Numbi Field: Adapting a Reservoir Management Strategy to Changing Reservoir Conditions

Reservoir performance, in addition to day-to-day well performance, needs to be evaluated during the life of a well. The production logging tool (PLT) is conventionally designed to provide a full set of data measurements in producing wells to evaluate well and reservoir performance. Depending on the well conditions and location, running conventional PLTs may be difficult, impossible or expensive. Therefore, an alternative approach that can be applied in lieu of PLT operations—to obtain information similar to PLTs for better reservoir management—and that can optimise reservoir production performance is desireable. Data acquisition techniques such as downhole pressure/temperature gauges, fibre optic sensors at reservoir conditions and wet-gas flow meters at the surface have been considered as a viable alternative. Such data acquisition techniques help to increase flexibility in the field development and reservoir management of problematic wells with well completion technologies such as multi-lateral, horizontal and artificial lift. This study focused on the development of an alternative method of analysing problem well data on the basis of downhole pressure and temperature data collected at reservoir conditions. The proposed model has been based on the Joule-Thomson effect and radial heat and fluid flow equations to solve the transient wellbore pressure and temperature equations. It is expected this model can be used to analyse intelligent wells completed with downhole pressure and temperature sensors, and facilitate the monitoring of wells and reservoir performance without any PLT operation, especially for complex fields.

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Leading Edge Flow Assurance Management Strategy to Optimize the Design and Operations, for a Deepwater Gas Condensate Reservoir, Reducing Costs and Associated Risks Through Integrated Engineering Analysis

10.2118/200894-ms ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Julio Cesar Villanueva Alonso ◽

Oswaldo Espinola Gonzalez ◽

Julieta Alvarez Martinez

Keyword(s):

Deep Water ◽

Potential Flow ◽

Management Strategy ◽

Management Practices ◽

Leading Edge ◽

Reservoir Management ◽

Gas Condensate ◽

Mitigation Strategies ◽

Flow Assurance ◽

Reducing Costs

Abstract Most operator companies work under a philosophy of responding with mitigation strategies rather than prevention ones to flow assurance problems when they arise. Although mitigation strategies help to maintain a stable production, gas condensate fields require the implementation of proactive techniques to be prepared for future scenarios, especially when it comes to deep water environments, since the combination of the changes in composition of a condensate fluid and the thermodynamic considerations of producing in deep water fields increase the frequency of operational problems and therefore, additional costs and risks. Furthermore, the concept of management is not frequently applied to the Flow Assurance area as much as the concept of Reservoir Management. Analogous to best Reservoir Management practices, this concept can be translated to the design and operation in the flow assurance area to provide more robust and precise analysis. Taking these considerations into account, a proactive approach is required, so that operator companies can better prepare and act in an optimum way. This paper presents a Flow Assurance Management Strategy (FAMS) methodology focused on increasing and improving the response capacity through understanding the behavior of production trends, predicting the come up of potential flow assurance problems. By the implementation of this methodology, we are seeking to operators obtain a full perspective of all the potential problems that will eventually can take place in their fields, identifying, when, where and why they will occur, and thus, allowing to set proactive actions to minimize unexpected potential flow assurance problems. The objective of this paper is to share a detailed methodology, which is intended to apply for any kind of flow assurance problem, helping operators to implement the best solution according to their capabilities and to set a base to homologate the concept of management, additionally, a short case in which an optimization study was carried out is shown for demonstration purposes.

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