Petroleum Production

Engineering
Course prepared for
Offshore Oil and Gas Engineering program
ENG 8691

by
M. A. Abdi, Ph.D., P.Eng.
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN)

Spring/Summer 2005
Schedule and Evaluation Breakdown

• Instructional hours per week: 3 lecture hours

• Evaluation:
– Midterm: 20%
• Friday June 17th, 2005
– Assignments/Projects (term projects/reports): 25%
• Project topics selection: 1st of June
• Presentations: Early-mid July
• Reports due date: End of term – July 29th
– Final: 55%
• Office hours: Fridays 2:30 to 4:30 pm
Course Outline

• Introduction
– Oilfield development and production of crude oil and natural
gas
– Components of petroleum production systems
– Well productivity and production engineer
– Properties and behaviour of petroleum reservoir fluids
• Principles of petroleum production system
analysis
– Introduction to well flow capacity calculations
• Production from undersaturated oil reservoir
• Production from Two phase reservoirs
• Production from natural gas reservoirs
– Single-phase flow of compressible vs. incompressible flow
– Introduction to multiphase flow in wells
Course Outline – cont.
• Wellhead and surface gathering systems
– Principles of facilities engineering
– Types of facilities
– Basic system configuration
– Flow in horizontal pipes – single vs. two phase
– Flow through chokes
– Two and three phase oil and gas separation
• Introduction to well completion techniques and
equipment
– Factors affecting the completion design
– Main phases in completion
– Perforating oil and gas wells
– Safety devices
– Well servicing and workover operations
– Well fracturing and acidizing
– Well testing
– Artificial production techniques: gas lift vs. pumping
References
1. Economides M. J., Hill A. D, Ehlig-Economides C., Petroleum Production
Systems, 1994, Prentice Hall, NJ, ISBN: 0-13-658683-X
2. Nind T. E. W., Principles of Oil Well Production, 2nd Edition, 1981, McGraw Hill,
ISBN: 0-88415-821-7
3. Manning F. and Thompson R., Oil Field Processing of Petroleum, Volume 2:
Crude, 1995, PennWell Publishing, ISBN: 0-87814-354-8
4. Perrin D., Oil and Gas Field Development Techniques - Well Completion and
Servicing, 1999, Édition TECHNIP, IFP Press, Paris, France, ISBN:2-7108-0682-7
5. Arnold K. and Stewart M., Surface Production Operations; Volume 1; Design of
Oil Handling Facilities, 2nd Edition, 1999, Butterworth-Heinemann, ISBN: 0-
88415-821-7
6. Jahn F., Cook M., and Graham M., Hydrocarbon Exploration and Production,
2003, Elsevier, Amsterdam, ISBN:0-444-82883-4
7. Lyons W. C., Standard Handbook of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering,
Volumes 1 and 2, 1996, Gulf Publishing Co., Houston, ISBN: 0-88415-642-7
8. Skinner D.R., Introduction to Petroleum Production; Volume 1: Reservoir
Engineering, Drilling, Well Completion, 1981, Gulf Publishing co., ISBN: 0-87201-
767-2
9. Gray F., Petroleum Production For the Non-Technical Person, 2nd edition,
1995, PennWell Publishing, ISBN: 0-87814-450-1
10. Manning F. and Thompson R., Oil Field Processing of Petroleum, Volume 1:
Natural Gas, 1995, PennWell Publishing, ISBN: 0-87814-343-2
Introduction

• Oilfield development
• Elements of petroleum production
• Role of petroleum production engineer
• Stages of production
Introduction- continued…

• Occurrence and origin of oil and gas

• Liquid and gaseous “hydrocarbons”
• Petroleum – products vs. by-products
– Crude oil
– Natural gas (associated gas)
– Water (produced water)
Characterization of Crude Oils

• Sales specification (oAPI, sulfur content, BS&W,

vapour pressure or RVP, etc.)
• Spectrum of Produced hydrocarbons
– Shrinkage
– Solution or associated gas
• Crude Oil Constituents
– Hydrocarbons
• Alkanes
• Aromatics
• Other ring and naphthenic compounds
Characterization of Crude Oils

• Crude Oil Constituents (cont.)

