SPE-199845-MS

Significant Time Reduction and Cost Savings Realized Through the Use of
Wireline Deployed Milling Services, to Enlarge a Tubing Hanger

Alessandro Mangione, Elpidio Gravante, Giuliano Sinibaldi, Adriano Cianci, Gianluigi Sala, Raimondo Magrì,
Crescenzo Altarelli, and Cristiano Paoli, ENI; Maximilien Hallaire, Andres Hernandez, Gregory Perry, and William
MacPherson, Welltec

Copyright 2020, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE/ICoTA Well Intervention Conference and Exhibition originally scheduled to be held in The Woodlands, TX, USA,
24-25 March 2020. Due to COVID-19 the physical event was not held. The official proceedings were published online on 16 March 2020.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents
of the paper have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect
any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written
consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may
not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract
A producing well located offshore Congo was equipped with a TRSCSSV which failed to open. A velocity
valve, with a stem beneath, had been installed to keep the flapper open. This condition, apart from restricting
the production, was a temporary solution as defined in Eni's (the operator) well integrity policy; for this
reason, the SSV had to be replaced. In order to do so, the completion needed to be removed, which implied
cutting the cut-to-release packer. A lock open tool needed to be run in the SSV to allow the cutter to reach
the packer. The lock open tool was too big to pass the tubing hanger. Eni issued a challenge to the service
industry, to come up with a solution to enlarge the hardened tubing hanger while preserving its mechanical
integrity. The solution also had to be deployable quickly as the drilling unit could incur costly standby.
The retained solution used a wireline deployed milling toolstring equipped with a diamond coated bit.
The benefits of this solution impacted several areas: the surface read out system allowed for fine control of
the milling operation, the combinability of the tools allowed for adequate planning of potential fish recovery
while retaining well barriers on a live well and the size of the equipment allowed for a rapid overseas
mobilization.
The milling operation was completed in a single run, with a total milling time of 1hr 47min.
The paper will discuss the project scope of work, equipment preparation and job execution, an estimate
of the risk and cost reduction delivered, and an estimate of the added production enabled by removing the
failed SSV.

Introduction
Early 2019, the operator started a new development campaign on the Nene Marine XII field, however, after
completing the 2nd well of the campaign, it was detected that the 4 ½" tubing retrievable, surface controlled,
subsurface safety valve TRSCSSV could be opened but a hydraulic leak was preventing it to remain open.
In order to fix this issue, the newly settled completion had to be pulled out.
To change the completion, it was required to run in hole a mechanical cutter to cut the cut-to-release
packer. However, due to the SSV malfunction, it was first required to lock open the safety valve by deploying
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a 3.813 in. deformation lock out tool, which is designed to deform the safety valve flow tube. By deforming
the flow tube, it will prevent it from traveling back onto the close position thus keeping the flapper in a
lock-open position.
The well was equipped with a tubing hanger (Figure 1) that was treated with plasma nitriding process,
which increases the tubing wall hardness which was equivalent to 13 Cr. The tubing hanger had a minimum
diameter was 3.81in.(97mm).; therefore, the 3.813 in. deformation lock open tool could not be run through
it. The tubing hanger therefore had to be milled from 3.81 in. to 3.975 +/- 0.1 in, to allow the deployment
of the deformation lock out tool.

Figure 1—Tubing Hanger

Feasibility Analysis
The operator accepted the value proposition of the Wireline Well Tractor in combination with the Well
Miller to enlarge the tubing hanger and allow the safely deployment the deformation lock out tool.
The tubing hanger had 3 different internals diameters, with the top one slightly bigger than the target area.
Therefore, the milling operation had to be started from the top section (99.3mm section), to avoid getting
wedged stuck due to the small clearance between the upper section and the milling bit to be used for the
lower section. Due to the operation urgency, the service company D&E team had to identify a bit capable
to mill the target hardware. Within a couple of hours of technical discussions, the D&E team confirmed the
parameters of the milling bits suitable to mill such a material, and corresponding bits were found available
in some locations.

Figure 2—Tapered Milling Bit

As the operation was to be carried out at surface with a live well, a customized rig up setup was required
(Figure-3). To comply with the operator well integrity policy, two (2) gate valves were to be placed above
the x-mast tree and one (1) above the rig floor. The Gate Valves worked as barriers in the scenario the
milling string gets stuck in any stage of the milling operations. Additionally, it was required that the PCE
connections where the milling toolstring was operating to be interconnected with flanges instead of threads,
SPE-199845-MS 3

as threads could be unthreading due to the counter torque generated by the milling string. Furthermore, paint
marks across the joints were added and monitored during the milling operations.

