News

West Africa customers continues to increase	IESL has been awarded work by Perenco in Cameroon. The project involves geomechanical characterization of the Batanga field offshore, for wellbore stability applications. Working along with Perenco’s engineers and geoscientists will allow early identification of any potential drilling hazards for the proposed well paths. This work was awarded following successful completion of similar projects for Perenco in Northern Peru.
Upgraded grain size prediction capability	IESL has been used a grain size prediction model to determine continuous grain sizes successfully since 2007. Additional static data from PSDs (both laser or sieving) has been utilized to upgrade the model particularly for the fine fractions. Predictions for D10 to D95 are now possible and more representative giving our customers a more realistic output that can be used for sand control filter media sizing, pore throat size and sand quality evaluation on a continuous basis.
Continuous work for OML 137	IESL has been awarded work by Addax Nigeria for the upgrade of the existing geomechanical model developed for the OML 137 block in 2010. The work includes the addition of data sets from two new wells in the block and will be utilised for the identification of wellbore stability problems during drilling
Extending the life of mature assets	IESL was awarded work by Ithaca Energy to identify production enhancement opportunities from their Anglia field. A detailed review of current well conditions including fluid’s loading allowed the identification of a number of potential opportunities for increasing field life. Further operational and economic review is ongoing for the implementation of the findings.
Sand production prediction for Norway	Premier Oil has awarded IESL work for the determination of the sanding risk for testing their Gardofra prospect offshore Norway. The work included the review of previous studies and verification of their results, development of a new geomechanical model and the prediction of sanding for testing operations.
Chestnut field reaches 2 years on sand management	The Centrica/IESL team has reached a milestone for North Sea operations; the Chestnut field in block 22/12 has been operated under a rigorous sand and pore pressure management program for the last 2 years. Over 5 million barrels of oil have been successfully produced and 60 tonnes of sand managed during this period. Asset integrity and well/reservoir performance are managed real time by the team engineers to ensure maximum safety and productivity.
Near Wellbore deformation	IESL and Darcy Technology have presented joint work at the Devex 2011 conference in Aberdeen, Scotland. The material is the result of work carried out on enhancing productivity using near wellbore deformation. It has led to the development of an innovative and unique sand face completion system that allows management of the near wellbore deformation in order to enhance or maintain productivity. Presentation can be downloaded from our website.
Sand production prediction for Etame	IESL has been awarded work to identify the geomechanical conditions to avoid sand production in the Etame field, offshore Gabon in West Africa. The field operated by Vaalco Energy of the USA involves work on stress modelling and rock strength parameters in order to identify the critical operational conditions that will induce sanding. Sand face completion design is based on the results of this work.
Shale characterization	As part of our wellbore stability services GeoDRILL we have introduced a shale characterization service that allows to determine the deformation characteristics of a shale and then predict what type of instability events are to expected while drilling. Losses and hole swelling are common problems encountered that now can be accurately predicted by GeoDRILL
More Sand management success	IESL has been awarded by Centrica Energy Upstream a contract to develop a sand management and pore pressure maintenance program for the Greater Kittiwake Area. The contract covers mechanical characterization of 4 different reservoirs including high temperature and depleted formations. Development of the analytical tools, prediction of the optimum operation conditions, flow assurance modelling and asset integrity monitoring will be carried out. Development of Centrica engineers and field personnel will form a key element of this project based on the learnings from the current Chestnut field sand management program.
IESL and the sand management network	IESL is a founding member of the Sand Management Network, a group of operators, service providers and Universities that since 2002 has pursued the development and dissemination of sand control and sand management knowledge. Our director J. Tovar has become a member of the Technical Advisory Group TAG (2011 – 2012) where he will be contributing his expertise to further develop the capabilities of the network.
Another successful year!!!	It has been 15 years since we founded IESL, 2010 has been the best year ever in terms of enhancements to our products, development of our personnel, new customers and financial performance. We would like to thank our customers, suppliers, competitors and friends for the support in 2010 and wish them happy holidays and the best for 2011.
