Professional Documents
Culture Documents
As oil companies step out into deeper waters, operators may discover that nding
oil and gas is the easy partthe real challenge lies in moving produced uids from
the reservoir to the processing facility.
Amin Amin
Mark Riding
Randy Shepler
Eric Smedstad
Rosharon, Texas, USA
John Ratulowski
Shell Global Solutions (US Inc.)
Houston, Texas
For help in preparation of this article, thanks to Hussein
Alboudwarej, Moin Muhammad and Shawn Taylor,
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; Kunal Dutta-Roy, James Garner
and John Kerr, Rosharon, Texas; and Lorne Simmons,
Sugar Land, Texas.
CHDT (Cased Hole Dynamics Tester), FloWatcher,
LFA (Live Fluid Analyzer for MDT tool), MDT (Modular
Formation Dynamics Tester), MultiSensor, OCM (Oil-Base
Contamination Monitor), OFA (Optical Fluid Analyzer),
Oilphase-DBR, PhaseWatcher, PIPESIM, Sensa, Vx,
WellWatcher and XLift are marks of Schlumberger.
1. Crabtree M, Eslinger D, Fletcher P, Miller M, Johnson A
and King G: Fighting ScaleRemoval and Prevention,
Oileld Review 11, no. 3 (Autumn 1999): 3045.
Oileld Review
Dynamically positioned
semisubmersible drilling rig
Platform
Riser
Subsea blowout
preventer stack
Flowlines
Subsea
booster pump
Electrohydraulic
umbilical line
Umbilical
termination assembly
Subsea trees
Subsea
monitoring
and control
module
Multiphase
owmeter
Manifold
Subsea tree
Electrical
submersible pump
Spring 2005
Subsea layout. Generally, oil, gas and water ow from wellbore to subsea tree, thence
to jumper, manifold and owline, before nally reaching a riser that pipes it to surface
for processing. Pressurized reservoir uid samples collected in an openhole wellbore
(upper left) will be analyzed at surface to characterize the physical properties of the
uids. An electrical submersible pump in a completed well (foreground, lower left)
propels reservoir uids thousands of feet up to the wellhead and beyond. Subsea trees
positioned atop each completed well contain pressure control valves and chemical
injection ports. A owline jumper carries produced uids from each subsea tree to
the manifold, which commingles production from the wells before sending it through a
owline to a platform. A subsea booster pump, located downstream of the manifold,
pumps produced uids along the length of the owline and up the riser to the platforms
production deck. Umbilical lines from the platform run back to a subsea umbilical
termination assembly before branching off to each wellhead and then to the manifold.
The umbilicals supply electric and hydraulic power for wellhead or manifold control
functions, and chemicals to suppress the formation of scale and hydrates in the
production stream. The umbilical lines also carry bidirectional communications and
control instructions between the platform, wellhead and downhole devices. In this
illustration, production from each well is allocated through a multiphase owmeter
mounted on the manifold.
Sea level
100s of
feet
Flowline
1,000s of
feet
Wellhead
> Fighting an uphill battle. Oil, gas and water are sent upslope through miles of owline and hundreds
or thousands of feet of elevation, only to come up against more backpressure at the production riser.
To push production up the riser to the platform, a subsea booster pump may be employed.
Water depth represents the greatest challenge to subsea production. It dominates all
process, design and economic considerations. To
exploit deepwater and ultradeepwater reservoirs,
operators must drill and complete wells in water
depths of 1,000 to 10,000 ft [305 m to 3,048 m] or
greater.2 Reservoirs that do not merit a dedicated
platform often must be produced from as few as
one to three wells. This number may also serve
adequately in larger reservoirsthe challenge
and expense of drilling in such deep waters will
often dictate the minimum number of wells to be
drilled in a reservoir. These water depths will
also dictate that most wells be completed
subsea, with wellheads and production-control
equipment placed at the seaoor.
From deepwater and ultradeepwater subsea
completions, produced fluids are sent to a production facility (above). In marginal fields,
operators may seek a nearby facility with capacity to handle their production. In some cases,
this facility may be miles away, in the shallower
water depths200 to 600 ft [61 to 183 m]of
the continental shelf.3
Fluid produced from a deepwater reservoir
experiences signicant changes in pressure and
temperature as it moves from pore space to production riser. Reservoir pressure drives fluids
from formation pore spaces to the low-pressure
sink of a wellbore. Inside the wellbore, some
form of articial lift may be required to produce
the fluids to the subsea wellhead, or tree. In
these cases, a gas lift system or electrical
submersible pump (ESP) will be employed.