Figure 3—Pressure Control Equipment Stack up vs Milling toolstring diagram

Equipment Mobilization
The operator expressed the urgency to mobilize the equipment to be able to perform the workover right
after completing the ongoing well. The operation required very customized tools that were not available in
Congo and due to the tight schedule, an extensive, detailed, and precise job mobilization plan was prepared.
Equipment movement in any of the African countries represents a challenge to all the services providers.
Therefore, for this specific operation a set specialized personnel were mobilized to expedite the tight custom
exportation and importation process. The tools came from multiples countries across the world, and thanks
to perfect alignment between the operation and the supply team, the whole equipment was in country on
time for the operations, with enough spare time to function check the full equipment. During the entire
mobilization process, the operator was daily informed to further coordinate with the offshore drilling and
completion team.
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Technology
The usage of Wireline conveyed milling toolstring is a method introduced in 2004 and is commonly used
on complex milling operation where high precision and efficiency is required. The tool that is designed to
mill this type of hardware consists of power and drive sections operated by electronics components that the
provide the rotation to the milling bit.

Figure 4—Wireline Milling Tool

The WOB and the counter torque to produce by the rotation of the milling bit is provided by a system of
wheels that are incorporated by in the wireline tractor tool (Figure 5). The tool is deployed using wireline,
self-propelled, and it has two hydraulic systems, the first system is in charge of to extend/retract wheels'
arms. The arms are designed to engaged the tubing walls to provide the traction. The second system is in
charge of providing the rotation of the wheels making the wireline tractor to move forward, providing the
WOB.

Figure 5—Wireline Tractor Tool

Operating Efficiency Analysis

Due to the tight clearance of the bit with the Pressure Control Equipment (PCE) and x-mast tree it was
required to drift all the accessories with the bit to be used. After the drift was successfully conducted, the
milling toolstring was rigged up and run inside the PCE. Challenges were experienced while performing
the correlation passes, due to the tight clearance in the PCE/X-mas tree, and the fact that the rig did not
appear to be perfectly centralized over the wellhead, leading to a slight bent in the PCE. The operator and
the service company agreed on straightening the PCE to reduce its bending, this improved the clearance
and enabled the milling string to tag the tubing hanger.
In the figure 6, it is illustrated a summary of the milling operation. The toolstring was started at the top
of the tubing hanger and immediately started milling. The Surface Read Out (SRO) allowed the team to
monitor the progress in real time and to know exactly when the bit had passed the tubing hanger.
SPE-199845-MS 5

Figure 6—Milling operation parameters

At surface the milling bit was inspected (Figure 6) with insignificant wear. The observed wear marks
correspond to the different zones milled in the tubing hanger.

Figure 7—Post run bit analysis

The total milling operation was carried out over 2 days, mainly driven by the complication with the
pressure control equipment setup. Despite the operational challenges during the complex rig-up setup the
milling operation was conducted within 4hr20m, and the actual milling of the tubing hanger was done in
1hr47min.

Conclusion
In summary, the tubing hanger milling job was considered a major success for the operator since it achieved
the following objectives via excellent technical and operational collaboration between the service vendor
and client from job design to execution.
✔ Successfully milled the tubing hanger, enabled to run the deformation lock out tool (lock open the
TRSCSSV).
✔ The milling operation did not compromise the tubing hanger integrity.
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✔ The area milled was found to be smooth due to "grinding action" vs "milling action".
✔ Efficient and fast milling operation with a overall run time of 4hr20min.
✔ Subsequently deployed the mechanical casing cutter to cut and release the packer and retrieve the
completion.
✔ Pulled out the completion and re-completed the well.
✔ Well was put back into production.

Acknowledgements:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support given by Completion team of ENI Congo by utilizing the
wireline milling technology and enabling us to publish this paper.

Nomenclature:
TRCSSV: Tubing retrievable Surface Controlled Subsurface Safety Valve.
SSV: Subsurface Safety Valve.
ROP: Rate of Penetration
WOB: Weight On Bit
CT: Coiled tubing
BOP: Blow out Preventer
PCE: Pressure Control Equipment.