Novel Completion Design for Optimizing Mishrif Horizontal Wells in West Kuwait

Abstract This paper presents a novel completion strategy applied in development drilling operations targeting Mishrif Formation in the Minagish Field, West Kuwait. Mishrif is a highly faulted, heterogeneous, tight carbonate characterized by fluid losses, and production challenges. Production logging and dynamic temperature surveys across openhole horizontal laterals have discovered that several major faults act as thief zones and do not contribute to production. In extreme cases, mechanical isolation becomes necessary to overcome losses and sustain flow. To address these challenges, a new wellbore construction and completion approach was introduced. The design not only addresses the optimization of wellbore construction, but it also eliminates the conventional landing section and intermediate liner, enabling the horizontal lateral to be drilled directly from the surface casing shoe and completed with an openhole Multistage Fracturing (MSF) system on a customized liner hanger design. This simplified construction reduces exposure to liner- and cement-related risks, shortens well-delivery time, and minimizes material and service requirements. The paper outlines the end-to-end workflow, including logging interpretation, wellbore-construction optimization, and lessons learned from three field applications. Across the three wells, the new method consistently delivered reliable MSF execution, reduced well-delivery time by 5–6 rig days per well, and accelerated production startup. The wells were completed with tailored packer placement, successfully overcoming thief zones and maximizing contribution from productive intervals, eliminating the need for post-treatment milling due to degradable-ball technology. This marks the first documented application in Mishrif horizontals of a liner-hanger MSF completion without intermediate casing. The success of the approach has led to its adoption for future development wells in West Kuwait, where it is expected to enhance reservoir contact, reduce operational risk, and improve overall project economics.