IPTC 14807

Gas Lift Journey to Maximize the Asset Value in Platong Field, Gulf of
Thailand
Chalatpon Boonmeelapprasert, SPE, Simon P. McCartney, SPE, Sawin Kulchanyavivat, SPE, Hari P. Macharla,

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ASME, and Khathayut Senitantikul, Chevron Thailand Exploration and Production Company

Copyright 2011, International Petroleum Technology Conference

This paper was prepared for presentation at the International Petroleum Technology Conference held in Bangkok, Thailand, 7–9 February 2012.

This paper was selected for presentation by an IPTC Programme Committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper, as
presented, have not been reviewed by the International Petroleum Technology Conference and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily
reflect any position of the International Petroleum Technology Conference, its officers, or members. Papers presented at IPTC are subject to publication review by Sponsor Society
Committees of IPTC. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper for commercial purposes without the written consent of the International Petroleum Technology
Conference is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is res tricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous
acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper was presented. Write Librarian, IPTC, P.O. Box 833836, Richardson, TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax +1-972-952-9435

Abstract

Operating Platong field in the Gulf of Thailand (GoT) is challenging because of the small compartmentalized reservoirs in the
fluvial deposition environment. As the completion strategy has to be low cost in order to achieve the economic hurdle rate and
the initial strategy is to develop to be a gas field, a lot of existing oil wells do not have the artificial lift system in place.
Without artificial lift, most of the oil wells usually cease flowing in 2-6 months. Therefore, the artificial lift is crucial to
prolong the well life in Platong. Gas lift currently plays a very important role in Platong field. With the continuous initiation
and operation improvement, production from Platong gas lifted wells has been gradually increasing from 10% in June 2008 to
50% of total field production in June 2011.

The subsurface challenge for gas lift mainly involves with the effort of cost reduction. Drilling and completion improvements
from 2-trip to mono-trip gas lifted completion in 2008 reduces a rig time by ~1 day/well (from total ~7 to ~6 days/well).
Converting the existing producers that are not equipped with gas lift mandrels was initially undertaken by installing coiled
tubing gas lifted assemblies. This method was subsequently replaced with the installation of slickline run straddle pack-off gas
lift assemblies in 2010 at a cost saving by -73%. In terms of the production operation aspect, proper gas lift candidate
selection process, excellent collaboration between office and offshore are the key components for the success.

Beyond the gas lift injection rate optimization, the surface challenge is mainly related to the optimization of the gas lift sources
from the back pressure reduction systems, i.e. Remote Compressor (RC) and the mobile Well Unloading Unit (WUU). The
RC functions in both back pressure reduction and providing the high pressure gas lift gas to the producers. Several efforts
have been put on the RC unit optimization and modification to maximize gas lift rate, for example the RC inter-stage is
modified to increase gas lift rate from 2 to 5 MMscf/d which resulted in the oil increase of +500 bopd/platform. In May 2011,
the modified WUU that can provide high pressure gas lift was implemented to revive the platform that does not have the RC to
provide gas lift with the incremental oil of +1,000 bopd/platform. In Q2 and Q4 2011, four main gas lifted platforms are
scheduled to commence the gas lift injection from a gas supply pipeline, where the gas source is supplied from the Central
Processing Platform (CPP). We walk away from the gas lift from RC due to the limited gas reserves on those four platforms.

With the continued gas lift completion and operation innovations in both surface and subsurface, proper working process in
place, sufficient gas lift trainings for all personnel, and excellent collaboration between office located subject matter experts
(SMEs) and offshore production operators, gas lift could significantly prolong the well life and certainly increase the recovery;
as a result, enhance the asset value.

Introduction

The Platong Field in the Gulf of Thailand has been successfully developed in 1985 through a consistent focus on well and
facility design optimization for the production of gas. This focus has brought continuous improvements and cost reductions
that have resulted in a robust project to support gas demand in the Kingdom of Thailand for more than 20 years. However, this
focus on optimizing the field for gas development has presented challenges when economic volumes of oil are discovered
2 IPTC 14807

within some of the compartmentalized reservoirs in 1997. If sufficient oil volumes are found and confirmed with at least 2
well control locations, alternative well designs with deeper set casing, artificial lift, and horizontal completions are employed.
However, a number of smaller oil reservoirs have been discovered that were most economically developed with variants of the
well designs that are optimized towards gas production (standard monobore completion). The optimization of these reserves
has led to an alternative well design path for the gas lift within the Platong asset.

