Multiphase Flow Loop Testing of Autonomous Inflow Control Valve for Light Oil

One of the largest oil fields in the GCC was developed in the 1960's. The field was initially produced under natural depletion supplemented by gas injection. The high offtake rates led to a rapid displacement of the gas/oil contact; thus, the field has now been suffering from early gas/water breakthrough and uneven fluid influx along with the horizontal wells. The reservoir has been on production for more than 50 years. Water/gas breakthrough from fractures being the major challenge which negatively affects wells oil production rates. Applying technology which can manage water/gas breakthrough in a cost-effective manner whilst allowing increased oil production was a key goal from operators in this field. Passive Inflow Control Devices (ICD) were introduced to the global oil and gas market in mid/late-1990's, and the first generation of Autonomous ICD (AICD) that can help reduce more unwanted gas or water was first installed in 2007. ICD's successfully demonstrated that they could delay the gas and/or water breakthrough within horizontal wells, but they could not choke gas when the coning/gas-breakthrough occurred and along with limited abilities to stop unwanted water production. To help solve this problem, the Autonomous Inflow Control Devices (AICD-RCP) with a movable disc was introduced to the market and demonstrated reduction of gas production by 20-30% with similar gains in oil production[1]. In this paper, the newest generation of Autonomous Inflow Control Valve (AICV) technology is presented. The AICV technology has a movable piston that can close and reduce the unwanted gas and water production by up to 95%[2]. The application of AICVs discussed herein were deployed within several wells which had extremely high Gas Oil Ratio (GOR) and low oil production. The novel AICV technology can differentiate between fluid types based on viscosity and density. When undesired fluid (gas and/or water) starts to be produced, the AICV chokes the valve flow area gradually until completely shutting off, all without well intervention[3]. Well production performances are documenting the benefits of installing AICV completions. The results demonstrate the AICVs closing the zones with high gas production and favoring oil-rich zones. Majority of evaluated wells demonstrated clearly that the extremely high GOR was reduced; some wells have returned to solution GOR for more than two years, and at the same time, the daily oil production is increased.

One of the challenges in heavy and extra heavy oil production are the relatively low recovery rate. A major challenge is to improve recovery from existing fields by developing and implementing new technologies that make mature and marginal fields more profitable. One of the challenges in heavy oil field with water drive or gas cap is the mobility ratio. Due to the high viscosity water and/or gas breakthrough will occur after short time production. This means that after a period of production, all wells will have water and/or gas breakthrough. As the breakthrough expands the production have to be limited due to excessive gas and/or water production. This means that production from the well have to be choked or stopped, even there is oil left along the wellbore. Inflow Control Device (ICD) and Autonomous Inflow Control Device (AICD) has shown that the oil production and recovery can be increased significantly with better inflow control along the well. However, neither ICD nor AICD is able to shut off the unwanted gas and water production completely. The newly developed and patented Autonomous Inflow Control Valve (AICV®) can shut off the unwanted fluid completely. This is the next generation autonomous inflow control. The technology can be installed in both new horizontal wells and recompleted into old wells with high water productions. The new completion technology is presented and experimental test results with gas, oil and water are presented together with reservoir simulations that confirm that the AICV® will give significantly increased recovery in field suffering from gas or water breakthrough.

