We’re proud to announce one of our latest contracts regarding Pre-Salt field development. SimWorx is heading the “4Sal” (Petrobras) development, a numerical simulator that deals with the drilling mud and salt layer contact, mostly related with the salt layer dissolution caused by the drilling mud contact. Along with dissolution, there is also the creep phenomenon associated with the salt layer, which is also integrated in the model. As one may expect, if the drilling mud – salt layer contact happens in an uncontrolled fashion, the whole well structure can be compromised. Salt layers are composed of a variety of different salts, therefore it is necessary to model the dissolution behavior of an array of different salts in contact with water and synthetic based drilling mud.
Dissolving the salt layer can cause an increase (undesired) in the wellbore diameter. The simulator addresses such scenarios regarding salt gravel transport and dissolution, as well as wellbore anomalies due to salt creep.
SimWorx is now the sole responsible for 4Sal development, including new mathematical models, numerical optimization and User Interface. The contract covers also the web application version of it. Key on assuming that project was the increase in our team of Chemical Engineers allowing a more effective contribution on the development of various dissolution models.