Intelligent well technology is a relatively new technology that has been adopted by many operators in recent years to improve oil and gas production, and recovery. The technology uses downhole monitoring and control to regulate flow condition and provides solutions to production problems. It is one of the most effective means for optimization of commingled multilateral wells in heterogeneous reservoirs. Due to the high cost and complexity in intelligent multilateral well constructions, accurate modeling of the reservoir, completion and wellbore performance is essential to design an economically beneficial well, and the critical component, inflow control valves (ICV), should be integrated into the performance modeling process. This paper presents an integrated analytical model that is built on existing models for predicting reservoir and wellbore flow behavior. Also, equations that can predict the flow performance through restrictions such as ICVs, in a multilateral well system are incorporated into the analytical model. The integrated model estimates the reservoir inflow and flowing wellbore pressure at each lateral of a multilateral well, then predicts the anticipated pressure drop across each ICV for any given flow rate. By knowing pressure and flow distribution in a well system, the flow rate distribution can be balanced by operating ICVs to achieve better flow conditions. This analytical model provides the engineers with a hands-on tool to select proper ICV positions for each lateral or segment and helps optimize the well production. Examples at field conditions are used in the paper to illustrate how the model can be used to improve well performance. Applications such as preventing crossflow in commingled multilateral wells are also presented in the paper.
A maximum reservoir contact (MRC) well, by definition, is a single or a multilateral horizontal well with more than five km of total contact with the reservoir rock. Planning of these wells requires extensive modeling studies to optimize total length, placement and configuration of branches. The main objective behind the MRC well concept was to improve individual well productivity and hence reduce the unit development cost and to better develop hydrocarbon assets. In fact, oil fields developed using MRC wells shows significant improvements in those wells performance in terms of increased PI, lower drawdown, and significantly delaying water and gas conning. A major challenge that faces production engineers in their daily operations is identifying and accessing laterals windows in those MRC multilateral wells, in order to preform rigless downhole sensing and intervention jobs (logging, stimulation, etc.). This challenge varies in difficulty based on the technology advancement of multilaterals (TAML) level, for example in TAML level 2 wells (cased mainbore) metal logging tools such as casing collar locator can be used to identify and confirm the access of laterals, while this of course is not an option in TAML Level 1 multilateral wells (open hole mainbore and lateral). Another reason selective re-entry of TAML Level 1 is considered very difficult is due to the shape and quality of the wellbore near the junction (window), post drilling and after distortion of hydrocarbon flow. This paper presents an intelligent electromechanical tool, jointly developed to address this issue. The tool consists of a sensing package that can identify and locate the depth and orientation of the lateral window using US and EM sensors, and an electromechanical arm that can be easily rotated and actuated with a wide range of angle, to lead and steer the bottom-hole assembly into the required lateral. This paper also presents the discoveries, challenges, and results of testing this intelligent tool in two TAML Level 1 multilateral oil producers, one fishbone well with a mainbore and six open hole laterals branching from it (shut in conditions) (Mohannad Abdelaziz, 2016), and the other is an open hole well mainbore with a lateral branching from it (shut in, flowing conditions). In Both trials the tool was successfully used to guide a production logging tool into different wells laterals.
The Northern Area Oil Operations of Saudi Aramco has embarked on the installation of Intelligent Field equipment and innovative technologies on a mass scale for the past decade. It was noticed that the initial performance and utilization of such technologies were lower than expected. Therefore; a plan comprised of the following was devised to tackle these deficiencies:Launching a major organizational restructure and assigning a dedicated team of specialists to look after the Intelligent-Field equipment and the real-time data transmission to the databases.Establishing a tailored maintenance service contract with the providers of such technologies.Developing an in-house training program for specialization in the operation, maintenance and utilization of Intelligent-Field equipment.Launching of an innovative technology deployment and evaluation program where each technology is assigned to a technical champion who assumes full responsibility of the technology deployment process.Initiating and maintaining state-of-the-art knowledge management system to track the progress, document the procedures and processes, and capture the lessons learned from the application of each technology. The implementation of these steps resulted in enhanced Intelligent-Field equipment performance efficiency. In addition, the utilization of real-time data — in advanced production and reservoir engineering analysis; such as automated well rate validation and allocation, production optimization and sweep monitoring — has improved due to the high availability and quality of the transmitted data. This paper will provide details of the holistic approach developed by Saudi Aramco for the installation and maintenance of Intelligent-Field equipment and all the implemented changes in the work processes to maximize their performance and tangible benefits. The success and value-added by implementing this generic approach will be illustrated through the high efficiency of Saudi Aramco's Intelligent-Field equipment, which has been maintained at 99%.
The number of MRC (Maximum Reservoir Contact) wells has increased significantly since they were first introduced in 2002. Most of these wells use multilateral well configuration to increase the contact with the reservoir and therefore the well productivity. (Salam Phillip Salamy, 2007) One of the main challenges for multilateral wells is the selective accessibility of the well during the production phase to perform various rig-less activities (such as stimulation, production logging, water shut-off… etc.). This requires detection and confirmation of lateral window depth and orientation and means to allow the tool to be selectively steered into the desired lateral. From all multilateral well configurations classified by TAML (Technology Advancement of Multi-Laterals), Level-1 (openhole mainbore and lateral) is considered the most difficult to re-enter. This is caused by the fact that the shape and quality of the wellbore near the junction is highly unpredictable after the early lateral window construction and the later distortion by the flow of hydrocarbons. Since both the mainbore and laterals are openhole, the simple metal dependent logging tools (such as CCL: casing collar locator) cannot be used as a way to confirm the successful entry of the openhole lateral as in Level-2 TAML (cased mainbore). Well Lateral Intervention Tool has been jointly developed to address this issue. The tool has two main sensory packages (ultrasound and magnetic) to obtain the lateral details (depth and orientation) and an electromechanical arm that can be actuated with different angles to guide the BHA inside the required lateral. This paper presents the challenges and outcomes of the tool field trial in a Level-1 multilateral well. The oil producer candidate has an openhole mainbore and six openhole laterals branching from it (fishbone well). The tool has been successfully used to guide PLT (Production Logging Tool) into three of the six laterals limited only by Coiled Tubing reach.
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