Autonomous Inflow Control Devices (AICD) have been commercially available since 2010 and there are many published case studies of wells in sandstone reservoirs, encompassing a wide variety of water and gas control scenarios. There are, however, relatively few documented studies of AICD for water control in fractured carbonate reservoirs. This paper will discuss and compare two trial wells that were completed with AICD in Eastern Montana in late 2022. Mission Canyon is a limestone formation of the Mississippian age and is associated with the Williston Basin of the North Central United States. It is composed primarily of oolitic calcarenite consisting of sedimentary carbonate grains. Depending on the grain size, matrix permeability can be relatively low, and a complex network of natural fractures is what dominates fluid flow. These fractures can be good or bad; they can deliver a good oil rate, or they can be direct conduit to the reservoir’s natural bottom-water drive. Consequently, most wells start with 50% water cut and reach 90%+ within a few months. Water volumes can be as high a 3000 barrels of water per day, per well, requiring large-volume pumps and significant water handling & disposal infrastructure. This field trial of AICD technology was designed to reduce water production rates, and then evaluate the impact on additional oil recovery. The technology tested was an AICV (autonomous inflow control valve) that utilizes the fluid viscosity and density to autonomously restrict water. The AICV devices were installed in two wells; the first was an existing horizontal producer (retrofit installation) and the second was a newly drilled horizontal well. AICV were installed on 3-1/2" liners in the open-hole horizontal section, compartmentalized into stages by swellable packers. Each compartment of the well was approximately 150 ft long and was controlled by a dual AICV flow screen. Nodal analysis predicted a 50% reduction in produced water, with an increase of 20-30% oil rate versus the standard open-hole laterals. This field study documents the world’s first application of the AICV technology for light oil, water control in a fractured carbonate reservoir. Many valuable lessons were learned on how to best complete and operate the wells. Preliminary results show effective water control, regardless of pressure drawdown. The paper will share production results for each well and attempt to estimate the net effect on oil production and well economics.

One of the largest clastic reservoir fields in the Sultanate of Oman has been discovered in 1980 and put on production in 1985. The field produces viscous oil, ranging from 200 - 2000+ cP at reservoir conditions. Over 75% of the wells drilled are horizontal wells and the field is one of the largest producers in the Sultanate of Oman. The field challenges include strong aquifer, high permeability zones/faults. Due to large fluid mobility contrast, the fields have experienced in pre-mature water breakthrough that has resulted in very high-water cuts. The average field water cut for open hole horizontal well after 6-9 months of production is over 94%. This paper details a meticulous journey in qualification, field trials followed by field-wide implementation and performance evaluation of Autonomous Inflow Control Valve (AICV) technology in reducing water production and increasing oil production significantly. AICV can precisely identify the fluid flowing through it and shutting-off the high water or gas saturated zones while producing oil from healthy oil-saturated zones. Like other AICDs (Autonomous Inflow Control Device) AICV can differentiate the fluid flowing through it via fluid properties such as viscosity and density at reservoir conditions. However, AICV's performance is superior due to its advanced design based on both Hagen-Poiseuille and Bernoulli's principles. This paper describes a comprehensive AICV completion design workflow that was developed across a multi-disciplinary team. Some of the initial wells completed with AICV has shown the benefit of accelerating oil production of over 30,000 bbls within the first few months of installation. Many wells started with 5-10 % water cut and are still producing with low water cut and higher oil production. The operator has approved AICV technology based on techno-commercial analysis and its positive impact on the project such as accelerated oil production and lower cost of water handling at the surface. AICV also helped in mitigating the facility constraints of handling produced water which resulted in reduce OPEX as allow the operator continued to drill horizontal wells. At the time of writing this paper, the operator has completed several dozen wells in the field with AICV technology and has an aggressive long term plan to complete several new and old wells. Finally, this paper also discusses in detail the comparative analysis of AICV wells for different subsurface conditions and share some lessons learned to further optimise the well performance. The technology has a profound impact on improved sweep efficiency and as well plays an instrumental role in reducing the carbon footprint by reducing the significant water production at the surface. It is concluded that AICV is a cost-effective field-proven technology for the water shut-off application. Due to its ability to autonomously identify and shut off water and gas production, the AICV technology has been approved to use as full fields implementation and in other fields. Field Background and Reservoir/Production challenges The operator produces around nine barrels of water against each produced barrel of oil. In general, the water produces to the surface with hydrocarbons contains many chemicals, which are usually not environmentally friendly and required additional treatment which increases the disposal cost. The Operator was looking for a cost-effective and proven technology that can control/shut off water production and improve oil production. The fields have a strong bottom aquifer and heterogeneous reservoir properties, such as permeability and downhole water saturation profiles. The challenge with matured brownfields, typically newly drilled wells will have pre-mature water breakthrough within few months of production. The fields have a highly viscous oil, with viscosity ranges from 200 cP up to 2000 cp at downhole conditions, thus creating a high mobility contrast between the oil and water, causing water fingering and coning at an early stage of production. These production challenges cause a significant recoverable oil left in the reservoir i.e. bypassed oil. Furthermore, excessive surface water production affects the integrated production system back pressures and flow, as well as an individual well's dynamics and pump efficiencies. This also has a significant downstream impact, where substantial investment is needed to handle, treat, and dispose of the water. Reducing these water volumes at the surface adds up to a tangible reduction in OPEX for water processing as well as environmentally friendly and assist the reservoir to maintain the reservoir pressure and energy by keeping the water in the reservoir. (Hilal et al 1997, Hassasi et al 2020)

