ECONOMIC ARTIFICIAL LIFT INSTALLATION IN FLOOD PRONE AREAS

1992 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 398
Author(s):  
Harry Mathers ◽  
Cameron Selin

The development and exploration program in ATP 259P has evolved such that more discoveries are remote from the existing infrastructure of the Jackson Oil Field and Tickalara to Cooroo pipeline. To increase the likelihood for a commercial well completion, new ideas are being implemented, including use of a portable beam pump to test new completions, and placement of beam pumps on piles.A trailer-mounted portable beam pumping unit provides timely and cost effective data on the production characteristics of a new well, enabling more accurate designs for permanent artificial lift installations.An investigation into beam pump foundation systems was performed to establish the economics of pile mounted beam pumps for flood prone regions.The factors leading to the investigation were:flood waters had affected operations during the previous three years;floods weakened the existing shale pad foundations;pad integrity remained in doubt until access to them had been re-established;pump units had to be shut down and isolated for several months resulting in large volumes of deferred oil.The study revealed that a piled foundation could be installed at less expense than any shale system regardless of location.Erection of beam pumps on piles involved considerable investment to determine soil conditions at a range of remote locations. The soil surveys provided the required information to design suitable pile support for beam pumps. Consideration of water height at times of flooding, effect of ground water on the support-mechanism and future operations were paramount. Mounting a beam pump on piles is a method which provides rapid, inexpensive and permanent foundations suitable for flooded or dry operating conditions.A balance is struck between the commercial success of a new exploration venture versus the technical success of an expedient and permanent well completion and artificial lift installation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thivyashini Thamilyanan ◽  
Hasmizah Bakar ◽  
Irzee Zawawi ◽  
Siti Aishah Mohd Hatta

Abstract During the low oil price era, the ability to deliver a small business investment yet high monetary gains was the epitome of success. A marginal field with its recent success of appraisal drilling which tested 3000bopd will add monetary value if it is commercialized as early as possible. However, given its marginal Stock Tank Oil Initially in Place (STOIIP), the plan to develop this field become a real challenge to the team to find a fit-for-purpose investment to maximize the project value. Luxuries such as sand control, artificial lift and frequent well intervention need to be considered for the most cost-effective measures throughout the life of field ‘Xion’. During field development study, several development strategies were proposed to overcome the given challenges such as uncertainty of reservoir connectivity, no gas lift supply, limited footprint to cater surface equipment and potential sand production. Oriented perforation, Insitu Gas Lift (IGL), Pressure Downhole Gauge (PDG), Critical Drawdown Pressure (CDP) monitoring is among the approaches used to manage the field challenges will be discussed in this paper. Since there are only two wells required to develop this field, a minimum intervention well is the best option to improve the project economics. This paper will discuss the method chosen to optimize the well and completion strategy cost so that it can overcome the challenges mentioned above in the most cost-effective approach. Artificial lift will utilize the shallower gas reservoirs through IGL in comparison to conventional gas lift. Sand Production monitoring will utilize the PDG by monitoring the CDP. The perforation strategy will employ the oriented perforation to reduce the sand free drawdown limit compare to the full perforation strategy. The strategy to monitor production through PDG will also reduce the number of interventions to acquire pressure data in establishing reservoir connectivity for the second phase development through secondary recovery and reservoir pressure maintenance plan. This paper will also explain the innovative approaches adopted for this early monetization and fast track project which is only completed within 4 months. This paper will give merit to petroleum engineers and well completion engineers involved in the development of marginal fields.



