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Brownfields
WHITE PAPER
Brownfields
Schlumberger is an oilfield services company supplying technology, project management, and information solutions to the E&P industry.
Executive summary
Typically in oil and gas production, the keenest interest and greatest investment is focused on the early life of a reservoirits productive heyday. But times are changing. These days, brownfieldsdefined as mature fields in a state of declining production or reaching the end of their productive lifeare regarded as potential fountains of youth. In an industry climate marked by growing demand, ever-greater importance is placed on enhancing and prolonging an asset's productive maturity, maximizing its declining productivity, and postponing its demise. Schlumberger has long recognized the need for cradle-to-grave technology; now, nearly 60% of the company's well services business is channeled toward rejuvenating brownfields.
Author Usman Ahmed Theme manager, Brownfields Contributors to this paper Donna Garbutt, Lorne Simmons, Martin Isaacs, Leo Burdylo, Carl Trowell, and Karen Glaser Schlumberger
Brownfields
Brownfields generally are more than 30 years old and account for 6772% of world production.
One look at the World Energy Organization Basin Exhaustion S-Curve brings the task of the exploration and production (E&P) industry into focus. Brownfields, defined as mature fields in a state of declining production or reaching the end of their productive lives, contain resources that are needed by producing countries and the world economy. These brownfields generally are more than 30 years old and account for 6772% of world production. When compared with other fieldsdeepwater and greenfieldbrownfields represent the most significant capacity to provide future production. Headliner deepwater developments account for only about 8% of global production, and greenfields (those fields under development, or producing and perceived as having a high percentage of reserves still in the ground) account for another 2025%. While brownfields hold the majority of oil resources, the recovery factor is currently only about 3537%. This must be increased dramatically if we are to
achieve the 1.7% (11 million barrels of oil per day) growth in output needed to satisfy predicted demand between now and 2010. So why are we not seeing more recovered reserves from brownfields? The reasons are complex, as much driven by resource and portfolio decisions as by geological factors. Many mature fields are being operated using technology put in place when the field was originally developed. Technologies routinely applied in new field developments are being ignored in brownfields, and many of these fields are underperforming and require engineering and operational attention. While increasing asset value through improved reservoir performance in such fields has been desired for decades, productivity and recovery results have been difficult and even impossible to attain because critical tools and technologies were either not made available or inadequate.
Ineffective or problematic initial completions Unstimulated horizons Low fracture conductivity Short fracture length High skin, or damage
Gradual formation damage during production Scale and fines Workover frequency Well age
Well underperformance
Outdated technology Advanced stimulation technology New completion techniques Well age
Fig. 1. Potential causes of underperformance in previously stimulated wells. The GTI restimulation project team established a classification framework to help diagnose problems in hydraulically fractured wells that perform below operator expectations. At the highest level, there are three broad categories: ineffective or problematic initial completions, gradual production damage, and advances in technology or evolving techniques compared with past practices.
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Many mature fields are being operated using technology put in place when the field was originally developed.
tailored technology, process offerings, and expertise full partnership capability and project management.
Short-term production goals are often achieved at the cost of high decline rates. Over the long term, a sustainable production plateau is sought. The greatest technology challenge is preparing for and enabling management of decline in the short term while increasing recovery factors in the longer term.
reevaluation of reservoir remediation of wellbores and facilities efficiently targeting bypassed or undeveloped reserves production optimization, especially completion and lift strategies fluid management in general, including water management.
better reservoir knowledge for understanding bypassed pay in existing fields and unrecovered oil in produced zones real-time data delivery and decision systems improved access to reservoirs
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Brownfields
Schlumberger made a commitment 25 years ago to actively address brownfield challenges particularly in the area of risk and cost reduction. That commitment remains true today.
Looking to the future, todays greenfields are benefiting from real-time information, which is having a significant impact on all technical areas and is extending the peak of production. Customized intelligent systems are helping optimize productivity for tomorrows brownfields. Technology enhancements enable correct on-the-spot decisions and solutions involving integrated cross-disciplinary services. Todays remote monitoring devices and information systems offer the option of understanding what is taking place in the reservoir and the ability to take corrective action in real time.