Heavy oil reservoirs cover up 2/3 of the world's hydrocarbon reservoirs.When heavy oil is produced through horizontal wells with water drive, a water breakthrough is expected.Conventional inflow control devices (ICDs) can only delay a water breakthrough.The disadvantage of ICDs is the inability to control the water inflow, after the water breakthrough.Autonomous inflow control valve (AICV) is designed to choke or stop the inflow as soon as the water breakthrough occurs.To evaluate the performance of AICVs OLGA-Rocx simulations were conducted.Simulations show that the AICVs have a superior potential in limiting the water inflow to the base pipe (86% reduction in water accumulation compared to normal ICDs).AICVs are more effective in heterogeneous and fractured reservoirs as it can restrict the early water breakthrough.In homogeneous reservoirs, AICVs' function reduces oil production rate compared to the ICD system, however, the lifetime of the well is increased.

Managing increasing volumes of produced water is one of the main challenges faced in waterflood fields. Better water mobility -compared to oil-, results in increasing water cut (WC) and reduced oil production, with time. In Qarn Alam, with mature brown fields depleted through waterflooding, oil producers are completed as open-hole horizontal wells. This means well experience water breakthrough from day one, due to poor oil-to-water mobility ratio, toe-heel effect, permeability variations and matrix fractures. Inflow Control Devices (ICD) has demonstrated good efficiency in delaying water breakthrough, however, when breakthrough is a given factor, ICDs lose that efficiency. The Autonomous Inflow Control Valve (AICV®) is a novel powerful tool that helps reducing WC in favour of oil, based on contrasts in fluid viscosities. The tool has a movable piston that opens/closes autonomously -without any connection to surface-, to reduce the unwanted water production, where choking increases with increasing WC. AICV technology was deployed in several oil producers, in carbonate reservoir brown field. The field has produced for decades, and is facing an increasing water management challenge. AICV completions were designed such that wells are divided into compartments isolated by swellable packers. The comparison of historical production data without and with autonomous inflow shows clearly the benefit of installing autonomous inflow control. Preliminary assessment showed an average 75% reduction in water-cut and 20% average increase in oil rate.

This paper presents an analysis of the effectiveness of various downhole completion designs in reducing or deferring water production in a mature field under the presence of an active strong aquifer reservoir. The results of completions using nozzle inflow control devices (ICDs) and fluidic diode autonomous ICDs (AICDs) are compared with conventional openhole and slotted liner completions. As all of these designs were installed in the same field/reservoir, the comparisons provide a meaningful and representative analysis of well production performance to assist in the identification of the most appropriate completion design for future wells and the production optimization of existing ones. The designed vs. actual production performance of inflow control completions providing water control (ICD/AICD) is presented and discussed. The methodology was developed from comparative analysis results of conventional openhole and slotted liner vs. ICD and AICD completions. The analysis was primarily based on elapsed time comparisons for water/oil ratio (WOR) and water cut (WC) and used diagnostic plots to identify the water production mechanisms, historical drawdown (DD), productivity index (PI), and production cumulative performance (oil and water). The corrective actions are described, including operational procedures to reduce skin damage and screen plugging implemented in the Villano-23HST2 (V-23HST2) well, which is the longest horizontal well drilled in Ecuador and completed using AICDs; these corrective actions were based on lessons learned from the Villano-22D (V-22D) well, which included appropriate fluid [brine/oil-based mud (OBM)] conditioning, fluid displacement, filter cake removal, and compatibility testing between screens and the fluid in which the bottomhole assembly (BHA) was deployed. Additionally, this paper evaluates the importance of the design phase, emphasizing the importance of comparing preliminary data (permeability and water saturation) compared to actual results obtained from the initial production test. Finally, as good production results largely depend on successful operational procedures and execution, lessons learned and best practices for deploying downhole completions in future operations for the Villano field in Ecuador are discussed. Although many studies compare ICDs vs. conventional completions, few compare different inflow control technologies, such as ICDs vs. AICDs, within the same reservoir and with similar well conditions. This paper compares various inflow control technologies in the same field with cumulative production data, which verifies the effectiveness of each completion design. Based on these results, a validated methodology for ICD and AICD simulations and design is also described as the basis for achieving good production results.