2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Ahmed Al-Janabi ◽  
Omar F. Al-Fatlawi ◽  
Dhifaf J. Sadiq ◽  
Haider Abdulmuhsin Mahmood ◽  
Mustafa Alaulddin Al-Juboori

Abstract Artificial lift techniques are a highly effective solution to aid the deterioration of the production especially for mature oil fields, gas lift is one of the oldest and most applied artificial lift methods especially for large oil fields, the gas that is required for injection is quite scarce and expensive resource, optimally allocating the injection rate in each well is a high importance task and not easily applicable. Conventional methods faced some major problems in solving this problem in a network with large number of wells, multi-constrains, multi-objectives, and limited amount of gas. This paper focuses on utilizing the Genetic Algorithm (GA) as a gas lift optimization algorithm to tackle the challenging task of optimally allocating the gas lift injection rate through numerical modeling and simulation studies to maximize the oil production of a Middle Eastern oil field with 20 production wells with limited amount of gas to be injected. The key objective of this study is to assess the performance of the wells of the field after applying gas lift as an artificial lift method and applying the genetic algorithm as an optimization algorithm while comparing the results of the network to the case of artificially lifted wells by utilizing ESP pumps to the network and to have a more accurate view on the practicability of applying the gas lift optimization technique. The comparison is based on different measures and sensitivity studies, reservoir pressure, and water cut sensitivity analysis are applied to allow the assessment of the performance of the wells in the network throughout the life of the field. To have a full and insight view an economic study and comparison was applied in this study to estimate the benefits of applying the gas lift method and the GA optimization technique while comparing the results to the case of the ESP pumps and the case of naturally flowing wells. The gas lift technique proved to have the ability to enhance the production of the oil field and the optimization process showed quite an enhancement in the task of maximizing the oil production rate while using the same amount of gas to be injected in the each well, the sensitivity analysis showed that the gas lift method is comparable to the other artificial lift method and it have an upper hand in handling the reservoir pressure reduction, and economically CAPEX of the gas lift were calculated to be able to assess the time to reach a profitable income by comparing the results of OPEX of gas lift the technique showed a profitable income higher than the cases of naturally flowing wells and the ESP pumps lifted wells. Additionally, the paper illustrated the genetic algorithm (GA) optimization model in a way that allowed it to be followed as a guide for the task of optimizing the gas injection rate for a network with a large number of wells and limited amount of gas to be injected.



2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hector Aguilar ◽  
Aref Almarzooqi ◽  
Tarek Mohamed El Sonbaty ◽  
Leigber Villarreal


2018 ◽  
pp. 34-37
Author(s):  
N. A. Aksenova ◽  
E. Yu. Lipatov ◽  
T. A. Haritonova

The article presents the experience of drilling horizontal wells at the Koshilskoye oil field in Jurassic sediments (UV1 formation) with application of environmentally safe emulsion drilling mud system BARADRIL-N XP-07 which has proved cost-effective.



2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (01) ◽  
pp. 28-31
Author(s):  
Trent Jacobs

Pumping proppant down a wellbore is the easy part. Ensuring that the precious material does its job is another matter. A trio of field studies recently presented at the 2020 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE) highlight in different ways how emerging technology and old-fashioned problem solving are moving the industry needle on proppant and conductivity control. These examples include the adoption of unconventional completion techniques in a conventional oil field in Russia and work to validate the use of small amounts of ceramic proppant in North Dakota’s tight-oil formations. Both studies seek to counter widely held assumptions about proppant conductivity. A third study details a recently developed chemical coating that Permian Basin producers are applying “on the fly” to sand before it is pumped downhole. The new adhesive material has found a niche in helping operators mitigate the amount of sand that returns to surface during flowback, a sectorwide issue that drives up completion costs and later may spell trouble for artificial lift systems. Disproving “The Overflush Paradigm” After conventional reservoirs are hydraulically fractured, both from vertical and horizontal wells, it has been standard practice for decades to treat the newly propped perforations with a gentle touch. The approach to this end is known as underflushing. When underflushing, the goal is to leave behind just a few barrels’ worth of proppant-laden slurry over the perforations before attempting to complete further stages. The motivation for this boils down to the need for an insurance policy against displacing the near-wellbore proppant pack and causing the open fracture face to pinch off before it ever has a chance to transmit hydrocarbons. Such carefulness comes at a price. Underflushing raises the risk of needing a cleanout before oil can flow optimally to surface. This not only delays the arrival of first oil, it means extra equipment and personnel are required. However, a more glaring downside to underflushing is that it appears to be an unnecessary precaution. The near-wellbore fracture area is, in fact, more robust than what conventional wisdom allows credit for.