While artificial lift adds energy to the well
ow, it also imparts changes in heat, pressure or
density to the produced fluids. For example,
gas lift works by injecting natural gas into the
Oileld Review
Spring 2005
Centralizer
Flowline
Carrier pipe
Optical
fiber
Passive insulation
Heating cables
> Pipe-in-pipe owline. Some operators actively heat their owlines as part
of a thermal management strategy. In this example, insulation provides
additional thermal support to electrical heating cables. Optical ber can be
mounted along the length of the owline as part of a distributed temperature
sensor system.
16,000
Hydrate
formation
line
14,000
Upper APE
12,000
WAT line
Pressure, psi
10,000
Reservoir
8,000
B
6,000
C
4,000
D
E
2,000
Bubblepoint line
F
Flowline
0
0
50
100
150
Temperature, F
200
250
300
> Oil phase diagram from a deepwater eld in the Gulf of Mexico. Depending
on the design and operation of the production system, some or all of the
phase boundaries seen in this diagram may be crossed as oil is produced
from a reservoir. The oil follows a path along a line of steadily decreasing
temperature and pressure as it moves from reservoir, A, to owline, F.
Temperature and pressure drops cause asphaltene to separate from solution,
B, when the oil crosses the upper edge of the asphaltene precipitation
envelope (Upper APE). Next, wax begins to form, C, as the oil crosses the wax
appearance temperature (WAT) line. It enters the hydrate range, D, before
crossing its bubblepoint line, E. Beyond this line, lighter hydrocarbons evolve
as gas to form a two-phase uid before the uid nally reaches the owline, F.
Downhole
measurement
and sampling
Laboratory
analysis
Modeling
System
selection
Prevention
strategy
Remediation
strategy
Oileld Review
Nitrogen-charged fluid
h
Asp
Liquid
e
en
alt
pre
cip
i
Single-phase
sample
tat
i
on
e
nve
lo
pe
100%
Pressure
Asphaltene
Critical point
75%
Multiphase zone
50%
n
,%
o
cti
ra
df
u
Liq
B
Multiphase
sample
25%
Gas
Liquid, %
0%
Temperature
Single-phase bottomhole sampler
Conventional bottomhole sampler
> Pressure-compensated uid sampling. This phase diagram illustrates the changes in temperature
and pressure to which uid samples will be subjected as they are drawn from a reservoir to the
surface. Point A shows a single-phase sample taken at reservoir temperature and pressure. As it
reaches the surface in a conventional sample container, the reduction in temperature and
subsequent drop in pressure cause asphaltenes to come out of solution and lighter components to
ash into a gaseous phase, at Point B. An identical sample drawn into a single-phase bottomhole
sampler will be pressurized to Point C before being brought to surface. Under pressure, this sample
does not cross the asphaltene precipitation envelope before reaching ambient temperature at Point D.
Spring 2005
chamber will be run in conjunction with a multisample module to allow pressurized reservoir
fluid samples to be transported offsite to a
pressure-volume-temperature (PVT) fluid
analysis laboratory.
These eld-proven sampling systems are also
used in cased-hole applications. The CHDT tool is
fully combinable with MDT modules such as the
pumpout module, multisample module and the
OFA module. Other formation uid samples may
be obtained with a DST-conveyed sample carrier
that complements existing wireline-conveyed
samplers and surface sampling services. These
carriers may be employed to collect samples in
wells containing hydrogen sulfide and in hightemperature, high-pressure or heavy-oil wells.
At the surface, uid samples can be obtained
from a separator. In producing wells, recombined
uid samples from a separator may be the only
option available for determining reservoir phase
behavior. Oilphase-DBR fluid sampling and
analysis service provides single-phase sample
bottles for transporting pressurized uid samples
and can also provide bottles for transporting
pressurized gas samples.
Analysts take an incremental approach to
sample testing, allowing initial results to dictate
the course of subsequent tests. First, the composition and basic uid properties of the sample are
analyzed. Next, samples are subjected to wax,
asphaltene and hydrate screening; samples that
screen positive are subjected to further detailed
analysis. Live uid samplesthose in which solution gas is preserved in oil samples, or in which
heavy ends are maintained in the vapor phase of
gas samplesare tested under special laboratory
conditions. PVT tests, gas chromatography
and mass spectrometry help to analyze phase
behavior, uid composition and ow properties.
The Oilphase-DBR service uses several
special technologies to analyze reservoir fluids
and quantify conditions that promote deposition
of paraffins, hydrates and asphaltenes in the
production system. Hydrate-formation conditions
are measured in both the single-phase and twophase regions, while precipitation boundaries,
growth kinetics, morphology and solubility are
characterized both visually and quantitatively.
