A new coiled tubing control system from SLB runs downhole tools on electrical power and telemetry instead of hydraulic pressure. The ExaCT system sends power and data down the full toolstring, letting an operator send a command to a downhole tool, fire it and get confirmation it worked, all during the same run.
The platform can handle logging, stimulation, isolation and shifting jobs in a single trip, cutting the number of times a crew has to pull the string out and run it back in. Because the toolstring stays in constant contact with the surface, crews can fire tools on demand in extended-reach and multilateral wells, and change plans mid-run as downhole conditions shift.
Field results
On a six-lateral well, ExaCT cut total intervention time by about 175 hours and got the toolstring into each lateral in about 12 minutes, against six to eight hours on a conventional hydraulic system. That job stimulated more than 21,000 ft of reservoir contact and cut fluid consumption by more than 3,000 bbl.
In separate cleanout and scale-removal jobs, the system cut intervention time by up to 30% and fluid use by 20%, and ran for 81 straight hours downhole.
Coiled tubing work runs a continuous spool of tubing into a well to clean it out or stimulate it without pulling the production tubing already in place. Conventional systems trigger the tools on that string by changing pressure in the tubing; ExaCT sends an electrical signal instead.
