Publications

In oil and gas industry, tubing cutting has been traditionally done using explosives. With the increased security and tight control of explosives material, the procurement, usage and storage of explosive for oil and gas industry also becoming more complex, especially in Indonesia. An operator in Indonesia needs to do temporary plug & abandoned of 3 wells. Operator needs to cut the tubing with clean cut on top of the packer without explosives. Explosives cutter was not a choice because explosives cutter is known to have burr, and more over explosives permitting in Indonesia requires lengthy process and would not be economical for such small & short term project. There are several options for cutting the tubing without explosives, however electric cutter was chosen due to its performance record worldwide, wide range of capability with single tool, and easiness of operation. The operation was done in offshore rigless platform, using floating crane. The cutter successfully cut 5.5” Chrome tubings in 3 wells where each cut was done with only single run. The fact that the well temperature was 299 degF, deviation was 54 deg, and tubing was in compression, did not affect the result. Cutting operation is controlled from surface and feedback from the cutter downhole monitored realtime to ensure the cutting process was done completely and successfully. The cut was clean and complete, making it easy for the tubing to be retrieved, and the project was completed successfully. In conclusion, the electrical tubing cutter provides clean, precise, controlled cut which was not possible with previous generation of cutter or other non-explosives cutter.