A laser-based solids detection system
evaluates changes in pressure, temperature or
composition to dene the point at which solids
precipitate in a sample. The solids detection
system projects near-infrared laser light through
reservoir uid in a special PVT cell. The intensity
of transmitted laser light decreases at the onset
of asphaltene precipitation. A high-pressure
microscope allows analysts to directly observe the
10
Rotating
cylinder
Electrical
heating
cartridge
Deposit
Oil
Stationary
cylinder
Coolant
Oileld Review
Cooling
pipes
Electric
motor
Outlet
Inlet
Gas
Liquid
Helicoaxial
pump
Mixing
section
Spring 2005
offshore oil wells. A gas lift system draws highpressure gas from a surface production facility
and injects the gas into a wells casing annulus.
Gas is then injected into the tubing fluids
through a gas lift valve housed in a side-pocket
mandrel made up in the tubing string. The
injected gas lowers the density of produced uids
in the production tubing and lifts the fluids to
the wellhead. By lowering the weight of the
hydrostatic column in the tubing, the gas
decreases backpressure on the producing
formation, allowing more ow from the reservoir
into the well.
Total recovery will increase with the depth at
which the gas is injected. This depth is limited by
the operating pressure rating of standard gas lift
valves. Surface compression is required to push
the lift gas to deeper injection points, but this
compression pressure must not exceed the maximum operating pressure rating of the gas lift
valve. Standard gas lift valves are typically rated
to inject gas at operating pressures of 2,500 psi
[17.2 MPa] at valve depth. Beyond this pressure,
11
Impeller
Diffuser
> Helicoaxial booster pump. This Framo pump has four stages, with each stage comprising an impeller and a diffuser. The
design combines the capabilities of a centrifugal impeller with an axial gas compressor, and can operate across a range of
phases, from pure liquid to pure gas.
12
Oileld Review
Sensor
systems
Acquisition
systems
Fluid property
models
Process
models
Operations
Changing parameters
Facilities
simulator
Multiphase
flowmeters
Dynamic data
acquisition system
Distributed
temperature sensor
Thermodynamic
models
Pressure and
temperature gauges
Multiphase
flow models
Electrical
submersible
pump monitors
Static data
storage system
Flowline
simulator
Monitoring
Wellbore
simulator
Optimization
Deposition
models
Model conditioning
> Integrating surveillance into ow assurance. Data such as temperatures, pressures and ow rates are collected from sensors at various points throughout
the production system. Models used during the design stage are conditioned to process the sensor data. These models can then be used to determine the
current state of the system and to optimize the system through a series of what-if runs.
Spring 2005
13
> Subsea data hub component of the subsea monitoring and control (SMC) module. A remotely operated vehicle (ROV)
inserts a subsea data hub into a receptacle during qualication testing (upper right). The receptacle, mounted to a
subsea tree (lower left), provides wet-connect capability for retrieval or upgrade of the data hub at the seabed. The
subsea data hub (upper left) handles simultaneous input from numerous sensors along the production system, including
third-party sensors operating on industry-standard protocols. It accepts input from a wide range of sensor types, such
as downhole temperature and pressure gauges, single- and multiphase owmeters, downhole ow-control valves,
distributed temperature sensor systems, electrical submersible pump monitors, subsea multiphase pump monitors and
sand detectors.
14
Surveillance Scenario
Subsea surveillance scenarios have been devised
to test the capacity of the SMC to monitor and
detect flow-boosting and flow-assurance issues.
One laboratory simulation study, based on a
deepwater eld in the Gulf of Mexico, relied on
input from several real and simulated instruments physically connected to an SMC. This
input was provided by pressure and temperature
gauges; a FloWatcher integrated production monitor for flow rate, fluid density and holdup
measurements; a Sensa ber-optic DTS monitoring system; a flow-control valve and simulated
devices representing two ESPs, a subsea multiphase pump and a subsea multiphase owmeter
(next page, top). This example shows how one
abnormal event can cascade into another,
with potential for adverse impact on the
production system.
Oileld Review
FPSO
Subsea trees
Multiphase pump
Riser
Flowlines
Umbilical
Manifold and
multiphase flowmeter
> Seabed installation with multiphase pump, manifold, subsea trees and owline leading to a distant
FPSO. This typical installation served as a model for a laboratory scenario in which increased water
production from one well was detected at a downhole pump and owline.
