Preventing Surfacing Casing Vent Flows 

Our innovative technologies are your best defence against surface casing vent flows.

Surface casing vent flows (SCVFs) financially impact your well costs, as they must be repaired at some point. However, other critical impacts, such as production losses, environmental concerns, and damage to a company’s reputation, must also be considered. 

Sanjel Energy understands the impacts of SCVFs and continuously advances our technologies and processes to prevent them. Not only have we invested in lab equipment, new products, and experienced chemists to tackle the problem internally, our strategic partnerships within the academic world and with some of the largest chemical manufacturers in the world position us to be involved at the forefront of new ideas. 

There are three main root causes for vent flows, and often each root cause must occur to create a SCVF to surface. 

  1. Underbalanced pressure situation (Annular Pressure < Formation Pressure) 
  2. Spacer for entry 
  3. Path to migrate 

SANJEL ENERGY'S SOLUTIONS FOR SCVF

  • Annular Pressure < Formation Pressure

    • Optimize cement to get strength under 30 minutes  
    • Increase hydrostatic column over gas zone 

  • Space for Entry

  • Path to Migrate

    • Visweep DM IS - mix-on-the-fly spacer 
    • Optimized density and rheology hierarchy 
    • Top and bottom displacement plugs 
    • Standoff >75% 
    • Drilling fluid and well conditioning 
    • Casing movement during cementing 
    • Expansion additives in cement 
    • Fibers to reduce cracking during completion 

  • Lab & Engineering

    Aided by Sanjel Energy’s suite of lab equipment for preparing and testing cement slurries and advanced simulation software, our engineers convert lab results into well pressure profiles, delivering a complete data profile of the well. With this data in hand, our cementing experts can address complex wellbore challenges, identifying the pumping equipment horsepower and pressure requirements necessary to execute the job safely and efficiently.  

  • Sanjel Energy’s Complexity Matrix

    A key part of our project process is applying Sanjel Energy’s Complexity Matrix. The Complexity Matrix is an innovative, proprietary well evaluation system that aligns the optimum experience level and resources to a job profile. The degree of testing, peer reviews, equipment checks, and redundancies increase with the job's complexity. Our goal is to ensure every aspect of a job has been discussed, analyzed and reviewed, and that appropriate procedures and contingencies are in place.   

    Learn more about how we manage risk

    • Get in touch with our team