Overview of field results using TTBP as effective water shut-off treatment in open-hole well completions in Saudi Arabia

Water shut-off treatments (WSOT) are routinely performed on wells in the carbonate formation, in one of Saudi Aramco's oil fields that are dead, have high water cut, or low-flowing wellhead pressure. WSOT using through-tubing bridge plugs (TTBP) in both open-hole and cased-hole completions have been employed. Such a treatment was successfully applied in zones that are 100% swept by the water flooding and are no longer contributing oil and in high permeability zones (super-K) located in the lower interval. These wells were then activated and have been placed on production. The field results from 40 bottom water shut-off jobs, using TTBP technique, are presented. The 1990 -1996 water shut-off jobs added a total of 88.0 MBD of producible potential. In addition, the application of TTBP method increased recoverable reserves and avoided expensive workover costs. This paper presents data to show that TTBP technique is very effective compared to other methods of water shut-off jobs. Significant cost reductions are realized. The success ratio of this treatment in the open-hole completion (OH) can be as high as the cased-hole (CH) completion, provided that a 'gauge' hole exists.