Evaluation of drilling designs for smart MRC wells applied in Saudi Aramco

Smart well technology is one of the most significant breakthroughs in production technologies during recent years. Saudi Aramco has paid a quite large attention to such field development schemes especially in mature and remote fields. Initially the well construction design was effected greatly with the additional requirement of an extra casing string placed within the reservoir in order to act as a safe seat for the smart, expensive and complicated equipment of the smart completion. Further optimization steps introduced a design that was based on the elimination of the installed-for-purpose casing within the reservoir and to complete the well with open hole smart completion equipment. The thesis evaluates thoroughly the two designs by highlighting their pros and cons from the technical and economical side of the designs. Finally it will propose a unique design that bridges the gaps and combines the benefits of the two designs as well as demonstrate its incremental savings.