2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (03) ◽  
pp. 46-47
Author(s):  
Chris Carpenter

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 201135, “Challenges in ESP Operation in Ultradeepwater Heavy-Oil Atlanta Field,” by Alexandre Tavares, Paulo Sérgio Rocha, SPE, and Marcelo Paulino Santos, Enauta, et al., prepared for the 2020 SPE Virtual Artificial Lift Conference and Exhibition - Americas, 10-12 November. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Atlanta is a post-salt offshore oil field in the Santos Basin, 185 km southeast of Rio de Janeiro. The combination of ultradeep water (1550 m) and heavy, viscous oil creates a challenging scenario for electrical submersible pump (ESP) applications. The complete paper discusses the performance of an ESP system using field data and software simulations. Introduction From initial screening to define the best artificial-lift method for the Atlanta Field’s requirements, options such as hydraulic pumps, hydraulic submersible pumps, multiphase pumps, ESPs, and gas lift (GL) were considered. Analysis determined that the best primary system was one using an in-well ESP with GL as backup. After an initial successful drillstem test (DST) with an in-well ESP, the decision was made, for the second DST, to install the test pump inside the riser, near seabed depth. It showed good results; comparison of oil-production potential between the pump installed inside a structure at the seabed—called an artificial lift skid (ALS)—and GL suggested that the latter would prove uneconomical. The artificial lift development concept is shown in Fig. 1. ESP Design ESP sizing was performed with a commercial software and considered available information on reservoir, completion, subsea, and topsides. To ensure that the ESP chosen would meet production and pressure boosts required in the field, base cases were built and analyzed for different moments of the field’s life. The cases considered different productivity indexes (PI), reservoir pressures, and water production [and consequently water cut (WC)] as their inputs. The design considers using pumps with a best efficiency point (BEP) for water set at high flow rates (17,500 B/D for in-well and 34,000 B/D for ALS). Thus, when the pumps deal with viscous fluid, the curve will have a BEP closer to the current operating point. Design boundaries of the in-well ESP and the ALS are provided in the complete paper, as are some of the operational requirements to be implemented in the ESP design to minimize risk. Field Production History In 2014, two wells were drilled, tested, and completed with in-well ESP as the primary artificial lift method. Because of delays in delivery of a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel (FPSO), the backup (ALS) was not installed until January 2018. In May 2018, Atlanta Field’s first oil was achieved through ATL-2’s in-well ESP. After a few hours operating through the in-well ESP, it prematurely failed, and the ALS of this well was successfully started up. Fifteen days after first oil, ATL-3’s in-well ESP was started up, but, as occurred with ATL-2, failed after a short period. Its ALS was successfully started up, and both wells produced slightly more than 1 year in that condition.



2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bastien Dupuy ◽  
Benjamin Emmel ◽  
Simone Zonetti

<p>More than 750 wildcat wells have been drilled in the Norwegian North Sea since 1966. Some of these wells could pose a risk for the environment, climate, and future H<sub>2</sub> and CO<sub>2</sub> storage projects by being preferred leakage paths for subsurface- and stored- gases (e.g., CH<sub>4</sub>, CO<sub>2 </sub>and/or H<sub>2</sub>). To ensure well integrity, these wells were secured by cement framing the well casing, and by building cement plugs at crucial positions in the well path before abandoning the well. However, in an early stage of exploration the geology of the subsurface was relatively uncertain, and the requirements for plug placing and how to abandon a well were not established and regulated. We analysed data relevant for the quality of a Plugging and Abandonment (P&A) work done on old exploration wells (1979 to 2003) from the Troll gas and oil field in the Norwegian North Sea. The data were extracted from public available well completion reports and the webpage of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. The dataset was analysed regarding their availability, plausibility and evaluated towards the present P&A regulations and geological knowledge for offshore Norway. Based on 12 criteria including reporting to the authorities, volumetric assessment of used cement quantities, position and length of the plugs in relation to reservoir- cap-rocks petrophysical conditions, and verification of the cementing job, a final P&A ranking of 31 exploration wells was established.</p><p>Parts of this data were used to build realistic numerical models of P&A'ed well to simulate electromagnetic responses using the finite element software COMSOL Multiphysics. Taking advantage of a dedicated implementation of low frequency ElectroMagnetics (EM), including effective formulations for thin electrical layers, it was possible to study the response of well components to external EM fields, both for the purpose of well detection and well monitoring. Results from the numerical models can be used as benchmark models in a realistic field scale well integrity monitoring approach.</p><p>In our presentation we will show results from the TOPHOLE project including realistic field distributions for different representative well configurations, examples of well detection and monitoring signals, and the ranking evaluation results.</p><p>Acknowledgments: This work is performed with support from the Research Council of Norway (TOPHOLE project Petromaks2-KPN 295132) and the NCCS Centre (NFR project number 257579/E20).</p>