New Client	E.ON Rhurgas has awarded IESL wellbore stability work for the Huntington field. Geomechanical models will be built and calibrated in order to determine the Optimum mud weight envelopes for the proposed well trajectories.
New Publication	IESL, jointly with Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. PDVSA presented a publication at the VIII Seminario de Fluidos de Perforacion, Cementacion y Completacion SEFLU 2010, in Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela. The material described a new methodology to evaluate and design sand face completions in reservoirs with sanding problems.
Testing services update	IESL has completed two (2) more testing programs for Centrica Energy Upstream, this take the total to 23 programs since testing services were introduced. Three(3) different services are provided now starting with the Rapid Low Impact Strength Test RLIST, Integrated sand quality test and filter media evaluation compose our testing capability
New Client	IESL has been awarded work by Premier Oil UK to contribute to their development of new fields in shallow unconsolidated reservoirs in the Central North Sea. The scope includes evaluation of subsea technology for sand face completions and ESPs.
Success! ISO 9001:2008	IESL achieve its ISO9001:2008 certificate on the 19th of September. This is a particularly important achievement as we accomplished it in a very short time, passing first time and the system was developed inhouse and is, with the exception of documents from out side the organisation, 100% paperless! The achievement should provide extra confidence to our customers that IESL is the ideal company to work with. To view our certificate, click here.
Offshore Nigeria	IESL has successfully completed a geomechanical characterization project for Addax Petroleum. The work included the development of a large geomechanical model for an offshore block. The results are being used for sand face completion design and wellbore stability applications.
High pressure & high temperature	IESL has been awarded a contract by Chevron Energy Technology Co. of Aberdeen, U.K. to develop and carry out a rock characterization and testing program for their Alder HPHT development in the North Sea. Based on IESL’s RLIST services and with over 5000 feet of core successfully tested, Chevron will utilize the results as input for their Geomechanical models in order to predict sanding and wellbore stability problems.
Plastic deformation at the wellbore	IESL has successfully completed a number of systems and analytical tools to determine near wellbore deformation and its impact on completion design and inflow. Based on 15 years of experience providing geomechanical applications, the system has been developed to offer a new and in-depth method for optimising productivity for sandstone reservoirs.
New Publication	IESL is presenting a new publication at the 2010 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition ATCE in Florence, Italy. The paper prepared jointly with Talisman Energy UK engineers relate to design and performance evaluation of dynamic under balance perforating DUB. Case histories for three (3) wells in the UKCS and include formation damage characterization, DUB system selection and well performance evaluation are presented to illustrate Talisman's experience using dynamic under balance perforating.
New Technology	IESL has been awarded the contract to support Scarlet Technologies of Aberdeen, U.K. in the development of their new and innovative technologies. Scarlet have selected IESL based on its extensive expertise and set of analytical tools for sand face completion design and reservoir / near wellbore geomechanical analysis. IESL's experience in development new technology and dealing with IPR issues will make the integration of disciplines and long term support a continuous success.
West Africa Progress	IESL has been awarded geomechanical work by Addax Petroleum for their Nigeria's assets. Development of analytical models and working tools for sand production prediction, wellbore stability and formation strength is to be carried out along with Addax's engineers in order to optimize the completion design process and maximize productivity. This work in addition to extensive work carried out in Ivory Coast, Gabon, Nigeria and Congo will contribute to strengthen our knowledge and capabilities for our West African customers.
More Sand Management Success	IESL has been successfully leading the sand management process for the Chestnut field. Over one million barrels of oil and 30 tones of sand have been produced without compromising reservoir, systems or plant integrity. Based on this success Centrica Energy has awarded IESL work for the development of a sand management program for five (5) additional fields. The work involves knowledge transferring gained and leading the management process for the success of these assets.
