Well Integrity Technical Section

This message has been cross posted to the following Discussions: Well Integrity and Production .
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I am drafting this email message inquiring your standard procedure to pull-out ESP using coiled tubing unit/rig-less operation.  The well was equipped with an ESP deployed on 3 ½" CT.  The ESP in this well was deployed without Y-tool by-pass assembly. The well was mothballed.  Do we need multiple BOPs as safety barriers? There is no packer installed since the ESP is hanging? A nipple is setting.  Is it safe to perform the operation without Rig BOP? There is no provision for installing down-hole barriers (in 7" liner or 9-5/8" csg.).  Is there serious Well Control issues could jeopardize the safety of this well / operation while pulling the CT & cable with crane and empty CT drum.  

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Adnan Boudi
Petroleum Engineer
Saudi Aramco
Dhahran
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Is the well a water supply well with no history of Hydrocarbon production? If not, you should probably have some BOPE on it. I've done response work on wells that were blowing out with no BOP. The well had been sitting dead for years until it got disturbed during the pulling job. I've also had to pull a couple of wells with cranes before (long story) and it is slow and cumbersome enough that I surely wouldn't want the well coming in on me. The other problem you have with a live well pulling CT with no injector head, is you don't have any way to apply snub force if needed. You can have tubular ejection from a wellbore without a surface packoff or BOP providing a pressure area force. It is rare, but it has happened.

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Tyson Foutz
Principal
Foutz Consulting LLC
FarmingtonNM
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