Implementing Intelligent-Well Completion in a Brownfield Development

During the production life of oil reservoir, the water cut gradually increases to high percentage. According to the recent analysis, average worldwide water cut reached 75%. Particularly, water cut in USA is higher than 90%. Most of the produced water is re-injected back into the reservoir as an environmental protection solution as well as to maintain reservoir pressure. Promising new technologies are being advanced to reshape development strategies in petroleum production. Therefore, it is no longer necessary to dedicate wells to only production or injection; now, both functions can be performed within one multipurpose wellbore. Downhole oil-water separation (DOWS) is a propitious solution regarding the largest–volume waste stream associated with oil and gas production using the multipurpose well concept. After the production of the hydrocarbon from the pay zone, the separation takes place either above the producing zone in the well bore or at the well head. Furthermore, the lighter phase flows to the surface facility and the heavier phase (water) is reinjected below the oil-water contact in the same pay zone. Technologies exist to reduce water-handling volumes at the surface by keeping the water downhole. These include Hydrocyclone separation, Centrifugal & Phase separator, combined gravity and coalescence, Rotary separator, vane-type separators, etc. Although the technology was introduced in 1990's, limited number of trail application is so far installed. Different installations provide critical information on the feasibility and development of DOWS technology. This paper presents the state of the art issues of different separation techniques and designs like Hydrocyclone design, ESP design as well as issues related to verifying separation quality etc. The review summarizes the various papers and reports related to the DOWS technology. Particularly, previous review was written quiet some years earlier and therefore do not include the recent development of different components of the system. The general adoption of the technology is dependent on the understanding of the process and the critical issue solving capacity in the oil and gas industry. As a way forward to the development of the technology, different in-situ options will be suggested considering limitations of the existing systems. Additionally, separation directly in the wellhead has been investigated and dual completion concept is proposed to maximize the efficiency of the system.

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Completion Design for Enhanced Oil Recovery Programs in Brown Fields

Ibrahim¹,

Fuzi²

2016

Day 2 Tue, November 15, 2016

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Mature field oil production performance based on conventional field development plan(s) dating back to early 1970s and 1980s is challenged by the inability to fully maximize oil recovery over total field life. An enabling application that is being widely considered and implemented to some extent in more recent years to address the challenge above is to pursue enhanced oil recovery (EOR) through optimized completion design. This paper elaborates on several key completion design factors that were evaluated and implemented to enable EOR for two mature fields' offshore Malay basin (Field A and Field B); these key design factors included: Well completion design to maximize zonal production contribution through use of Inflow Control Devices (ICDs) or Interval Control Valves (ICVs) to improve sweep efficiencyFit for purpose well material selection for injectors and oil producers (OP) to last throughout the well lifeOpenhole completion with swell packers and standalone screens to maximize sandface contactApplication of chemical tracer technology to identify water breakthrough for any future zonal isolation plan, zonal contribution estimation and reduce need for wireline intervention to obtain production logging data

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Implementing Intelligent-Well Completion in a Brownfield Development

Cited by 3 publications

References 3 publications

Chapter 12 Specialist Completions

Chapter 12 Specialist Completions

Review and Applicability of Downhole Separation Technology

Completion Design for Enhanced Oil Recovery Programs in Brown Fields

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