New Publications	IESL has two new publications related to sand face completion and sand management. The material is to be presented at the 4th European Sand Management Forum to be held in Aberdeen, U.K. during the 10th & 11th of March 2010. Jointly with our customers in the North Sea and Latin America, the material illustrates successful case studies for their operations resulting from the use of our analytical systems, expertise and support. Both documents can be downloaded from our publications site or from the SMN site at www.sandmanagement.com
Stress caging upgrade for GeoDRILL	Our GeoDRILL system for wellbore stability analysis has been upgraded to be able to design the stress caging effect. An extensive laboratory testing program was carried out to determine the optimum conditions and replicate the physical process associated with stress caging. Using GeoDRILL, loss circulation can now be predicted and a program designed to minimize/avoid losses while drilling through fractured reservoirs or treating drilling induced losses.
Continuous success for Chestnut sand management programme	Due to continuous success with the Chestnut sand management programme, Centrica Energy Upstream has awarded IESL an extension of the current sand management contract for the Chestnut field in block 22/2a. To date, under this program, over half a million barrels of oil been produced successfully from the field while managing more than 30 tonnes of produced sand without environmental or impact on production. This award for the remaining life of the field is a credit to the continuous effort and contribution made by IESL engineers to maximize production, ensure systems and plant mechanical integrity and minimize cost. Additional petroleum engineering, flow assurance and systems integrity duties confirm the trust and confidence placed by Centrica on IESL’s expertise.
Wellbore stability for Casing drilling operations	Drilling through the reservoir using casing drilling technology requires an accurate understanding of the dynamic pressures being applied to the formation during the process. IESL has utilized its GeoDRILLÆ system to find a safe operating mud weight envelope for Perenco's casing drilling operations. The resulting model showed an outstanding match with the recorded drilling data for the pilot hole. It allowed safe operating limits to be established. BHA manipulation guidelines and optimization of hole cleaning operations could be also achieved.
SynCAL™ 4 Arm	SynCAL™ is IESL's successful system for the prediction of hole quality/size and sand production volumes. After an intensive research effort, we have enhanced its capabilities to be a Synthetic 4 Arm calliper for use in applications such as determining stress anisotropy and orientation, cementing and casing design.
Carboniferous sands in the Southern North Sea	IESL has been awarded work by Gaz de France to develop sand face completion options for the Carboniferous sandstones in the Southern North Sea. The work includes developing new geomechanical models for this gas sand reservoir and determining the optimum drilling and sand face completion options to successfully exploit the reservoir.
Continued GeoDRILL™ success in Peru	Perenco Peru has successfully completed its first development well in the Northern jungle in block 67; IESL developed the wellbore stability models based on its large expertise in the area. The well was drilled successfully with a difference of up to 0.3 ppg with respect to the recommended mud weight.
R & D for drilling in fractured reservoirs	Using our newly launched laboratory capability, IESL is carrying out a testing program to developed specific guidelines for mud solids size selection in fractured reservoirs. The program involves flow testing through fractured dolomite and limestone samples for a large range of solid's size. The results are allowing development of a better understanding and the predictive models to successfully drilling through this type of reservoirs.
Fast, reliable and effective testing capability	For the last two years IESL has been carrying out mechanical testing using a Rapid Low Impact Strength Test (RLIST) methodology. Over 5000 feet of core material has been tested successfully for our customers all over the world. We have extended our capability in order to provide our customers with cost effective, rapid, first class results. Based on our core expertise in well construction, completion and geomechanics, we are now able to provide grain size characterisation, flow testing and reservoir characterisation (porosity-permeability) test capabilities. New technology such as Visual Imaging and non-destructive impact are used and measurements can be taken either at IESL’s custom built testing premises or at the core storage facility.