Standard monobore completion wells are completed as 2 7/8” or 3 1/2" monobores without incorporating any artificial lift.
However, over time it has become clear that this was not sufficient to fully deplete the encountered oil reserves as the
performance of in-situ gas lift being too unpredictable for consistent results to be achieved. Either gas reserves were less than
required to deplete all the oil or gas production could not be managed to achieve optimal oil recovery. Down hole chokes have

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been utilized to effectively produce the in-situ gas lift in many wells in the past. However, sand or wax fill above down hole
chokes in many wells has required relatively expensive coiled tubing clean outs before it was possible to retrieve the chokes
and further access the wellbore below. This has led to the application of gas lift injection from the surface and the wells are
currently completed as 2 7/8” or 3 1/2" monobore with gas lift mandrels when sufficient oil reserves are encountered.

The gas lift gas is supplied by a remote compressor (RC), placed on each wellhead platform. These were originally utilized to
provide back-pressure reduction for late life wells but have been upgraded to supply gas lift gas. As gas lift use expanded, the
standard RC design was identified as a bottleneck, constraining the ability to generate sufficient gas lift gas if the number of
wells requiring gas lift on a platform increased significantly. Interstage modification on the RC’s has been implemented to
maximize gas lift gas output and to accelerate the oil production from the additional gas lift gas provided. With gas lift gas
supplied from individual platform RC, source gas must be obtained from the available gas reserves on the individual platform.
Unfortunately, as recent advances in the application of waterflooding to improve oil recovery have been identified, a number
of existing platforms have been found to have insufficient remaining gas reserves to generate gas lift over the life of the
waterflood program. In 2011, a gas lift pipeline from the central processing platform was successfully commissioned to
provide gas lift gas for four gas deficient platforms. This pipeline has revived the oil production and increased oil recovery on
these platforms.

A small number of platforms where gas lift opportunities exist have neither an RC for back pressure reduction, that can be
upgraded for gas lift supply nor access to the in-field gas-pipe. In these cases a modified portable well unloading unit (WUU)
was utilized. The typical WUU can only function as a back pressure reduction, without ability to generate high pressure gas
lift gas and has been applied on platforms whose initial reserves did not warrant the installation of a permanent RC. These
WUU’s were modified to be able to provide high pressure gas lift for those platforms to unlock further gas lifted oil reserves.

Electric submersible pumps (ESP’s) have also been deployed on a limited basis within the asset; however, the limited
application and resulting in high cost per unit has negatively impacted their use and the future expansion of ESP is unlikely.

Currently, the gas lift completion is the standard practice for completing all oil wells and gas lift plays an increasingly
important role in Platong field. The production from gas lifted wells has been gradually growing from 10% in June 2008 to
50% of total field production in June 2011, as same as the increasing trend of number of gas lift wells from a few wells in June
2008 to 105 wells in June 2011 which are shown in Figure 1 (A) and (B).

Overall the gas lift journey in Platong field includes the improvement on the subsurface completion and surface gas lift
sources, attempts to bring new gas lift wells online, and fit-for-purpose monitoring tools. Due to the small compartmentalized
reservoirs, cost reduction of subsurface gas lift completion is a major key to significantly increase the NPV of the project. The
other essential elements to make the excellent gas lift operation are; ensuring the proper working processes in place, sufficient
gas lift trainings for all personnel, and good collaboration between office located Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and offshore
production operators. Even though gas lift is one of the oldest artificial lift methods to produce liquids from the earth,
continued focus on the base operation and identification of further opportunities still has significant potential to increase asset
value.
IPTC 14807 3

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(A) (B)

Figure 1: The growth of numbers of gas lift wells (A) and gas lift production (B) in Platong Field during mid 2008 – mid 2011

