Intelligent Plunger Lift: Digital and Cost-Effective Solution to Unlock Gas Potential in a Large Tight Gas Field in China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
JingFei Tang ◽  
Beryl Audrey ◽  
Jin Lin ◽  
Xiang Zhen Meng ◽  
Chao Yu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Fracturing ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Maintenance Cost ◽  
Liquid Loading ◽  
Gas Field ◽  
Horizontal Drilling ◽  
Multistage Hydraulic Fracturing ◽  
Loading System ◽  
Data Surveillance

Abstract The field is located in a large gas producing basin in China and has prominent characteristics such as thin formation thickness, low permeability and poor reservoir connectivity. Horizontal drilling associated with multistage hydraulic fracturing has proven to be an effective technique to produce the hydrocarbon in this field. As the gas wells matures, the production rate starts to decline due to the decreasing of the bottom hole pressure which will prompt a liquid loading issue. A trending gas production loss is up to 150 mmscf in a year due to liquid loading issue alone, which is equivalent to $1.8MM revenue loss. An analytical decline rate showed that the field is declining 3.4% to 4.6% monthly due to the descending of the casing pressure, superimposed with low backflow ratio after hydraulic fracturing, which create a technical and economic challenge to produce effectively. In addition, the location between well pads are remote and far apart. This creates HSE challenge for personnel to go to the well pads, especially during icy road in the winter. Solid soap stick had been tried as a deliquifications method, unfortunately the result is unsustainable without frequent injection. It is also very much relying on human intervention. Due to that, an alternative liquid lift loading system is introduced in the field. An intelligent plunger lift has been piloted in 12 wells in the field to reduce the liquid loading issue in mid 2021. Apart from the apparent advantages of plunger lift such as mitigation of liquid fallback, zero input energy and low operating/maintenance cost, this system is not desirable to fully close well at downstroke process which comes up with increment of gas production comparing to traditional plunger lift system. One of the major advantages is the real time production data surveillance to enable remote operations based on its intelligence flow control system and downhole sensor.

scholarly journals A Review of Hydraulic Fracturing Simulation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Chen ◽  
Beatriz Ramos Barboza ◽  
Yanan Sun ◽  
Jie Bai ◽  
Hywel R Thomas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Fracturing ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Numerical Models ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Physical Processes ◽  
Horizontal Drilling ◽  
Improve Treatment ◽  
Multi Stage ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Treatment Designs

AbstractAlong with horizontal drilling techniques, multi-stage hydraulic fracturing has improved shale gas production significantly in past decades. In order to understand the mechanism of hydraulic fracturing and improve treatment designs, it is critical to conduct modelling to predict stimulated fractures. In this paper, related physical processes in hydraulic fracturing are firstly discussed and their effects on hydraulic fracturing processes are analysed. Then historical and state of the art numerical models for hydraulic fracturing are reviewed, to highlight the pros and cons of different numerical methods. Next, commercially available software for hydraulic fracturing design are discussed and key features are summarised. Finally, we draw conclusions from the previous discussions in relation to physics, method and applications and provide recommendations for further research.

Abandonment Best Practices in Unitised Area for Wells and Facilities Straddling Two Countries in Malay Basin: A Case Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kumar Nathan ◽  
M Arif Iskandar Ghazali ◽  
M Zahin Abdul Razak ◽  
Ismanto Marsidi ◽  
Jamari M Shah
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Successful Outcome ◽  
Maintenance Cost ◽  
Gas Field ◽  
Field Development ◽  
Host Government ◽  
Cycle Oil

Abstract Abandonment is considered to be the last stage in the oil gas field cycle. Oil and gas industries around the world are bounded by the necessity of creating an abandonment program which is technically sound, complied to the stringent HSE requirement and to be cost-effective. Abandonment strategies were always planned as early as during the field development plan. When there are no remaining opportunities left or no commercially viable hydrocarbon is present, the field need to be abandoned to save operating and maintenance cost. The cost associated on abandonment can often be paid to the host government periodically and can be cost recoverable once the field is ready to be abandoned. In Malaysia, some of the oil producing fields are now in the late life of production thus abandonment strategies are being studied comprehensively. The interest of this paper is to share the case study of one of a field that is in its late life of production and has wells and facilities that planned to be abandon soon. The abandonment in this field is challenging because it involves two countries, as this field is in the hydrocarbon structure that straddling two countries. Series of techno-commercial discussion were held between operators of these two countries to gain an integrated understanding of the opportunity, defining a successful outcome of the opportunity and creating an aligned plan to achieve successful abandonment campaign. Thus, this paper will discuss on technical aspects of creating a caprock model, the execution strategies of abandoning the wells and facilities and economic analysis to study whether a joint campaign between the operators from two countries yields significantly lower costs or otherwise.

