Formation isolation valves (FIV)

[Romchik659]

Good day, colleagues.

Who has run formation isolation valves (FIV) on ESP wells, or whose company already has them in the field? These formation-protection isolation valves keep kill fluid off the producing formation during workover.

Please share how the complex works, the types, suppliers/makers, and the pluses and minuses.

Thanks in advance.

Original topic

Добрый день, коллеги.

Подскажите пожалуйста, кто сталкивался с МКЗП или у кого в обществе может уже внедрены МКЗП. Не могли бы Вы поделиться, как работает данный комплекс, виды МКЗП, поставщики/производители, а так же плюсы и минусы этого МКЗП.

Заранее большое спасибо.

[ALEngineer]

We have run formation isolation valves (FIV) on ESP wells in our producing fields. Results vary, but the valves do the job if they are selected and shifted correctly.

We use them so kill fluid does not contact the producing formation during workover.

The valve sits below the ESP packer. Before you pull the pump, you close it - on slickline, or by dropping a ball / cycling pressure, depending on the model. With the formation isolated, you can kill the well and change out the ESP without damaging the near-wellbore zone. After the new pump is landed, you cycle pressure from surface to reopen the valve and put the well back on production.

On vendors: SLB (Fortress) and Baker Hughes are reliable and expensive. Cheaper Chinese and local clones (AA / SS types) exist; quality is uneven.

The main plus is that the well usually returns to normal production quickly after the workover - little extra skin, little lost fluid.

The main risk is debris. Proppant flowback, scale, or wax can jam the shifting mechanism. If the valve will not open from surface, you need a slickline or coiled-tubing intervention to shift it.

Worth running on depleted or sensitive zones. You need clean fluids and a crew that knows the shift sequence.