Geological Description

The Platong field is located in the Gulf of Thailand, 245 kilometers east of mainland Thailand as shown in Figure 2 (A). The
water depth is 70-80 meters. The field is comprised of a series of normally faulted sub-basins with the Pattani Basin, making
up broadly north-south trending graben system with an intervening structural high (Fig 2 (B)). Reservoirs are predominantly
of non-marine sand-siltstone deposited in fluvial to lacustrine environments. The accumulations associated with faults have
limited hydrocarbon columns (typically <60ft). The shallower accumulations are typified by higher porosity sands, widely
spaced faults, and stronger aquifers. These types of reservoirs make good horizontal well opportunities. The intermediate and
deeper accumulations are typified by lower porosity sands, narrower fault blocks, and weaker aquifers. These types of
reservoirs make good waterflood candidates. Deep, low porosity reservoirs are often latteraly discontinuous and found in
single penetrations. These types of reservoirs typically have low contribution while commingling produciton. Wells are
typically drilled ‘high and tight’ at a distance of approximately 200 feet behind the fault plane, completed with cemented
monobore 2.875” or 3.5” tubing and perforated at selected sands with commingled production.

(A) (B)

Figure 2: (A) Location map of Platong field and (B) Pattani Basin Petroleum System

Cost Reduction on the Subsurface Gas Lift Completion

- Mono-Trip Gas Lift Completion

The initial well designs focused on gas production with no facility for external gas lift. Any oil reserves encountered were
commingled with gas reservoirs and produced simultaneously. On occasion, limited perforation of the gas sands was initially
utilized to provide in-situ gas lift to these oil sands. Performance reviews of the in-situ gas lift indicated that oil recovery
4 IPTC 14807

could be further increased with the application of managed gas lift. This led to a revision of the standard well design to allow
the installation of gas lift mandrels in the upper completion. Where oil volumes allowed, a revised horizontal well design was
employed. The production casing was set deeper and closer to the reservoir allowing optimal gas lift mandrel placement.
However, in most cases the oil reserves did not warrant an additional horizontal well and majority of wells were completed
using a 2–trip monobore gas lift variant of the basic monbore completion.

After 2008, further cost reduction was achieved with the introduction of mono-trip gas lift completion where the gas lift
assembly was run as part of the final completion string and the complete monobore then cemented in place. This reduces rig
time by ~1 day per well and represents a considerable cost saving against a development background of 50 to 100 wells per
year. This fabulous completion method has been described in the literature in 2004 and 2006 (see the first two references).

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The new design involves pumping cement through the gas lift mandrels, so the major factor of the new design involves with
the fluids dynamics research. The new gas lift mandrel has to be designed that the turbulent flow characteristic must be
created to enhance the washing of residual cement with self-cleaning capabilities while allowing the wiper plug to pass
through. For this purpose, the turbulence-inducing vanes are added inside the gas lift mandrel. The Hydrostatic Closed
Circulating Valve (HCCV) is a key to the success of the new completion design. The HCCV plays the important role to clean
the excess cement above packer in the annulus allowing gas lift gas to be injected later. The opening and closing of this
component are achieved through the pressure cycle.

The completion sequence starts once the tubing hanger is landed and secured. The cement pumping is conducted offline and
the rig can be skidded to drill another nearby well on the platform. This is how the mono-trip gas lift completion helps saving
the rig time. Not only the wells economics will be enhanced from this new completion design, but also the reduction in chance
of accidents due to less working rig time as well. The step-by-step of the completion is shown below:

1) Pump designed cement volume, drop wiper plug and displace with completion brine to place top of cement at 300
feet above the packer.
2) Increase tubing pressure to 3000 psi differential and hold for 10 minutes to activate and set the hydraulic packer.
3) Increase tubing pressure to 4000 psi differential to burst the rupture disc in the HCCV to establish the communication
between tubing and annulus. Circulate and observe the annulus returns until the appropriate drilling mud (or spacer)
and the excess cement volume has been circulated out.
4) Close the surface annulus and increase the tubing pressure to 5500 psi to shear and close the outer sleeve of the
HCCV, regaining the tubing to annulus integrity.
5) Perform the tubing and annulus pressure test to ensure the integrity of the completion.
6) Utilize the wireline unit to close the inner sleeve of HCCV by using the up-shift shifting tool at later stage. This will
provide the redundant seal at the HCCV.