Kd Kf
Fig. 3. The frac-pack bypasses near-wellbore damage (Kd) and creates effective communication between the undamaged formation (Kf) and the wellbore.
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Specially designed seismic apparatuses are being incorporated into new drilling technology to allow better formation imaging while drilling. The logging suite delivers crucial real-time data for evaluating the positioning of drilling strings and modifying the well path as needed. Particularly useful in mature reservoirs in which pressure has been a longstanding challenge is a new perforating system that controls an optimum dynamic underbalance reservoir pressure. New techniques minimize disruption of the cementsandface hydraulic bond and create optimum perforation shape and length.
The greatest technology challenge is preparing for and enabling management of decline in the short term while increasing recovery factors in the longer term.
Fig. 4. Nonpolymer viscoelastic fracturing fluid.
surface will be with the industry for the foreseeable future. Dealing with water is a costly fact of life in most mature fields, with the average industry operating expense at USD 0.50 per barrel of produced water. Pumping units and surface operations originally designed to handle oil and minimal water are now producing primarily water and only traces of oil. For example, California oilfields now operate on the average at a water/oil ratio of 7:1. Disposal legislation regarding produced water is on the increase worldwide. Why is water such an overwhelming factor in brownfields? Incompatible completions as a result of production changes are one reason for the problem. Increased water cut is related to reduced recovery and surface facility bottlenecks. Also, historically, there has been a fragmented approach to water handling.
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Brownfields
downhole separation and disposal of water to reduce surface handling and to allow surface facilities to process more oil prevention of water entering the wellbore through the use of chemical or biological agents integrated evaluation and engineering processes to identify the type and location of water breakthrough improved reservoir energy management, including optimized water injection schemes, water front prediction, and improved sweep efficiency.
Remaining zones of bypassed oil often require complex well trajectories that intersect as many target zones as possible.
The results can be significant when the right technology and processes are applied. Our efforts to rehabilitate brown fields are commonly undertaken through a long-term alliance or partnership that involves working with asset owners to achieve production or reserve goals. As an integrated service company with a specialist project management group, we are able to apply field management, well construction and intervention, and project and risk management skills to rehabilitate brownfields in an integrated manner that brings together fit-for-purpose technology solutions. Each rehabilitation project is unique and tailored to match the objectives of the project and the goals of the project owner. When properly managed, a rehabilitation project should be guided by a clearly defined scope of work, a detailed project execution plan for handling all contingencies, and a planned ability to manage change. Often the first action in identifying which fields have the potential for major rehabilitation is to undertake a field optimization study (FOS) that will examine the total field production operations with the objective of improving profitability through identifying opportunities for increased production, decreased costs, and improved water management strategies. From the FOS, an overall field redevelopment plan can be engineered to implement the changes necessary to revitalize the field. Field management processes can be optimized by real-time integration of new data into the field redevelopment plan and using simulation and economics tools to guide decision making.
better permeability data better prediction of likely fracture geometry better understanding of the reservoir better integration of job planning, execution, and follow-up more productive fields better financial returns.
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Only a solid commitment to research and development and innovative thinking can deliver reservoir-focused applications and effect positive change in efficient delivery of well services to drive down lifting costs and coax more oil from the reservoir.
have emerged. Some of these technologies, addressing all four areas of reservoir production enhancement, include
ABC * Analysis Behind Casing services Memory PS Platform* production services PowerDrive* rotary steerable drilling systems seismicVISION * logging while drilling tool PURE Perforating for Ultimate Reservoir Exploitation system PowerCLEAN * integrated system for effective wellbore fill removal OilSEEKER * acid diverter VDA* Viscoelastic Diverting Acid
*
Innovative technologies ... are being applied not only to revive hydrocarbon production in mature fields, but also to develop greenfields with a view to efficient, longer-term production
Stage 4
Stage 9
8 Inadequate fracture length Marginal pay zone 2 Insufficient interval coverage Bypassed pay zone 1 Perforations Wellbore 3 7 6 5 4 3 Additional reserves Optimal fracture length
management.
