Oriented Sidewall Coring avoids well bore damage and improves recovery in Oman

Oriented coring for MSCT and XL-Rock produces positive results Fig.1. Cutting at 90deg to the low side of the wellbore avoids cuttings and near wellbore damage (above). In Oman, an operator requested to cut cores from the side of the 8.5” wellbore. Oxy- Oman requested to convey the wireline tools through a highly deviated trajectory (70 degrees) using Petromac Tool Taxis and were able to successfully carry out the coring tools to the bottom depth of the hole without any sticking issues. The main idea of the Petromac tool taxis is to utilize their ultra-low friction carriers to aid the wireline tools in deviated wells. Oxy-Oman utilized Petromac tool taxis due to their excellent track record outside the region, in addition to their reputable improvement in the core quality worldwide. In deviated wells, cores cut horizontally will generally be parallel to the bedding planes. Consequently, lab measurements of core permeability are relevant for modelling the reservoir flow characteristics. Horizontal cores from the side of the wellbore are cut parallel to the bedding planes and have more value for core analysis. There is also less risk of cuttings jamming the kinematics section. Core recovery on this job was 100% with 41/41 cores recovered.