New Customer	IESL has been awarded work by Perenco for the evaluation of the geomechanical issues associated with wellbore stability in their exploration wells. Based on IESL's tools and systems such as GeoDRILL and the large experience developed in geomechanical applications, Perenco identified the need to minimise the risk this important new exploration projects
Sand Management Update	IESL was awarded in March the development and implementation of a sand management strategy for one of Venture's subsea fields. The sand management team has successfully produced over 160 thousand barrels of crude and over 30 tones of sand without compromising system integrity (pipeline, wells & process) and with over 80% uptime. A detailed and continuous monitoring process has ensured safe and efficient management of the problem.
Wellbore stability for Centrica	IESL has completed wellbore stability work for Centrica UK for their new drilling programme in the Southern North Sea. Based on work carried out in 2005 for the same field, IESL was able to add value to Centrica operations through the use and enhancement of existing models and simulations in order to optimise the OMW envelope for the new wells.
Continued expansion	Latin America has been since 2004 one of IESL's major markets, a great effort has been made to identify the needs of our customers and to contribute to them throughout the region. After setting a base in Venezuela in 2006, IESL has taken another step in those efforts by setting a permanent presence in Peru. Based in Lima, IESL's personnel will support our increasing customer base in Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil.
Sand management programme awarded	IESL has been awarded work by Venture production to develop and implement a sand management programme for one of their UKCS fields. Working with Venture engineers and contractors the programme will develop and implement strategies and technical/operational guidelines to manage daily field operations for solids production, well pressures and process maintenance.
New Publication	IESL is publishing recently completed work at the SPE Formation Damage Conference to be held in Scheveningen, The Netherlands in June 2009. The paper based on IESL's well productivity systems is entitled “An inflow prediction model for open hole gravel pack and frac & pack completions” it allows prediction of the flow impairment of gravel pack completions as a result of damaging mechanisms and reservoir contribution changes. See our publications page and Links to have access to the paper.
Wellbore stability for Centrica	IESL has completed wellbore stability work for Centrica UK for their new Irish Sea drilling programme, the well is to be drilled in a partially depleted area of the field. This work took advantage of large data sets and results of ongoing projects developed by IESL in this area. They include rock strength testing using IESL Rapid Low Impact Strength Test RLIST " method that allows mechanical characterisation of the various formations. Dynamic OMW and hydraulic parameters were optimised to allow safe and effective drilling of the well.
New Product launch GeoDAMAGE" for production optimisation	IESL has launched a new system GeoDAMAGE" for use in well and reservoir production optimisation. The methodology allows determination of the main formation damage components at the near wellbore or far into the reservoir. Fluid and solid's invasion damage, perforating damage and reservoir mechanical damage can all be characterised and measures taken to avoid or minimise their impact on productivity and reserves recovery.
UGS - Reservoir mechanical performance modelling for Centrica UK	Centrica UK has awarded AXIS and IESL the development of a model to determine the mechanical performance of a sandstone reservoir highly depleted. The activities include development and validation of a constitutive model for a sandstone reservoir in a highly tectonic area in order to quantify the resulting changes in petrophysical properties throughout the field.
Wellbore stability for Gas storage applications	IESL has completed another successful project for a gas storage project in the Irish Sea. The study covered the wellbore stability and sanding risk analysis for the Bains field, which will be re-developed as a gas storage by Centrica. Pressure cycling and current depletion effects were some of the biggest challenges encountered during this work.
Formation damage for underbalance perforating in the Clyde field	IESL has completed formation damage characterisation work for the determination of the optimum dynamic underbalance pressures for perforating in the Clyde field. Based on similar successful work in Talisman’s Blane field IESL integrated core test analysis into its GeoPerforation system to identify mechanical, fluid and solid’s invasion damage and determine the optimum dynamic underbalance to effectively clean up the sand face.
Venture’s Chestnut field start up	Venture’s Chestnut field was recently put in production / injection. With three wells in the field all completed with sand control, it was critical that start up was optimised in order to realistically cope with potential contingencies that could be encountered. IESL’s have been successfully involved in Chestnut since 1997 and is proud to have contributed to Venture’s success.