Steam assisted gravity drainage is a thermal method for enhanced bitumen recovery. In this method, steam is injected to bitumen and heavy oil to reduce the viscosity and make the oil mobile. However, early breakthrough of steam in some parts of the well results in loss of the required amount of steam in contact with the cold bitumen, and poor distribution of the steam chamber. This limits the oil production and increases the SAGD operation cost. Autonomous inflow control valve (AICV) is able to prevent the steam breakthrough and restrict the production of steam. The objective of this paper is to investigate the performances of AICV and passive inflow control device (ICD) in a SAGD production well. This is achieved by developing a dynamic wellbore-reservoir model in the OLGA-ROCX simulator. Reservoir and fluid properties have been specified in ROCX, and the wellbore model has been developed in OLGA. Coupling OLGA and ROCX enable the user to simulate the fluid production from the reservoir into the well. The simulation results demonstrate the significant benefit of AICV in steam to oil ratio (SOR) reduction compared to ICD. Indeed, the simulation results show that utilizing AICV in the SAGD production wells will reduce the steam production by 88% after 300 days of production. From environmental aspect, reduction in the steam to oil ratio by utilizing AICV will reduce the energy demand for steam generation. This will eventually improve the economics of SAGD projects. Also, reduction in the steam and energy demand will consequently contribute to lower the intensity of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The Acordionero field is located in the Middle Magdalena basin of Colombia and produces from 2 main multilayered formations. Water injection is utilized to maintain reservoir pressures and improve recovery factors. API gravities vary between 14° and 24°. C&P vertical wells are drilled to access oil from several producing intervals. This inherently creates a challenging production environment, as injection water and/or formation gas can unpredictably breakthrough in any of the formation layers, impacting well performance and leading to well shut-ins and expensive workovers to re-establish production. Even though Inflow Control Devices (ICDs) and Autonomous Inflow Control Devices (AICDs) have been successfully deployed to control unwanted fluids in oil producer wells, its application in vertical wells have been limited. The challenging environment and the inability to identify the problematic intervals led to the selection of the AICD-Valve due to its ability to autonomously shut-off gas/water based on the fluid properties of each zone. This technology is sensitive to both fluid viscosity and density and can autonomously choke zones that have higher gas/water concentrations. A detailed study was conducted, including well simulations and analysis of production data, which determined the benefits of the technology, particularly to control gas breakthrough. A total of 6 wells have been retrofitted to date. Overall results have been positive with the AICD-Valves successfully restricting flow from intervals with unwanted fluids and applying a more effective drawdown to oil-rich zones. Gas production have been reduced to more than 50% in all wells and in some cases over 90%. The electric submersible pumps (ESPs) have shown a more stable behavior in comparison to pre- AICD-Valve installations, reducing gas locking events, leading to less common failures and well interventions. Water control is still under evaluation due to the obtained production results.

