Weatherford International Plc has been awarded an exclusive four-year contract with Eni SpA, the company said on July 8. The contract will provide a minimum of 30 non-umbilical downhole deployment valves (NU-DDV) that will be deployed in Eni’s critical wells, improving their operational safety and reservoir performance.

“This award is the result of two years of R&D collaboration with Eni to launch a downhole casing isolation valve with RFID [radio frequency identification device],” Dean Bell, president, drilling, evaluation and intervention for Weatherford, said. “The goal was to develop an innovative solution capable of providing an independent downhole safety barrier to supplement the conventional barriers already in place, assuring control of unwanted formation influx while tripping.”

During MPD or UBD applications, the NU-DDV addresses operators’ need to improve process safety by mechanically isolating the surface from the reservoir during tripping, thereby eliminating the need to kill the well. The RFID-enabled valve eliminates external control line and clamping operations, thus providing increased system reliability, decreased installation time and removal of personnel from the red zone. This NU-DDV also eliminates swabbing effects and reduces tripping time for improved operational efficiency.

“This contract aligns with both the Weatherford and Eni pursuit of continuous improvement in operational safety and environmental performance across the start-to-finish drilling and completion process,” Bell said.