Figure 3: The well schematic of the cement through mono-trip gas lift completion
IPTC 14807 5

- Straddle Pack-off Gas Lift (SPO GL)

A lot of existing Platong wells drilled before mid 2007 are completed as the cemented monobore 2 7/8” or 3 1/2” tubing
without gas lift mandrel because the initial strategy is to develop as a gas field, and at later stage when the greater oil reserves
has been discovered, the oil production strategy is to utilize the in-situ gas lift as the wells are usually penetrated into both gas
and oil sands. The selected gas and oil sands are perforated and the production is commingled. However, it has been observed
that, most of the time, the in-situ gas lift in those oil wells are not sufficient enough to deplete the oil reserves. Those wells
usually cease flowing and the gas lift potential still exists according to the bottom hole pressure survey. Re-evaluation of the
existing pre-2007 well stock indicated the potential to recover additional reserves through the application of managed gas lift.
Re-drilling the wells to install gas lift was not economically justified but through tubing options were viable. Recompletion of
these wells to enable the installation of gas lift assemblies could improve overall recovery. Initial attempt of installing coiled

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tubing gas lift proved technically successful but too expensive for field wide application. Where possible the alternative
installation of straddle pack-off gas lift (SPO GL) assemblies has proven success at approximately 1/3 of the cost since the
installation unit is changed from coiled tubing to slickline unit. To avoid the well integrity issue, the SPO GL will be installed
on the wells that we ran the premium intermediate casing only. The SPO GL design is conducted using the same method as
the gas lift design for a new completion. The design requires the SME to determine the bottom of free pipe from a cement
bond log. The bottom-most gas lift orifice will be placed at 300’ above bottom of free pipe to ensure the tubing-casing
communication for gas lift injection.

The installation procedure for each straddle pack-off gas lift valve is shown below:
1) Set the AD-2 tubing stop.
2) Set the receptacle + lower pack off above AD-2 tubing stop.
3) Set the retrievable bridge plug above the lower pack off (for sea water circulation clean out).
4) Calculate the hydrostatic pressure in tubing and casing. Pressure up the tubing to be 500 psi over balance of the
casing side to prevent the tool blow up after tubing punch.
5) Punch tubing at the depth according to the gas lift valve design.
6) Once the tubing – casing communication has been observed. Manage to clean the annulus fluid by pumping the sea
water into tubing and check the return from the annulus side until the return sea water is clean. We usually inject the
sea water ~1.5-2.0 times of the tubing and annulus volumes.
7) Pull the retrievable bridge plug.
8) Set the upper pack off + PM-1 mandrel (gas lift valve or orifice) + 5’ spacer + stringer stacked into the lower pack
off’s receptacle.
9) Set the G tubing stop on the upper pack off.
10) For the next above straddle pack-off gas lift valve installation, repeat all above steps, but do not need to clean up the
annulus fluid in step #6).

The following figures are the well schematic of coiled tubing gas lift installation, straddle pack-off assembly, and the well
schematic of post-straddle pack-off gas lift installation.

Figure 4: (A) The well schematic of coiled tubing gas lift installation
6 IPTC 14807

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(A) (B)
Figure 5: (A) The straddle pack-off assembly and (B) The well schematic of post-straddle pack-off gas lift installation