With the increased exploration and development of unconventional reservoirs, the complicated production mechanisms of unconventional wells have gradually become a hot topic among the oil and gas industry. Due to the ultra-low permeability and porosity, the fluid phase behavior in shale reservoirs significantly differs from the conventional fluid phase behavior, increasing the production forecasting complexity. A substantial effort to better understand the mechanisms is the ability to characterize the unconventional well gas-oil ratio (GOR) behavior. The GOR always plays a critical indicator to help predict long-term oil/gas production trends and develop appropriate production strategies. In this paper, GOR behavior was discussed based on an unconventional parent-child horizontal well set in the Eagle Ford shale formation. Subsequently, fracture hit intensity can be determined through the producing GOR characterization. Afterward, the historical production data were well matched. The long-term GOR trends (20 years) were then predicted with the calibrated reservoir model. Based on the simulation results, an interpretation of the fracture hit impact on GOR behavior, and the well productivity was established. This study provides some key insights into GOR behaviors, especially for the parent-child well GOR trends with considering the impact of fracture hits. The Eagle Ford GOR is strongly influenced by the flowing bottomhole pressure. Meanwhile, the GOR trends of both parent and child wells are extremely sensitive to fracture hits, strong correlations between GOR and fracture hits are observed. Compared to the parent well, the flat GOR period of the child well is much shorter due to pressure depletion. The existence of a child well also reduces the rising speed of the parent well with a lower plateau. In addition, the long-term production prediction shows that fracture hits negatively influenced both well performances, where the child well has a more severe production loss than the parent well. Through the findings presented in this work, a better understanding of the unconventional well GOR behaviors can be obtained. The analysis approaches proposed in this paper provide valuable insights into GOR characterization and contribute to the production forecasting from unconventional plays. The results can help to improve the efficiency of reservoir management, field development, and economic valuation in future projects.

To address the need for better understanding of multiphase fluid flow behavior through passive inflow control devices (PICDs), two-phase (oil-water) full-scale flow loop testing on helical and a new ICD design, "Hybrid" has been completed. The primary testing objective was to generate a comprehensive two-phase (oil-water) data set of flow performance curves for the helical ICD and the hybrid ICD. The test included a broad range of flow tests with varying viscosities, water cuts and pressures. The results are presented in an innovative manner using isobaric plots (isobars lines with trend lines for each viscosity value) and Reynolds number vs. Flow Coefficient plots, which can be used to easily compare different ICD performances. Test results confirm that for oil-water flow, a viscosity break point for the helical ICD occurs at 2 centipoise (cP) of medium oil. Below this break point the helical ICD does not promote water production in two-phase flow. Above this viscosity break point, the helical ICD exhibits a physical phenomenon where, at water cuts above 30%, the total flow increases at any given pressure drop promoting water flow. With regards to two-phase oil-water fluid flow, the hybrid ICD performs independently of viscosity for the range tested (up to 200 cP - maximum flow viscosity tested at the lab).The hybrid ICD consistently creates more resistance to water flow than to oil flow, causing total flow to gradually decrease at constant pressure as water cut increases. This effect was more apparent at higher pressure regimes. The functional break point of the hybrid ICD is determined to be above 200 cP. Introduction A comprehensive two-phase (oil-water) data set of flow performance curves for the helix inflow control devices (ICDs) and hybrid ICDs was conducted through extensive laboratory testing to identify the threshold viscosity, and to quantify single and multiphase model validity. These test results confirm that the threshold viscosity is 2 centipoise (cP). At viscosities greater than 2 cP, the test results confirm previously published findings that the helix design exhibits preferential production of water for a given pressure drop in a two-phase flow. Additionally, results verify that the helix ICD behavior exhibits correlation to the single phase model but requires a correction due to non-constant flow coefficient, and does not exhibit correlation when the fluids are multiphase, especially at higher viscosities.