ESP
STATUS: RUNNING
PhaseWatcher Vx
Flow rate
31,726.87 B/D
76.26%
1,750
1,500
Pressure, psi
Wellhead
PI 7.24 bbl/psi/day
Total GOR 318.68 scf/STB
Calculated free 38.33%
gas at intake
FloWatcher
TVD 7,850 ft
Discharge
2,775.45 psia pressure
Discharge
281.46 F
temperature
288.49 F
Pump protector
temperature
DTS
Reservoir
pressure 6,112.4 psia
60 Hz
55 Hz
50 Hz
45 Hz
40 Hz
1,000
750
1,500
70 Hz
1,250
65 Hz
1,000
60 Hz
750
55 Hz
500
50 Hz
45 Hz
40 Hz
250
TVD 7,850 ft
65 Hz
250
Intake
2,148.45 psia pressure
Intake
167.66 F
temperature
70 Hz
1,250
500
Power, hp
384.51 psia
Wellhead
pressure
MultiSensor
Motor winding
temperature 292.11 F
Vibration 4.39 g
Current leakage 0.42 mA
G
10.0
5,000
Motor vibration
5.0
0.0
-5.0
-10.0
> ESP performance display. Pump intake pressure, temperature sensors and water cut indicate that pump performance is outside of normal operating
parameters (red boxes).
Spring 2005
15
FPSO
Sea level
Flowline
Manifold
995 m
Hydrate zone
50
Temperature, C
45
40
35
30
8,000
7,000
6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
Depth, m
> An alarming drop in temperature. The unheated owline in this scenario was buried to insulate it against cold
ocean temperatures. Fiber-optic DTS readings along the owline normally show a steadily declining temperature
trend as the warm production stream decreases from 45C [113F] at the manifold, to 38C [99F] at the riser.
However, a sharp temperature drop, extending some 1,800 m [5,905 ft] from the riser base, was cause for concern.
It was attributed to hydrate formation.
ber-optic monitoring system acquired DTS temperature traces along the owline. These traces
were transmitted by the SMC system.29 Alarms
were generated as temperatures fell along a
length of owline near the riser (above). The system event analyzer indicated that the flowline
temperature-pressure profile had crossed the
hydrate-formation curve (next page). This unexpected decrease in DTS temperature readings
corresponded to an increase in water cut and a
decrease in pipeline boarding pressure at the
production facility.
Increased water cut would eventually encourage the formation of hydrates in the presence of
any gas in the line. Based on analysis of SMC
output, test personnel took remedial action,
simulating an increase in methanol injection into
the pipeline while production was choked back.
This remediation caused temperatures to move
outside the hydrate envelope, forcing disassociation of any hydrates that may have formed in the
system. The well in the simulator was then
brought back on production, and methanol injection was adjusted to avoid further problems.
This simulation showed how the SMC surveillance system, wellbore and subsea sensors,
real-time data, static data and predictive models
can be integrated to monitor and interpret
system performance. Abnormal events were
recognized, diagnosed and resolved before they
became unmanageable. This response optimized
both the flow-assurance operating strategy
and the efficiency and reliability of the flowboosting systems.
One Step Forward, One Step Back
Innovative offshore well-completion technology
will drive advances in subsea production
assurance. New power-delivery systems,
separators, dehydrators, compressors, singleand multiphase pumps and owmeters are being
developed for seafloor applications. These
technologies are paving the way for processing
produced fluids at the seafloor. Not all subsea
processing systems will have the same capabilities, but the ability to separate water from a
production stream results in lower lifting costs
and improves flow assurance by reducing
hydrate and scale formation.
29. Amin et al, reference 26.
16
Oileld Review
Decrease of 3.41 C
in 2 hours.
40
38
Degrees C
36
34
32
30
Related events
FPSO Pipeline 1 Boarding Pressure
Decrease in FPSO pipeline 1 boarding pressure.
Pressure decrease of 121.23 psia in 2 hours.
4,000
1,400
3,500
1,300
PSIA
PSIA
3,000
1,200
2,500
1,100
2,000
1,000
Exit
> Event analyzer output. DTS, wellbore pressure and owline pressure trends are integrated and displayed by the
subsea monitoring and control connectivity platform. Taken together, these trends indicate that the uid system had
dropped into the hydrate formation zone.
Spring 2005
can be addressed by injecting methanol, corrosion inhibitors and parafn suppressants at the
subsea tree. In any event, the reservoir must be
sampled, the samples must be analyzed, and the
analysis must be incorporated into the design
plan to anticipate and prevent production
assurance problems.
In deep and shallow waters, reservoir
uid analysis and front-end engineering design,
coupled with advances in artificial lift, flow
boosting and fast-acting subsea monitoring
systems are turning small, sometimes isolated,
reservoirs into economically viable assets. MV
17