Customer challenges
- GBRS Algeria experienced, through their incumbent slickline services company, a number of miss-run plugs and incorrectly set gas lift valves
- 33 runs had been undertaken by the incumbent to plug the well and change out various dummy injection valves from the side pocket mandrels
- After many failures, Expro were called for advice and to find a solution for the challenge
Expro Excellence
- Expro undertook an audit, reviewed previous slickline reports, and quickly established:
- – Incorrect tools had been previously run in the well
- – A dummy valve had been damaged in one of the gas lift pockets - previous operations had been to trying pass by this to gain access to the plug below
- – Pressure was rising in the tubing and the annulus
- Despite the challenges associated with the well, Expro proposed and undertook to deliver a solution
- Expro personnel prepared one of the client’s gas lift mandrels in the Expro workshop to show a setting and retrieval of the dummy valve with the correct tools
- Innovative approach: various Expro slickline tools were modified to aid the retrieval
- Full step-by-step support was given to the client as well as supporting them by explaining the correct running and pulling procedures which should be used
Value to client
- Expro provided a solution that the incumbent service provider could not
- The well was successfully returned to a usable condition after retrieval of the deformed dummy valve
- Without Expro’s expertise, the well would have been shut in and a costly work-over performed
