts are Precise. And I am going to prove all this to you today.
- Let’s see the EZ Cutter in action. In this case, the inner casing is bent in the cavity, it is impossible to pull the string out or run any sonar survey safely. There is no choice, the pipe has to be cut. The tool only needs a common wireline unit to operate, fast to mobilize and to rig up. Once we are all set, we can go ahead and run in the hole. Arriving at the desired depth, the tool performs the cut until the complete cut is detected from the surface unit. The tool is lowered to control the cut with a CCL sensor and guarantee a complete cut and free access to the cavity. Our friend John would now have its problem solved ! Leaching can continue efficiently or he could also decide to run sonar survey operations right after the cut. (CLICK) Equipment is already rigged up, so all we need is to run in hole, do the acquisition and successfully pull out of hole, so that John can have his cavity back as soon as possible. But you are probably tired of all these animations by now, so let’s get REAL
- As any Research & Development program, after conception, the prototype has to be tested in the lab, this is a critical phase. (CLICK) The cutter precisely starts to dig a groove in the pipe ID until the groove is deep enough that the lower end’s own weight forces the pipe to fall. (CLICK) The EZ Cutter has been successfully Lab tested for pipe sizes ranging 4” – 9” 5/8, with different fluid conditions. And we expect to cut a 13” 3/8 still this year. All, with the same tool. So, you may say, lab testing is good, but I need something that actually cuts down there! For this, there is something I wanted to share with you.
- Let us all travel together several hundred meters down, and check the EZ Cutter’s job in its first field test. Let’s see what the cut looks like. Well, as promised, the cut is perfectly clean. We can even see in the back, some thin plastic pipes that were not damaged at all during the operation. In this case, the lower end of the pipe was stuck in the sump and is visible from above. This cut was the first of the field testing program, happening now and scheduled until end of the present year. In the first field tests, all safety and quality control precautions were taken. The run program included Borehole imaging tool before and after the cut, as well as an Axial Lateral camera run to verify the quality of the cut. To finish off today, I will show you two field examples.
- The borehole imaging tool allows you to see the internal state of the pipe. In this particular case, the EZ Cutter came after a mechanical cutter missrun in a 7”, visible both on the imager log and the camera. Let’s now see what the “After” imaging log looks like: (CLICK) The EZ-Cut was successfully made. To verify the quality of the cut, the camera was also run and showed a clean sharp cut, safely allowing any logging operations after the cut. So, this concludes my first example. I promised I wouldn’t take long, and I like to keep my promises. I don’t want to bore you guys so this will the second and last example I will show you today. And I insisted on showing it is probably the most revolutionary innovation of the EZ Cutter.
- So the situation is the following, we need to cut an inner pipe without compromising the outer pipe’s integrity. What can we see here ? Again, the best way to prove the results is to compare the “after” and the “before”. So let’s see here this superimposed log of the “before” and the “after” of the cut. The Dual Casing Collar Locator sensor allows us to detect not only the inner pipe joints but two concentric pipe joints. The blue curves correspond to the inner pipe, and the red and orange correspond to the outer pipe. Both logs perfectly correlate until this point where in the “after log” the inner pipe CCL curve shows a clear inflection, showing the anticipated end of the inner pipe. So the cut was successful on the 4” ½. That the tool was able to cut, we knew it. But that it was able to cut without affecting the outer pipe...That’s a different story. So, if we take a look at the outer CCL, the 7” shoe is still at the same position, proving that the 7” pipe was not affected by the cut. This ends my second example.
- Now, let’s get back to our friend John. With the EZ-Cutter, he solved his safety issues, as no hazardous materials are used. (CLICK) Both his operating time and his cost are optimized, as the mobilization is limited to a wireline unit and the operation can even be coupled to subsequent surveys. (CLICK) He does not have to worry too much about pipe range or drift issues, as for the first time, a single tool can cover a wide range of pipe sizes. (CLICK) And last but not least, the clean cut eliminates all risk of getting stuck with the logging tools. So finally John is happy ! Do you remember the three words that I asked you to remember at the beginning of the presentation?
- Safety, Time, and Quality. As I told you before, I am an engineer, and an engineer that actually started her career arming detonators, using hazardous chemicals and shooting guns in the wells. So when I talk about safety, I really mean it. It’s not just about John, it’s about all of us who are involved in field operations. So, if on top of avoiding handling dangerous goods, we have a reliable tool that allows huge savings in time and money, honestly, I think that this EZ Cutter is pretty awesome !