This paper describes the use of advanced completions employing passive inflow control devices (ICD) and autonomous inflow control devices (AICD) in multi-zone horizontal wells to improve the distribution of gas injection and to restrict premature production of gas in gas injection soak EOR process for unconventional oil wells. The recovery efficiency of unconventional oil reserves is very low due to the micro-permeability of these reservoirs and rapid depletion of pore pressure proximal to the fractures and wellbore. Several enhanced oil recovery schemes have been proposed to stimulate production and increase recovery efficiency in these reservoirs by injecting gas or carbon dioxide in fracture stimulated, long horizontal wells, and either producing oil from adjacent wells (gas injection flooding drive mechanism), or by back-producing the injectant and reservoir fluids in the same wellbore after a suitable "soak" period (huff and puff). The effective distribution of the injected gas in these wells and the ability to keep the gas in the reservoir to maintain energy can greatly affect the recovery efficiency that can be achieved. Advanced completions utilizing appropriately designed ICDs and AICDs can enhance the performance of these EOR schemes. ICDs can be used to balance the distribution of gas injection along the length of the wellbore, while AICDs can help control the early back-production of gas. The Autonomous Inflow Control Device (AICD) is an active flow control device that delivers a variable flow restriction in response to the properties (viscosity) of the fluid flowing through it. Water or gas flowing through the device is restricted more than oil. When used in a horizontal well, segmented into multiple compartments, this design prevents excessive production of gas after breakthrough occurs in one or more compartments. The implementation of advanced completions in EOR applications has been studied by reservoir and well performance simulation. This proper use of ICDs and AICDs in these applications can significantly improve recovery efficiency without further well intervention. To evaluate the performance of the AICD, a comprehensive multi-phase flow model of the autonomous performance has been developed and workflow created for simulation of performance within the reservoir. This paper will describe the experience with the technology and modelling prediction for EOR projects.

Objectives/Scope The Laverda Field is an offshore waterflooded field developed with two long horizontal producers targeting two stacked high quality sandstone units. The oil producer LAV02ST2 is completed with sand screens and Inflow Control Devices (ICDs). Elevated Gas Oil Ratios (GORs) were experienced during start-up, which indicated free gas production downhole, raising concerns over ICD erosion and sand production. While the ICDs have defined operating limits in the presence of single-phase flow, the safe operating range in multi-phase flow conditions was highly uncertain. Given the significant risk of well failure due to erosion, additional bean up was halted pending studies to understand and quantify the erosion risk. Erosion risk was influenced by: the distribution of gas along the well (concentrated vs dispersed inflow), the presence of an open annulus and associated erosion risk due to solids production, and tolerance of the ICDs to higher velocities under three-phase flow. Methods, Procedures, Process Collaboration between subsurface and completions disciplines was required to understand the source of the gas and assess the risk to completions. Initially, production trends were analysed in conjunction with a review of geological data and numerical simulation insights to identify likely sources of gas and which areas within the well were more susceptible to gas exposure. Near-wellbore modelling using NETool® and GAP was undertaken to understand the range of feasible gas inflow scenarios and eliminate scenarios inconsistent with observed production data. The most likely scenario was then used to establish the relationship between total well rate and peak velocities in the ICDs, for a worse-case erosion outcome. To understand the risk of ICD erosion under multi-phase flow and potential for loss of well integrity, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling was conducted on a range of expected production scenarios to establish safe operating limits. Both, ICD slot erosion and housing erosion behaviour was investigated, as a function of peak ICD gas rate/velocity, well liquid rate and well GOR. Results, Observations, Conclusions The CFD study helped to establish a relationship between erosion rate and total downhole rate at reservoir conditions for various production scenarios, thus allowing calculation of erosion over the course of field life. A revised safe operating envelope was recommended for the oil producer in multi-phase conditions that allowed the production rate to be doubled without compromising well integrity. Novel/Additive Information Traditionally, industry physical erosion testing of the ICDs by the vendor is restricted to single-phase, liquid conditions only. Successfully benchmarking the CFD model to the single-phase physical tests allowed quantification of erosion rates in multi-phase flow and establishment of a safe operating envelope over the life of the well.