8 wells in Platong Field have been installed the straddle pack-off gas lift as of July 2011. The installation of all 8 wells was
executed successfully with the increment reserves of 358 Mstb, 1022 MMscf. The production plot of them is shown in Figure
6 below. In term of the post-job economic lookback, there are 7 successful wells earning the DPI range between 3-27, higher
than the hurdle rate with one failure case. The other one failed because of the unexpected increase of BS&W from 60% to
95% after installation. The challenges and key lessons learned from the pilot installation are listed below:
1. The straddle pack-off gas lift assembly has to be pulled out before we can run any wireline tools to the deeper depth.
This takes long time to do and increases the chance of fish occurance. Therefore, installing only one or two straddle
pack-off gas lift assemblies per well are recommended. It is also highly suggested to minimize or, if possible, have
none of the future well intervention, after the straddle pack-off gas lift installation.
2. Running a production logging survey is impossible because of too small ID (the smallest ID = 1.5”) of the straddle
pack-off assembly, so it is very difficult to identify the water source and execute the water shut off. In Platong field,
none of the water shut off in those straddle pack-off wells has been executed so far.
3. Obtaining a bottom hole pressure survey of both shut in and opening well is recommended to ensure that we have
sufficient liquid level in the wellbore before finalizing the straddle pack-off gas lift candidate.
4. The cement bond log is important to have for identifying the bottom-most free pipe depth or the deepest possible
tubing punch for the straddle pack-off installation depth. Also, it is recommended to avoid punching the tubing at the
collar.
5. Due to the pilot program, the sufficient installation training for the wireline crew is essential. It would be beneficial
to have an experienced wireline operator during the installation to activate the element for proper sealing.
6. The other important miscellaneous items to be checked and considered: sufficient gas lift source and gas lift surface
equipment, avoiding the monsoon season to minimize the stand by cost of the wireline and pumping units, the
disposal well on the same platform is recommended to reduce the cost of circulation fluid disposal.
7. The mechanical tubing puncher is recommended because the wireline crew can handle and activate this mechanism
themselves, so there is no need an extra person or third party to take care of the explosive tubing puncher.
8. Once the well will be prepared for the abandonment, all the tubing punch holes need to be patched after retrieving all
straddle pack-off assemblies.
IPTC 14807 7

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Figure 6: Pre- and Post-straddle pack-off gas lift installation production plot of all 8 straddle pack off wells – Normalized production rate of the
installation month to be at the month 0

Initiation on the Surface Gas Lift Source

- Remote Compressor (RC) Improvement to Increase Gas Lift Gas Rate

As the number of gas lift wells has significantly grown during the past three years (mid 2008 – mid 2011, shown in Figure 1
(A)), it was observed that the gas lift gas output capacity from the remote compressor on individual platform in Platong is a
constraint for enhancing the well recovery. Since the original RC package was designed with the consideration of limited
requirement of gas lift gas rate of 2 MMscf/d. This is now not enough for injecting to all gas lift wells on each platform. The
working team has come up with an initiative to modify the RC interstage, so that capacity of the compressor for gas lift can be
increased up to 5 MMscf/d. Moreover, this interstage modification will also improve the RC reliability by making RC to be
able to run/produce even at low input gas rate from the wells by the recycling the gas within the RC and getting rid of the RC
shut down case from the effect of increasing pipeline pressures (e.g. due to pigging operation, etc) by installing the spectacle
blind at the 1st stage discharge to export pipeline ( 2 in Fig 8). See the Figure 7 and 8 for the following explanation:
1. The interstage modification scope involves stopping the gas to the export line at the 1st stage discharge and
rearranging the compressor recycle line across both compression stages. After meeting the gas lift requirement,
excess gas, if any, will be sent to export line from final discharge of the compressor package.
2. Spectacle blind is introduced at the 1st stage discharge to export pipeline to stop the gas flow to export line from the
1st stage discharge.
3. Another Spectacle blind is introduced in the original recycle line to stop the gas flow from the 1st stage discharge and
recycle is arranged from the cooled gas at the 2nd stage discharge. This is to keep the provision, to operate the
compressor as originally designed, if require in future.
4. Existing Recycle valve is suitable enough for the modified operating conditions, once the interstage modification is
completed.

