Intelligent fields: are we being smart enough?

Abstract

An oil company recently reported an associated value of $1.3 billion in 2006 from using intelligent technology and described it as ‘a revolution, reshaping our industry.’ A similar view is that ‘intelligent completions will become a standard practice in years to come.’ Our industry drills 80,000 wells a year; only 600 have been constructed with intelligence over the last 10 years—just 0.1% of the well stock. While we are seeing a few key companies embrace this technology, which they consider to have established benefits and a good track record, others are noticeably reluctant. This paper builds on past reviews to consider potential barriers to uptake of this technology and looks at ways to address these issues. It does this by offering constructive approaches in the areas of general understanding of the technology, to establishing candidate wells and the important process of introducing i-wells and i-fields into an organisation where success has been seen to depend on the management and mandate of the implementation team. The following aspects of understanding are provided: A review of the terminology; An i-wells classification system; Ways to manage exposure to risk; Identifying applications; The elements of a successful implementation team; Some answers to frequently asked questions; and, A review of emerging technologies.