Comprehensive Analysis of Production Loggings in Fuling Shale Gas Play in China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaowen Liu ◽  
Wei Pang ◽  
Jincai Shen ◽  
Ying Mi
Keyword(s):  
Shale Gas ◽  
Mineral Content ◽  
Horizontal Wells ◽  
Organic Content ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Liquid Loading ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Gas Field ◽  
Well Trajectory ◽  
Positive Effect

Abstract Fuling shale gas field is one of the most successful shale gas play in China. Production logging is one of the vital technologies to evaluate the shale gas contribution in different stages and different clusters. Production logging has been conducted in over 40 wells and most of the operations are successful and good results have been observed. Some previous studies have unveiled one or several wells production logging results in Fuling shale gas play. But production logging results show huge difference between different wells. In order to get better understanding of the results, a comprehensive overview is carried out. The effect of lithology layers, TOC (total organic content), porosity, brittle mineral content, well trajectory is analyzed. Results show that the production logging result is consistent with the geology understanding, and fractures in the favorable layers make more gas contribution. Rate contribution shows positive correlation with TOC, the higher the TOC, the greater the rate contribution per stage. For wells with higher TOC, the rate contribution difference per stage is relatively smaller, but for wells with lower TOC, it shows huge rate contribution variation, fracture stages with TOC lower than 2% contribute very little, and there exist one or several dominant fractures which contributes most gas rate. Porosity and brittle minerals also show positive effect on rate contribution. The gas rate contribution per fracture stage increases with the increase of porosity and brittle minerals. The gas contribution of the front half lateral and that of latter half lateral are relatively close for the "upward" or horizontal wells. However, for the "downward" wells, the latter half lateral contribute much more gas than the front half lateral. It is believed that the liquid loading in the toe parts reduced the gas contribution in the front half lateral. The overview research is important to get a compressive understanding of production logging and different fractures’ contribution in shale gas production. It is also useful to guide the design of horizontal laterals and fractures scenarios design.

scholarly journals The Feasibility of a Land Ferry System to Reduce Highway Maintenance Cost and Associated Externalities

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve J. Merrill ◽  
Alexander Paz ◽  
Victor Molano ◽  
Pramen P. Shrestha ◽  
Pankaj Maheshwari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cost Effective ◽  
Maintenance Cost ◽  
Cost Ratio ◽  
Construction Period ◽  
Pavement Maintenance ◽  
Benefit Cost Analysis ◽  
Benefit Cost Ratio ◽  
Loading System ◽  
Heavy Loads ◽  
Benefit Cost

This study provides an economic evaluation for a Land Ferry, which is a rail system capable of carrying trucks and all other types of vehicles, passengers, and cargo. The Land Ferry system involves a sliding loading system to roll heavy loads onto a flatbed; as a result, loading and unloading of all vehicles and cargo could be accomplished simultaneously. The evaluation for this system included (1) the design of a new track alignment over which the Land Ferry system would run, (2) evaluation of various sources of power, (3) estimation of how many local jobs the Land Ferry would generate, and (4) a benefit-cost analysis. It was estimated that the Land Ferry would create over 45,788 temporary jobs in Nevada during the three-year construction period and 318 permanent jobs during operation. The majority of the benefits were attributed to savings in travel time ($356.4 M), vehicle operating costs ($1000.4 M), reduction of accidents ($544.6 M), and pavement maintenance ($503.2 M). These benefits would be a consequence of the shift of trucks from the highway, thus resulting in higher speeds, decrease fuel consumption, and decrease vehicle maintenance costs. The overall benefit-cost ratio of 1.7 implies a cost-effective project.

Remote-Controlled Automated Foam Injection: A Digital Solution to Liquid Loading in a China Unconventional Gas Development

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiang Wei Bo ◽  
Beryl Audrey ◽  
Uzezi Orivri ◽  
Nian Xi Wang ◽  
Xiang Yang Qiao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Control ◽  
Continuous Production ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Liquid Loading ◽  
Gas Field ◽  
Field Development ◽  
Operational Risks ◽  
Tight Gas Reservoir ◽  
Unconventional Gas Development

Abstract Gas field C is an unconventional tight gas reservoir located in the central of China which has prominent characteristics, including thin formation, low permeability and poor reservoir connectivity which significantly impact on the field development. Horizontal wells multistage hydraulic fracturing has been proven to be an effective technique to recover the hydrocarbons from this gas field. However, with continuous production overtime, reservoir pressure declines which results in a decrease in gas production rate below the critical gas velocity, leading to accumulation of liquid in the wellbore (liquid loading), which further results in back pressure and damage to the formation. Currently, gas field C loses up to 1500 mmscf/year in gas production and associated revenue due to liquid loading. Some other factors which hinders effective deliquification of the gas wells include remote well pad locations, poor road conditions during harsh weather conditions, friction with local communities, limited manpower to daily effectively analyze over 200 wells for liquid loading diagnostics and operational risks during well intervention. To tackle these challenges, a new versatile intelligent dosing technology has been piloted to reduce liquid loading. This remote-control dosing unit is located at the well pad and is equipped with automatic valves that can dispense two different chemicals (soap and methanol) in one unit. A key new feature of this system is the ability to receive and implement instructions that optimizes the dosing rate and frequency. This remote-control functionality eliminates on-site operator intervention and HSE risks especially in winter when the well pads could be inaccessible with poor road conditions.

