This Short Course presents analysis techniques used to determine the distance to the liquid level in oil and gas wells with normal or unusual conditions. Acoustic fluid level technology has resulted in being able to undertake acoustic measurements to investigate the status of oil and gas wells.
Acquiring acoustic data (fluid level shots) to troubleshoot an oil or gas well is a quick, inexpensive and non-intrusive process. Based on analysis of acoustic data obtained at the surface without entering the wellbore and yields accurate representation of the conditions existing on the surface, within the wellbore and within the reservoir.
Techniques for acoustic liquid level analysis are discussed where unusual conditions exist such as horizontal wells, very shallow liquid levels, very deep liquid levels, noisy wells, high bottomhole temperature, and low or high surface pressures. Gas-Lift wells have gas lift mandrels, where tubing holes, leaky valves and check valve leaks can be identified using the Dual Shot method. Rod Pump and other artificial lifted wells have tubing anchors, liners, multiple zones of perforations, flush pipe and other conditions which result in the acquisition of difficult to interpret acoustic traces. Example acoustic recordings are presented, where the tests are performed on shut-in or flowing or producing wells acquired down the tubing or the tubing/casing annulus. Acoustic instrument is a low-cost tool that can be used to trouble shoot wells and analyze the well’s performance.
Several different well’s datasets of data will be presented where well performance was monitored over an extended time period. Use of the cloud allows long term monitoring of wells in remote locations from any other location in the world. Fluid level test can be acquired and used to analyze challenging wells without requiring the operator to be present at the wellsite. The operator can automatically acquire precisely time stamped high frequency data using an acquisition schedule or acquire individual test on demand.
Gustavo Fernandez and O. Lynn Rowlan - Echometer Company