The Shushufindi Adventure

Abstract

The Shushufindi field represents 10% of the total production of Ecuador. Discovered in 1972 with an estimated 3.7 billion bbls OOIP, it achieved a maximum production rate of 125,000 bopd in 1986. Since then, the field has been in decline reaching 43,000 bopd in January 2012 with a recovery factor of 30%. Consorcio Shushufindi was formed to address this decline, boosting production to over 65,000 bopd by Aug 2013. This dramatic improvement has been achieved through a gain share agreement which has seen 45 new wells and 35 workovers during the first 18 months of the contract. Prior to the contract signing, a "Shock Team" created the preliminary subsurface modeling estimations and generated the activity plan which included de-bottlenecking of the surface facilities to optimize production.In order to maintain accelerated production and a rapid drilling program, the Asset Integrated Management center (AIM), a specialized real-time monitoring system, was created. This center is located in Quito, Ecuador, and remotely monitors field operations. Most of the wells in the field have been converted to artificial lift using electric submersible pumps (ESPs). Each of these ESPs sends data via a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system to the AIM so that pump parameters are continuously optimized and failures are quickly addressed, optimizing production. Additionally, each new well that is drilled has a team in the AIM to monitor the progress of the well and all acquired data. New wells are compared to the knowledge base established by previous wells and the drilling parameters are optimized for the new well. Consequently, the required time for drilling and completion of new wells has progressively improved. This paper presents the techniques implemented by the team, the results to date, and the prognosis for the future of the field.