Figure 7: The process flow diagram of the existing compressor package before interstage modification
8 IPTC 14807

Spectacle blind, closing

Spectacle blind, opening
4

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2

Gas lift route after the 2nd stage discharge To gas export line To gas lift header

Figure 8: The process flow diagram of the modified compressor package after interstage modification

Below table depicts the result of the RC interstage modification of one of the most successful platforms:

Table 1: The result of the pre- and post-RC interstage modification

- Well Unloading Unit Gas Lift (WUU GL) Compressor

Some platforms are located in the gas reserves deficient area; therefore, there is no gas lift source available even though the
gas lift potential exists. Unfortunately, the gas lifted oil reserves of those platforms are not sufficient to justify an installation
of a gas lift pipeline. This has led to the solution of the WUU GL for this type of platform candidates. The WUU is a mobile
unit that allows us to produce the oil wells at the lowest back pressure of 20-30 psi. This unit is the typical application that has
been utilized in Platong field for more than 5 years. To modify the typical WUU for the gas lift injection purpose, the
additional compressor is installed to boost up the discharge pressure of the produced gas up to 1,200 psi (Fig 9). This
application plays an important role to unlock the gas lifted oil reserves on those gas deficient platforms. The production result
of the first platform is shown in the figure 10. The incremental oil rate after starting gas lift injection is 1,000 bopd.

Figure 9: The well unloading gas lift unit diagram

IPTC 14807 9

3000 24

WUU  Without  GL WUU  With GL
2500 20

2000 16

WUU Online Hrs
BOPD
1500 12

Oil Rate (BOPD)
1000 8
WUU Online Hrs

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500 4
CPP emergency S/D
CPP Planned S/D
0 0

Figure 10: The production plot of the pre- and post-implementation of the well unloading gas lift unit

Moving Forward to the Gas Lift Pipeline from Central Processing Platform (CPP)

In July 2011, Platong has successfully commissioned the gas lift injection from the pipeline laid from the central processing
platform to two oil platforms which are located in a gas deficient area of the field. The project was successfully brought online
with the incremental oil rate of >1,500 bopd (Fig 11 (A) and (B)). In Q4 2011, two more platforms are planned to commission
the gas lift pipeline injection. The total distance of all gas lift pipeline laid to these four platforms is 23 kilometers and the gas
lift source comes from the sale gas at CPP. The gas lift wells on those four platforms consist of both typical GLM and SPO
GL wells. In three out of those four platforms, the gas lift pipeline will also support the future waterflood projects which are
planned to commence during late 2011 – mid 2012. However, gas lift pipelines were economically justified independent of
the waterflood project.
Jun-09
W-W
16"
2
16" BC GL
2 YAWE
BC
2 30
BC WUU
W-W KPWC 16"
GL GL Jun-09
PMWI

28
WUU BC

PMWH WUU Q4 2011 10"

ESP
24
20"

26 2010
Oil
ESP 2 BC
BC
Dec-09
W-W

2 16" GL GL
BC BC KPWF
KPWD
10" 34 16"
28
BC
GL
PMWE 2
WUU BC 10"
24 W-W
W-W
GL

10"
ESP
Q3'10
GL
PMWK Q4 2011 KPWB
BC
D
Oil
32 5 BC
PMWA 10" 10"
2
BC KPWE
20 KPD-02
29
PLWH 16"
BC
GL
PMWB 18 KPWA

22 5 16"
10"
ESP PLWG
10"
Q1'11
4
2
D
BC ESP 20" 16"
BC Jul-09 10"
W-W
GL WF
PMWG
1
25 BC 10"
YUWA PLWB
ESP 10"
36

Q2 2011
W-W
10" Q3'10
16"
10"
SUWB
26
1 WD
2011

10"
PLCPP2

CPP
1
GL BC PLOCPP2 4"
Aug-09 FSO
PMWF
25
PLCPP
ESP GL WF 10"
BC PMWC
Q2'10 23
PLOCPP1
10" ESP Aug-09 PLWC
10" PLQ
NKD-01 1 WD 10"
M29 10"
Q3'10
2
MPP
2
BC BC 10"
W-W 10"
W-W SUWA
GL GL 24"
CBWA PMWJ 10 Oct-09 2
CBWB 16"
M22 29
BC PLWD
??? 20" WD
10" 2
16" SUWD PLWF
2
BC 10"
16" 34 4
10" PLWA
W-W 10"
GL 1 WD
16"
PMWD
2 2012
23 BC
ESP W-W
PLWE
16"
GL
Q2'11
SUWC 3

