Efforts to Return New Suspended Offshore Dry-Gas Wells to Production: First Successful of a Rigless Conversion Subsurface Safety Valve from Tubing Retrievable to Wireline Retrievable in Indonesia

Abstract In July 2024, Husky-CNOOC Madura Limited (HCML) completed the protected bellows (PB) valve installation to two (2) wells and it was the first successful rigless conversion of tubing retrievable safety valve (TRSV) to wireline retrievable safety valve (WLRSV) at a new offshore dry-gas well in Indonesia. A PB valve, a WLRSV, was installed to reactivate a new suspended well that failed to produce in the startup phase. To investigate the root cause analysis, a slick line diagnostic operation was performed, and it was found that the TRSV was in a closed position with a malfunctioning flapper. Several strategies regarding safety, operational feasibility, lead time, and cost to reactivate the wells were assessed. It concluded that converting the TRSV to a WLRSV by installing a PB valve using slick line well intervention was the most feasible solution to reactivate and return the wells to production in the shortest time. Based on current date well observation, the PB valve has performed very well, allowing the well to flow up to 20 MMSCFD and successfully making HCML the largest gas producer in East Java – Indonesia with a total gas production rate of 300 MMSCFD. These results showed that WLRSV can be utilized in mature and green fields and proves to be the most effective and operationally efficient to replace troubled TRSV function in new offshore dry-gas wells. This also means that the option of workover was not always the answer for subsurface safety valve issues, since PB valve installation to convert TRSV to WLRSV has proven to be a cost-effective option. Another advantage of PB valve installation is that it eliminates potential reservoir damage during the killing of wells and well loss due to problems of retrieving old tubing with a workover unit. In addition, PB valve installation as a slick line well intervention can solve small footprint issues and load restrictions on offshore platforms, i.e. small-unmanned platforms, due to the lightweight of the slick line well intervention equipment. This paper intends to share how to reactivate the new suspended offshore dry-gas well due to troubled TRSV by installing PB valve as WLRSV and document invaluable lessons learned, workflow, and best practices for society as well as for reference of other researchers and companies.