Prod. Handling

With the development of new digital technology over the last several years, our industry has seen many benefits of remote monitoring and automation in sectors within drilling, completion, and production. One area that has lagged is remote monitoring and automation of production chemicals applications. This paper will review initial pilot testing of automated chemical pumps on a group of newly completed wells.

The prevention and mitigation of paraffin and asphaltene deposition in oil and gas wells behaves differently depending on each well’s fluid chemistry and the thermodynamic production conditions. These variables combined make the chemical mitigation a challenging process, the target chemistry must be tested in well conditions and in representative samples to determine the optimum formulation and this process could take multiple iterations until it gets dial in. Furthermore, these dynamic conditions change over time making the optimization process a full-time effort.

A Chemical Management Program is an integral part of an overall effort to reduce downhole and surface failures.  The success of a Chemical Management Program depends upon the Operator and the Chemical vendor understanding the expectations and responsibilities assigned to each party.  This paper identifies the critical tasks associated with a successful program to aid in clarification as to which party is responsible for each.  The terms of the business contract would then be defined around these tasks. 
 

In the last 10-15 years, the US has seen a remarkable surge in the production of oil and natural gas as the industry learned how to properly complete and produce previously non-productive formations. With this increased hydrocarbon production, we have also seen an increase in the amount of water that is produced and must be managed.

Paraffin related flow assurance issues continue to burden producers with costly and inconvenient mechanical interventions. All crude oil contains paraffin wax (n-C18 and above) and depending on the source and migration history to the reservoir, the proportion of this wax fraction can be significant. As these crude oils are produced, there may be instances when the fluid drops below a certain temperature that induces wax insolubility, and therefore increases the risk of paraffin deposition that can greatly reduce production rates, and in severe cases, restrict production completely.

In the last 10-15 years, the US has seen a remarkable surge in the production of oil and natural gas as the industry learned how to properly complete and produce previously non-productive formations. With this increased hydrocarbon production, we have also seen an increase in the amount of water that is produced and must be managed.

This paper provides historical and current insights regarding paraffin damage in formations as well as paraffin challenges in production equipment. More specifically, this paper addresses factors to consider when removing solid paraffin when methods to inhibit paraffin deposition fail. Paraffin severely impacts total operating costs and well profitability and yet procedures to remove paraffin continue to lack consistent effectiveness. Case studies and current lab results will be presented.

Emerging Distributed IoT technology vs. Centralized Processing Systems In 2015 we began looking at ways to measure fluid in real time and in any container (tanks, ponds, pipe, hose, etc.). The collected data needed to be accessible anywhere in the world on fixed or mobile devices without high upfront and maintenance costs. All the legacy systems required centralized processing systems resulting in high costs, difficulty in acquiring and disseminating data and a stagnate fixed structure.

Replacing bridge plugs with Perf PODs, to plug/divert individual perforations, allows Operators to divert the stimulation mid-stage and reduce the total number of bridge plugs within a wellbore while maintaining the advantages of closer stage spacing and adding additional clusters.  The risk of a pre-set plug can be drastically reduced, along with pump down time, completion cost and resources associated for the corresponding wireline runs and subsequent millout work.

Two new concepts are introduced for optimizing fracturing additives concentration. The first is based on the shear rate in the fracture while the second is shear rate independent concept that considers the fracture permeability or conductivity as a main optimizing aspect. To verify the new concepts, the changes in the indexes (n & k) of the power law equation because of the fluid thermal degradation are measured experimentally as a function of time.