32

16"

PMWL
M32
Gas Lift Pipeline Route
Q2'10

(A) (B)
Figure 11: (A) The field diagram showing the gas lift pipeline route to four platforms and (B) the production plot of pre- and post-gas lift pipeline
commissioning of the first two platforms

Gas Lift Dashboard in Platong Field

- Well Monitoring Tools

Most of the gas lift wells in Platong field significantly rely on the RC on individual platform. They are getting gas lift from
the RC and are also produced through the RC for lowering the back pressure purpose. The RC operation is very sensitive and
requires the close monitoring to minimize the downtime from the RC shut down. Due to this sensitive operation, carefulness
from the offshore operators and office production engineers with the proper day-to-day monitoring tool for the gas lift wells
(and all other non gas lifted wells producing through an RC) can significantly help optimizing and minimizing the oil loss
from the RC downtime. Beyond the typical Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, a simple dashboard
10 IPTC 14807

to review the almost real time of key well data of multiple wells and key remote compressor parameters on one screen is
utilized. The data is directly linked from the typical SCADA and is presented in one Excel table for engineers to regularly
review their own wells any time they need. As each production engineer takes the responsibility on ~60-80 wells, this tool can
significantly help reducing the time in monitoring and reviewing the key production data of all wells and key RC parameters,
many times on each day. This tool allows a production engineer to review the following well data such as choke setting,
producing system, gas lift rate, injection pressure, RC parameters, RC wells combination, etc. The key gas lift parameters of
injection rate and injection pressure will be flagged in red font if they are deviated from the designed values. If the production
engineers need to review the trend of particular parameters, the data trend is available to serve their requirement. After the
review and optimization opportunities have been identified, the production engineers could work with the field operator to
optimize the wells immediately. Another advantage of this dashboard is that it can be accessed in any places that we can log

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on to the company network such as home and hotel. Below table is an example of the dashboard for daily usage for
monitoring the wells.

Table 2: The example of the dashboard for monitoring the almost real time well data of all wells at a time

Key Parameters of Remote Compressor (RC)

Looking to the Future – Opportunities and Challenges

As we are still in the journey to maximize the asset value in the aspect of the gas lift utilization, there are still a lot of
opportunities and challenges for gas lift improvement in Platong field. The gas lift opportunities that are currently being
considered and evaluated in Platong field are described below:

- Deepening Gas Lift Injection Depth

There are two main categories of the producer in Platong, i.e. the horizontal and deviated wells. The GLM of the horizontal
wells are already set at depth very close to the producing sand, approximately 500’ TVD above the sand, so there is not much
opportunity in this area. For the deviated producers, most the time, the GLMs are very far from the top perforation,
approximately 1000’ – 5000’ TVD. This brings up the opportunity to increase the oil production by deepening the gas lift
injection. The alternative of coiled tubing gas lift and capillary conveyed gas lift system are being evaluated now (2011).

- Installing the Live Gas Lift Valve since Well Completion after Drilling
Installing the live gas lift valve since the well completion after drilling will eliminate the cost, time consumed, and fish risk of
the gas lift valve change out job by a slickline unit. This is very significant when considering all gas lift wells on each
platform. Platong started to install the live valve since well completion after drilling in 2010; however, the well completion
failure rate of ~5% has been experienced by using the conventional live gas lift valve and orifice. The rationale was claimed
that the live gas lift valve can not hold pressure as well as the dummy valve while pumping cement through the GLM and
IPTC 14807 11

activating the hydraulic packer. For this reason, the time-controlled interventionless barrier system has been developed to
accommodate the live gas lift valve installation during well completion. This system will plug and make a live valve to be like
a dummy valve during the well completion. The plug material is designed to survive or not being corroded in the cement and
oil based drilling fluid at 5000 psi pressure differential, but dissolve in the completion fluid. The plug in a live gas lift valve
will degrade itself to allow the normal gas lift injection within 50 hours at 275 F after the well completion. Platong has been
planned to utilize this system in the drilling project scheduled in late 2011.

