State-Of-The-Art Intelligent Completion in the Santos Basin Buzios Field in Brazil

Abstract This article aims to present the state-of-the-art in intelligent well completion, focusing specifically on the development of the giant Buzios oilfield in the Santos basin, Brazil. Since the discovery of the Pre-Salt Cluster in the Santos Basin (PPSBS), significant enhancement has been made in wellbore construction, particularly in well completion. The evolution of available technologies and the optimization of well structures have led to the development of an open hole configuration with intelligent completion, named to as PACI 3Z - Intelligent Completion in Open Hole, featuring three (3) producing or injection intervals. Over the past two years, this configuration has served as the standard design for the Buzios field development. During this period, a dozen new wells have been drilled and completed following this architectural framework. Numerous lessons have been learned, and real-time improvements have been applied with the construction of each new well, optimizing the process and ensuring timely delivery while maintaining the reliability standards required for long-term operations without failures. The results presented in this paper illustrate that the ongoing optimization and enhancement of techniques and equipment, combined with lessons learned, during Buzios field wells constructions campaign, have resulted in nearly a fifty percent (50%) reduction in execution time for PACI 3z intelligent well completions techniques in the Buzios field development. Looking ahead, future challenges include the integration of all-electric downhole flow control valves (PACI-e), wet disconnect joints to facilitate future workovers, and electronic bottom hole valves, all of them with potential to enhance completion reliability and improve oil recovery factors per well.