The paper discusses the pilot project in ADNOC Offshore to assess the Autonomous Inflow Control Device (AICD) technology as an effective solution for increasing oil production over the life of the field. High rate of water and gas production in horizontal wells is one of the key problems from the commencement of operation due to the high cost of produced water and gas treatment including several other factors. Early Gas breakthrough in wells can result in shut-in to conserve reservoir energy and to meet the set GOR guidelines. The pilot well was shut-in due to high GOR resulted from the gas breakthrough. A pilot project was implemented to evaluate the ability of autonomous inflow control technology to manage gas break through early in the life of the well spanned across horizontal wellbore. And also to balance the production influx profile across the entire lateral length and to compensate for the permeability variation and therefore the productivity of each zone. Each compartment in the pilot well was equipped with AICD Screens and Swell-able Packers across horizontal open hole wellbore to evaluate oil production and defer gas breakthrough. Some AICDs were equipped with treatment valve for the compartments that needed acid simulation to enhance the effectiveness of the zone. The selection factors for installing number of production valves in the pilot well per each AICD was based on reservoir and field data. Pre-modeling of the horizontal wellbore section with AICD was performed using commercial simulation software (NETool). After the first pilot was completed, a detailed technical analysis was conducted and based on the early production results from the pilot well showed that AICD completions effectively managed gas production by delaying the gas break through and restricting gas inflow from the reservoir with significant GOR reduction ±40% compared to baseline production performance data from the open hole without AICD thus increasing oil production. The pilot well performed positively to the AICD completion allowing to produce healthy oil and meeting the guidelines. The early production results are in line with NETool simulation modelling, thereby increasing assurance in the methods employed in designing the AICD completion for the well and candidate selection. This paper discusses the successful AICD completion installation and production operation in pilot well in ADNOC Offshore to manage GOR and produced the well with healthy oil under the set guidelines. This will enable to re-activate wells shut-in due to GOR constraint to help meeting the sustainable field production target.

Horizontal well completions are often equipped with Inflow Control Devices (ICDs) to optimize flow rates across the completion for the whole length of the interval and to increase the oil recovery. The ICD technology has become useful method of optimizing production from horizontal wells in a wide range of applications. It has proved to be beneficial in horizontal water injectors and steam assisted gravity drainage wells. Traditionally the challenges related to early gas or water breakthrough were dealt with complex and costly workover/intervention operations. ICD manipulation used to be done with down-hole tractor conveyed using an electric line (e-line) cable or by utilization of a conventional coiled tubing (CT) string. Wellbore profile, high doglegs, tubular ID, drag and buoyancy forces added limitations to the e-line interventions even with the use of tractor. Utilization of conventional CT string supplement the uncertainties during shifting operations by not having the assurance of accurate depth and forces applied downhole. A field in Saudi Arabia is completed with open-hole packer with ICD completion system. The excessive production from the wells resulted in increase of water cut, hence ICD's shifting was required. As operations become more complex due to fact that there was no mean to assure that ICD is shifted as needed, it was imperative to find ways to maximize both assurance and quality performance. In this particular case, several ICD manipulating jobs were conducted in the horizontal wells. A 2-7/8-in intelligent coiled tubing (ICT) system was used to optimize the well intervention performance by providing downhole real-time feedback. The indication for the correct ICD shifting was confirmed by Casing Collar Locator (CCL) and Tension & Compression signatures. This paper will present the ICT system consists of a customized bottom-hole assembly (BHA) that transmits Tension, compression, differential pressure, temperature and casing collar locator data instantaneously to the surface via a nonintrusive tube wire installed inside the coiled tubing. The main advantages of the ICT system in this operation were: monitoring the downhole force on the shifting tool while performing ICD manipulation, differential pressure, and accurately determining depth from the casing collar locator. Based on the known estimated optimum working ranges for ICD shifting and having access to real-time downhole data, the operator could decide that required force was transmitted to BHA. This bring about saving job time while finding sleeves, efficient open and close of ICD via applying required Weight on Bit (WOB) and even providing a mean to identify ICD that had debris accumulation. The experience acquired using this method in the successful operation in Saudi Arabia yielded recommendations for future similar operations.