Optimizing Tubing and Liner Completion Design to Improve Gas Production from Existing Wells: Case Study for ADNOC Onshore Field Abu Dhabi, UAE

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdy Farouk Fathalla ◽  
Mariam Ahmed Al Hosani ◽  
Ihab Nabil Mohamed ◽  
Ahmed Mohamed Al Bairaq ◽  
Djamal Kherroubi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gas Production ◽  
Base Case ◽  
Gas Wells ◽  
Production Rates ◽  
Liquid Loading ◽  
Gas Field ◽  
Well Production ◽  
Well Completion ◽  
The Impact

Abstract An onshore gas field contains several gas wells which have low–intermittent production rates. The poor production has been attributed to liquid loading issue in the wellbore. This study will investigate the impact of optimizing the tubing and liner completion design to improve the gas production rates from the wells. Numerous sensitivity runs are carried out with varying tubing and liner dimensions, to identity optimal downhole completions design. The study begins by identifying weak wells having severe gas production problems. Once the weak wells have been identified, wellbore schematics for those wells are studied. Simulation runs are performed with the current downhole completion design and this will be used as the base case. Several completion designs are considered to minimize the effect of liquid loading in the wells; these include reducing the tubing diameter but keeping the existing liner diameter the same, keeping the original tubing diameter the same but only reducing the liner diameter, extending the tubing to the Total Depth (TD) while keeping the original tubing diameter, and extending a reduced diameter tubing string to the TD. The primary cause of the liquid loading seems to be the reduced velocity of the incoming gas from the reservoir as it flows through the wellbore. A simulation study was performed using the various completion designs to optimize the well completion and achieve higher gas velocities in the weak wells. The results of the study showed significant improvement in gas production rates when the tubing diameter and liner diameter were reduced, providing further evidence that increased velocity of the incoming fluids due to restricted flow led to less liquid loading. The paper demonstrates the impact of downhole completion design on the productivity of the gas wells. The study shows that revisiting the existing completion designs and optimizing them using commercial simulators can lead to significant improvement in well production rates. It is also noted that restricting the flow near the sand face increases the velocity of the incoming fluid and reduces liquid loading in the wells.

scholarly journals Structural Reservoir Characterization of Akkas Gas Field, Western Iraq: Implications for Hydrocarbon Recovery

2021 ◽  
pp. 4769-4778
Author(s):  
Abdulkhaleq A. Alhadithi
Keyword(s):  
Reservoir Characterization ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Secondary Porosity ◽  
Gas Field ◽  
Horizontal Drilling ◽  
Hinge Line ◽  
Hydrocarbon Recovery ◽  
Fracture Surfaces ◽  
Bedding Planes ◽  
Brittle Sandstone

     Akkas Field is a structural trap with a sandstone reservoir that contains proven gas condensate. The field is a faulted anticline that consists of the Ordovician Khabour Formation. The objective of this research is to use structural reservoir characterization for hydrocarbon recovery. The stratigraphic sequence of the Silurian and older strata was subjected to an uplift that developed a gentle NW-SE trending anticline. The uplifting and folding events developed micro-fractures represented by tension cracks.  These microfractures, whether they are outer arc or release fractures, are parallel to the hinge line of the anticline and perpendicular to the bedding planes. The brittle sandstone layers of the reservoir are interbedded with ductile units of shale. The sandstone layers accommodate the formation of micro fractures that play a major role to increase the secondary porosity. The gas and condensate have been stored mainly through the micro fractures. Two types of drilling have been used for experimental gas production, vertical and horizontal. Horizontal drilling was parallel to both hinge line of the anticline and micro fracture surfaces that was conducted and doubled the gas production of the vertical well multiple times. However, if used the third type of drilling, directional, that is perpendicular to the hinge line and parallel to the beddings of both flanks of the anticline gas production will increase more than the horizontal drilling. The directional drilling will become perpendicular to the fracture surfaces and allow the gas and the condensate to flow into the well from all directions. Additionally, it will reduce the effect of both semi – liquid hydrocarbon condensate and vertical sediment barriers.

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