IESL’s team wishes you ...	Another year has gone by and we have continued to go from strength to strength. The continuous support of our customers during 2008 is very much appreciated, from the Peruvian Andes to Indonesia IESL’s team has made a major effort to contribute to the success of our customers. This support is a motivation to continue delivering excellence in applied engineering and innovation for the coming year. We wish you a very happy Christmas and a successful New Year 2009. You can count on IESL.
Well performance analysis for the SNS	IESL has completed a well performance evaluation project for Venture Production in their Southern North Sea prospects. The project evaluated potential well performance and constraints such as depletion, sand production risk and reservoir properties uncertainty. The results will allow Venture engineers to design the best development strategy for this important assets.
IESL and HOT Engineering, Vienna, Austria	IESL and HOT Engineering in Vienna, Austria have developed an association for training and knowledge transfer programs. IESL will present two(2) training programs next year in Vienna and Kuala Lumpur on Well Completion for Reservoirs with sanding problems. IESL will bring a large experience base at training level after more than 50 courses delivered in the last 8 years worldwide. With over 25 years of experience in the subject IESL’s contribution will be significant. To see schedule and book a place use the following link: www.hoteng.com/en/training/public_courses/Production_Engineering
SPMS for Bowleven in Gabon	IESL has been awarded geomechanical work for Gabon. Working along with Axis engineers the project will deliver an optimised sand face completion design for Bowleven Gabon subsidiary
IESL starts working in the Camisea gas field	IESL has been awarded work for the Camisea gas project in Central Peru. The work is the result of a very successful relationship between IESL and Pluspetrol that has allowed the customer to realise benefits in their drilling and production programs through all their operations in Peru. Camisea is one of the largest gas fields in production in South America
Master Class in Wellbore stability and geopressures for PDVSA	PDVSA invited IESL to present the Master Class for the 1st Technical Seminar on Wellbore Stability and Geopressures held in Los Teques, Venezuela from the 6 – 7 of November 2008. The forum is an opportunity to discuss topics of interest and experience in all the operating areas of PDVSA
GeoCompletion for shallow gas	Venture production has awarded IESL work for the development of the Optimum sand face completion design for one of its gas assets. The work involved shallow gas prospects in the UKCS, geomechanical and production models were developed for the reservoir and the optimum sand face completion identified successfully.
IESL at INGEPET	IESL will be exhibiting its products and services at INGEPET, one of the leading technical conferences in Latin America which this year is being held in Lima, Peru from the 12 to the 16 of October. Our operations in Latin America are very successful with offices in Valencia, Venezuela and servicing customers in Peru, Trinidad and Venezuela.
GeoCompletion for gas storage fields	Gas storage reservoirs are submitted to pressure cycling throughout the year as part of its operating function. IESL completed work on the design of the optimum sand face completion for a sandstone reservoir in mainland Europe. A number of completion options were evaluated using a number of analytical models in order to select the optimum solution for such a demanding application
GeoDRILL for highly fractured carbonates	IESL has completed wellbore stability work for highly fractured carbonates in the Middle East. The results involved the utilisation of advanced geomechanical models to predict the optimum mud weight envelop considering very long fractured interval through the well path.
IESL’s Gravel pack technology	IESL has been working in developing technology for gravel packed completions for a number of years. Our CleanPAQ system was the first result of it and now we have concluded work on a system to predict filter media inflow. This development will allow our customers to predict GP performance based on the quality of the reservoir, mud system and completion practices.
IESL and Axis	IESL and Axis continue to work successfully in a number of projects. IESL’s geomechanical expertise integrated into Axis’s vast well testing and completion experience has resulted in new work for clients in Thailand, The Netherlands and the Middle East.
The Custodian continues to grow	Pluspetrol Peru has awarded work to IESL for the continuous development of their large Geomechanical system, The Custodian. The work involves extending the system to cover two additional fields which will be characterised completely and the geomechanical model for each one developed. It follows the continuous success obtained with the current system that is currently being used for a variety of geomechanical applications
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