The use of soluble packer plugs during repair and insulation work in oil wells

Abstract

Most oil and gas fields in the Russian Federation are currently in a late stage of development. This stage includes declining production rates, decreasing reservoir pressures, and in-creasing water cut, which in turn requires repair and isolation operations in production wells. Isolating the productive reservoir before eliminating behind-casing flow with a cement plug can lead to deterioration of reservoir properties and significantly increase well repair time. In recent years, packer plugs of various designs have been used to shut off the productive reservoir. The main advantage of such plugs is the ability to set them at the required interval within the well, regardless of deviation angles, and without losing cementing materials into the reservoir. The authors of this paper propose the use of dissolvable packer plugs for repair and isolation operations, as well as for eliminating behind-casing communication. The installation technology for these plugs is similar to that of conventional packer plugs. A key benefit is that dissolvable packer plugs can independently degrade when exposed to saline solutions that contain active chloride ions.