- Gas Lift Surveillance using CO2 Tracer Survey

Platong team is looking at the gas lift surveillance alternative of CO2 tracer survey. This method could be used to identify the
depth(s) of gas lift injection into the tubing (both single and multiple point of injection) and could also detect the tubing leak

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without well intervention required. As a wireline unit schedule is very tight in Platong, this method could benefit to free up
the wireline unit and also reduce the fish occurrence from the gas lift surveillance jobs. The CO2 liquid will be injected into
the annulus along with the lift gas and capturing the CO2 concentration in the produced gas. The exact depth of gas lift entry
can be calculated from the travel time of CO2 in the annulus and tubing.

- Remote Control on Gas Lift Injection

Currently, only the four new gas lift pipeline platforms have the system that allows us to adjust or optimize the gas lift from
the CPP. The remaining 21 gas lift operated platforms in the field are the manually operated system. The operators have to be
onboard to adjust or optimize the gas lift injection. With the limited number of operators and crew boats transportation, the
gas lift requests take long time, longer than a week, to be completed. The alternative of remote control gas lift injection is
being reviewed now as this technology will shorten the time to execute the gas lift adjustment requests and reduce the man
power and crew boats transportation from this task.

Conclusion

As the oil wells in Platong rapidly deplete from the natural flow, usually in less than 6 months, the proper utilization of an
artificial lift method is crucial to prolong the wells life and, as a result, increase production. Currently, gas lift is the key
artificial lift in Platong field. It contributes approximately 50% of total field production as of June 2011, increased from 10%
in June 2008. Due to the small compartmentalized reservoirs in Platong field, improvement on subsurface cost reduction is
significantly important to enhance the NPV of the projects. The surface gas lift compressors improvement on the RC
interstage modification to increase gas lift discharge capacity significantly helps accelerating the oil production. The WUU
GL and the gas lift pipeline laid from the CPP also play a very critical role to unlock the oil reserves from the gas deficient
platforms. The other parts that make the successful gas lift operation are the proper working process in place, sufficient
trainings for all personnel, and good collaboration between office and offshore. With the continued improvement, initiative,
and well-managed operation, the gas lift would extremely enhance the asset value.

Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Chevon Thailand for permission to publish this paper. Also, we would like to acknowledge the
Platong Production Optimization Team in Chevron Thailand who keeps bringing new gas lift wells online and for all
optimizing efforts on all gas lift wells. The efforts to increase the RC reliability from Ronnapop Kittiakrastien and Stephen
Grant Thorne are greatly appreciated. The support on the well unloading gas lift unit from Nicolas Posada and Thanawat
Rongklad is also recognized here. We would also like to thank Chatit Huayhongtong, Norman R. Mannikko, and Sonchawan
Ackagosol for reviewing and editing this paper. Last but not least, a big thank to the Platong offshore operation team for
actively and tirelessly working on all gas lift requests from all PEs.

References

Chapman, W. 2006. Case History of One-Trip Monobore Completion System – 2 Years of Cement Through Monobore Completions in the
Gulf of Thailand. SPE paper 103668 presented at the SPE/IADC Indian Drilling Technology Conference and Exhibition, Mumbai, India, 16-
18 October.

Eag-Ark, P., Chapman, W., Orchard, A., and Lewis, K. 2004. Using Cement – Through Completions to Improve Productivity and Safety in
Short-Life Wells. OTC paper 16545 presented at the Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, Texas, U.S.A., 3-6 May.

Hall, J. 2011. State of the Art Artificial Lift: Gas Lift. presented at the SPE ATW – Artificial Lift Systems Workshop, Phuket, Thailand, 12-
15 June.

Shnaib, F., Nadar, M. S., Sreekumar, M. P., Ponnuvel K., and Peacock L. 2010. Successful Application of CO2 Tracer Technology for
Surveillance of Gas Lifted Wells. SPE paper 133268 presented at the SPE Production and Operations Conference and Exhibition, Tunis,
Tunisia, 8-10 June.