2 1 Fracture Casing
Additional reserves
Fig. 5. Conventional and selective stimulations. Fracturing several zones grouped in large intervals, or stages, is a widely used technique. However, fluid diversion and proppant placement are problematic in discontinuous and heterogeneous formations. Conventional treatments, like this four-stage example, maximize fracture height, often at the expense of fracture length and complete interval coverage (left). Some zones remain untreated or may not be stimulated adequately; others are bypassed intentionally to ensure effective treatment of more permeable zones. Selective isolation and stimulation with coiled tubing, in this case nine stages, overcome these limitations, allowing engineers to design optimal fractures for each pay zone of a productive interval (right).
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Brownfields
ClearFRAC * surfactants FloVIEW holdup measurement tool GHOST * Gas Holdup Optical Sensor Tool RSTPro Reservoir Saturation Tool for PS Platform string.
* *
evaluation to gain in efficiency, it has also revealed remarkable results in detecting fluid behavior in declining reservoirs. The Memory PS Platform service, along with the FloView, GHOST, and RSTPro tools, is making a difference in the area of production logging. Memory PS platform measurements clearly identify entry points of oil and water into the wellbore with the same accuracy and quality as real-time configurations in situations that preclude surface readout operation.
Formation evaluation
ABC services allow complete formation evaluation through casing. Not only has this resistivity logging technology enabled cased hole formation
Gamma Ray 0 (gAPI) 50 Compressional Coherence 0 1 MD Shear Standard processing 1 : 120 Coherence ft (s/ft) 220 0 1 40
X,X50
X,X60
X,X70
X,X80
X,X90
X,X00
X,X10
Fig. 6. Tools centered in the casing, low-frequency firing, and optimized transmitter-receiver tool spacing give ABC casing-optimized processing (right) better coherence and continuity than standard processing (left).
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navigation selecting casing and coring points target depth prediction reducing sidetracks and pilot holes.
Acquired interval velocities provide the data necessary for managing pore pressure while drilling and optimizing mud weight. Careful control of reservoir dynamics is critical to the success of the perforated completion. Previous neglected variations in wellbore parameters have a profound effect on the performance of the completion. By basing job design on the properties of the reservoir, wellbore, and gunstring, the novel PURE technique consistently minimizes or eliminates perforation damage to maximize productivity. The wellbore in many mature fields can become clogged by sand, silt (proppants), and other particles; keeping the perforation holes clear is an important step to improving production. The PowerCLEAN solution uses a CT system to remove clutter in many challenging environments.
Fig. 7. Depth control is paramount in fracturing through CT.
VDA fluid is based on unique Schlumberger viscoelastic surfactant technology. Because it is polymer-free and self-diverting, the fluid can prevent formation damage while providing total zonal coverage. The ClearFRAC polymer-free fracturing fluid system was developed to provide maximum fracture conductivity as a result of minimum damage under a range of conditions. Designed to operate with significantly lower friction pressure while pumping, this fluid has low hydraulic horsepower requirements to reduce equipment demands. By maintaining a constant viscosity, the ClearFRAC fluid offers a means to predict and control fracture geometry. In brownfields, corrective actions with the selection and application of intelligent technologies and advanced methods in conjunction with reliable, verified data ultimately define project success, enabling fields that suffer from production falloff to make a comeback.
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Technology is key.
Todays brownfields have accounted for the majority of world production, yet hold even greater potential for additional recovery. The way we see it, these mature, declining fields offer the greatest promise for the future. Growing demand for energy and innovative recovery techniques means it pays to take a second look at these potential wins. Schlumberger Oilfield Services (OFS) brings you advanced tools and expertise to better understand the environment.
Advanced simulation software Cementing technology Drilling services Expert services Formation evaluation tools Information services IPM Multilateral completions Perforating services Stimulation technology
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