Data Analytics Drives Production Optimization for Gas Lift Wells to the Peak, Case Study from Gulf of Suez.

Abstract

Gas Lift has been applied in the oil field for more than 70 years, despite the new technology and developments there is always more optimization that can be done. In this paper we are giving a leading example of one of the oldest gas lift projects in gulf of Suez that has been running for more than 50 years where 540 MMSCFD being pumped on daily basis to produce more than 200 wells as of today. the experience in this field is quite historical but the question is always persisting are we making best use of lift gas volumes and pressure, does every well have the optimum design and receives the optimum gas lift rate. One more important question will be how to prioritize interventions and optimization operations to target wells with highest value. In order to assess the overall gas lift performance of the field an innovative dashboard was created including Key performance indicators that reflect benchmarking of Lift Gas Consumption compared with historical Performance of the field. This should spot the light to the field with lowest efficiency and most probably it is expected higher return of production if we dedicate efforts to this field. Moreover creating wells dashboard has valued new Key Performance indicators with New Diagnostic Graphs that was not given attention by the industry before. Having these diagnostic Plots allowed benchmarking performance of wells for similar reservoir, completion type, gas lift design and sand face completion. Using this technique, it became easy to detect wells with higher potential of production with proper gas lift intervention. Although Analytics can give some guidance on the required actions to enhance production of wells knowing the basic design, having the analytics coupled with Integarated Network modelling and well models added more value to the project. Data Driven Gas Lift Optimization approach was applied since Oct. 2021 in an extensive approach over GOS, the approach succeeded to define more than 74 Optimization and Intervention Opportunities 45 of them were actually intervened in less than a year and added more than 4000 BOPD to production capacity. It was not a surprise that some of historically known underperforming wells were interpreted underperforming for other reasons than gas lift in-efficiency but using Gas lift Analytics re-analysis of the system showed huge value for gas lift intervention in these wells and succeeded to revive them. Data Analytics and Data driven gas lift optimization is proved a huge leap in managing gas lift fields and keeping the system running closer to optimum.