Summary
Well architecture advances from conventional wells to horizontal. Then multilateral wells, which have maximized reservoir contact, have been paralleled by advances in completion-equipment development. Passive inflow-control devices (ICDs) and active intervalcontrol valves (ICVs) provide a range of fluid-flow control options that can enhance the reservoir sweep efficiency and increase reserves. ICVs were used originally for controlled, commingled production from multiple reservoirs, while ICDs were developed to counteract the horizontal well's heel/toe effect. The variety of their applications has proliferated since these beginnings. Their application areas now overlap, resulting in it becoming a complex, time-consuming process to select between ICVs or ICDs for a particular well's completion.
This publication summarizes the results of a comprehensive, comparative study of the functionality and applicability of the two technologies. It maps out a workflow of the selection process on the basis of the thorough analysis of the ICD and ICV advantages in major reservoir, production, operation, and economic areas. It provides detailed analysis of Reservoir-engineering aspects, such as uncertainty management, formation heterogeneity, and the level of flexibility required by the developmentProduction and completion characteristics, such as tubing size, the number of separately controllable zones, the completion of multiple laterals, and the value of real-time informationOperational and economical aspects, such as proper modeling, gas-and oilfield applications, equipment costs and installation risks, long-term reliability, and technical performance.
The results of this work's systematic approach form the basis of a screening tool to identify the most appropriate control technology for a wide range of situations. This selection framework can be applied by both production technologists and reservoir engineers when choosing between passive or active flow control in advanced wells. The value of these guidelines is illustrated by their application to synthetic- and real-field case studies.
TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435.
AbstractThis paper describes the considerations and integrated design process for specifying the Cv characteristics of an adjustable flow control valve for an intelligent well. The paper emphasizes the need to consider the complete well as a control system, including inflow, choke performance and well bore outflow performance.The paper describes a method for establishing the most suitable flow control design for the application. The method combines nodal analysis and choke performance modelling to model the behaviour of the entire well bore system. This analysis is extended to multiple layer or multiple zone intelligent well completions. An example of the analysis is presented.
Smart technologies are successfully applied to South Furious 30 (SF30), a satellite oil development offshore Malaysia. Smart well completion technology and intelligent gas lift optimization have been integrated, incorporating remote data acquisition, real-time flow estimation and remote process control. The overall benefits equate to about 10% production gains and approximately 2% additional reserves. SF30 came on stream late 2001, thus realizing one of the first smart fields in the world with remotely controlled subsurface and surface smartness.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.