– Sulfur
– Nitrogen
– Oxygen
– Metals
– Particles
– asphaltene and wax
– NORM
– Arsenic and mercury
Phase Behavior - Fundamentals
• Concept of “equilibrium”
• Single component fluid
• Two component fluid
• Multi-component fluid
• Phase diagrams (envelopes)
– Pressure-Temperature-Volume (PVT)
– Pressure-Temperature (PT)
– Pressure composition
– Composition-composition
• Phase rule
N = C – P +2
PVT Phase Diagrams
Phase Behavior – Single Component Systems
Dense Fluid
f g region-
supercritical
fluid
• Phase D C
Equilibrium
– gas-liquid
– gas-solid
– Liquid-solid a b c d h
e
• Triple point B
• Critical point

A
Phase Behavior: Two-Component Systems
Two component phase envelop

• Concept of phase

Cricondentherm
envelope Cricondenbar k
C
• Equilibrium lines PC l j

e
g

ne
ur
– Bubble point

A ss

Li
re pre
Pressure

nt
– Dew point

oi
pu ur

-P
of po
• Critical point

le
bb
Va h
d

Bu
e
• Cricondentherm a b
• Cricondenbar p’d i ne
va nt L
% o i ure
• Rertrograde phase 90 -P p res s
ew our
change D p
Va ure B
f of p
Temperature TC
 Phase Behavior: Multi-Component Systems

Condensate Gas
Oil reservoir reservoir reservoir
• Full wellstream E
A B C D
• Source of phase C
diagrams
• Classification of
reservoir fluids Pressure
Two-Phase Region
(Gas+Liquid)
– Dry gas
– Wet gas D’ E’
B’ C’
A’
– Gas Condensate

Cricondentherm
– Volatile oil
– Black oil
– Dead oil

Temperature
 Characterization of Reservoir fluids

SPECTRUM OF PRODUCED TYPICAL GOR STOCK-TANK LIQUID

HYDROCARBONS
FLUID TYPE OAPI
BSTO/BRF SCF/BSTO COLOR

Associated gas from: >0.5 <2,000 <45 Very dark –

•Low Shrinkage crude (Low GOR) black oil
–Ordinary crude
•High Shrinkage Oil (high GOR) – <0.5 2,000-3,300 >40 Colored –
volatile oil dark brown

Retrograde gas – gas condensate >0.35 3,300-50,000 50-60 Water white

Wet gas - >50,000 >50 colorless

Dry gas - - - colorless

Components of Production Systems – Basic
concepts and definitions

• Reservoir
• Reservoir porosity: Ф=Vp/Vb
• Reservoir height (thickness) – Pay thickness
• Reservoir saturation – hydrocarbon vs. water
Components of Production Systems – Basic
concepts and definitions, cont.
• Classification of reservoirs
– Undersaturated
– Saturated/Two-phase
– Lean gas
– Retrograde condensate
• Original hydrocarbon-in-place
VHC = Ahф(1-Sw)
– Oil formation volume factor (Bo)
– Gas formation volume factor (Bg)

Ahφ (1 − S w ) Ahφ (1 − S w )
N= G=
Bo Bg
Components of Production Systems – Basic
concepts and definitions, cont.
• Permeability and Darcy equation: q = − k ∆P
A µ ∆l
• Well Completion and near wellbore conditions:
– Open hole: Simple, Slotted Liner or Gravel Packed
– Cemented, cased, and perforated

Option for Well completion

Components of Production Systems – Well and
Surface Facilities

The petroleum production system including the reservoir, underground

well completion, the well, wellhead assembly and surface facilities
Well Productivity and Production Engineering

• Productivity index:

q kh
J= =
p − p wf α r Bµ ( p D + s )

• Role of production engineer

System of Units – SI vs. Field
Useful units and their conversion factors to SI system
Variable Filed units SI Conversion
(multiply field unit by)
Area acre m2 4.04 x 103
Compressibility psi-1 Pa-1 1.45 x 10-4
Length ft m 3.05 x 10-1
Permeability md (millidarcy) m2 9.9 X 10-16 or ~ 1 x 10-15
Pressure psi Pa 6.9 x 103
Flow rate (oil) STB/d m3/s 1.84 x 10-6
(St’d barrel/day)
Flow Rate (gas) MSCF/d m3/s 3.28 x 10-4
(1000 st’d ft3/day)
Viscosity cp (centipoise) Pa.s 1 x 10-3