2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luiz Pastre ◽  
Jorge Biazussi ◽  
William Monte Verde ◽  
Antonio Bannwart

Abstract Although being widely used as an artificial lift method for heavy oil field developments, Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP) performance in high viscous applications is not fully understood. In order to improve knowledge of pump behavior under such conditions, Equinor has developed stage qualification tests as part of the technical requirements for deploying ESPs in Peregrino Field located offshore Brazil and has funded a series of research efforts to better design and operate the system more efficiently. Qualification tests were made mandatory for every stage type prior to field deployment in Peregrino. It is known that the affinity laws don´t hold true for high viscosity applications. Therefore, extensive qualification tests are required to provide actual stage performance in high viscous applications. Test results are used to optimize ESP system design for each well selecting the most efficient stage type considering specific well application challenges. In addition, the actual pump performance improves accuracy in production allocation algorithms. A better understanding of ESP behavior in viscous fluid application helps improving oil production and allows ESP operation with higher efficiency, increasing system run life. Shear forces inside ESP stages generate emulsion that compromises ESP performance. Lab tests in controlled environments have helped Equinor to gather valuable information about emulsion formation and evaluate ESP performance in conditions similar to field application. Equinor has funded studies to better understand two-phase flow (oil-water) which allowed visualization and investigation of oil drops dynamics inside the impeller. In addition, experimental procedures were proposed to investigate the effective viscosity of emulsion at pump discharge and the phase inversion hysteresis in the transition water-oil and oil-water emulsion. In addition to qualification tests and research performed to better understand system behavior, Equinor has developed and improved procedures to operate ESP systems in high viscous applications with emulsion production during 10 years of operation in Peregrino field. Such conditions also impose challenges to ESP system reliability. Over the years, Equinor has peformed failure analysis to enhance ESP system robustness which, combined with upper completion design, have improved system operation and reliability decreasing operating costs in Peregrino field.



2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Krasnov ◽  
Oleg Butorin ◽  
Igor Sabanchin ◽  
Vasiliy Kim ◽  
Sergey Zimin ◽  
...  

Abstract With the development of drilling and well completion technologies, multi-staged hydraulic fracturing (MSF) in horizontal wells has established itself as one of the most effective methods for stimulating production in fields with low permeability properties. In Eastern Siberia, this technology is at the pilot project stage. For example, at the Bolshetirskoye field, these works are being carried out to enhance the productivity of horizontal wells by increasing the connectivity of productive layers in a low- and medium- permeable porous-cavernous reservoir. However, different challenges like high permeability heterogeneity and the presence of H2S corrosive gases setting a bar higher for the requirement of the well construction design and well monitoring to achieve the maximum oil recovery factor. At the same time, well and reservoir surveillance of different parameters, which may impact on the efficiency of multi-stage hydraulic fracturing and oil contribution from each hydraulic fracture, remains a challenging and urgent task today. This article discusses the experience of using tracer technology for well monitoring with multi-stage hydraulic fracturing to obtain information on the productivity of each hydraulic fracture separately.



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