PDB4033 FIELD DEVELOPMENT PLAN

PRODUCTION ENGINEERING
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 What comprise of a production system?

A basic production system consists of these three

integrated flow systems:

1. Flow from reservoir to sandface i.e. reservoir

inflow (Pr → Pwf)
2. Flow from sandface to the wellhead i.e. tubing
outflow (Pwf → Pwh)
3. Flow from wellhead to the separator, which
consists of well choke, surface pipelines and
separators (Pwh → Psep)

You should know what

parameter you can control and Figure 1: Petroleum production
what not. system: elements affecting
well productivity.
 Production Engineering Objective

“To perform a cost effective well completion design

and maximizing the value of field life cycle”

✓ To provide a safe and cost-effective design of well completion for all

producers/injectors
✓ To maximize drainage area
✓ To allow future wells intervention and re-completion for any production enhancement
activities
 The work scopes involve, but may not limited to…

✓ Designing a well model for producer and injector (where applicable)

✓ Choosing the suitable material for the completion equipment
✓ Performing the artificial lift selection and design
✓ Designing a downhole sand control system (if needed)
✓ Preparing the well completion schematic (upper completion + lower completion)
✓ Preparing well completion cost (producer and injector)
✓ Flow Assurance - conceptual
 Designing a well model

Objective: Production
test data
• To select the optimum tubing size that can PVT matched
deliver the reservoir target rate and matched
sustain within reasonable time frame of
producing life.
VLP
• To generate a lift curve for reservoir correlation
simulation

Representative lift curve

(VLP)
 Designing a well model

Productivity/Injectivity:
• Ability of a well to produce or inject is described as Productivity or injectivity index (i.e. produced or injected
volumes per unit time per differential pressure drop near the wellbore region, bopd/psi).

Drawdown:
• As times goes by, another term which is equally important is well drawdown (Pr - Pwf). The reduction of well
drawdown has brought us to the need of production enhancement and well stimulation.
• Superficially, the lower the Pwf is, the larger production rate would be. However, this situation is not always
desirable.
• Other effects related to lower Pwf:
• Scale, paraffins, asphaltene deposition, water and/or gas coning, sand production.
• Thus, it is important to note that production optimization goal is not just to increase well productivity, but to
also improve the overall asset value while satisfying all physical and financial constraints.
 Designing a well model
Inflow Performance Relationship (IPR)

General Darcy’s equation for flow through porous media

Darcy’s
Law Darcy’s Law for radial flow into a wellbore

If we assume that ko, h, re, rw, Bo and

uo are constant for a particular well,
this equation becomes, with a big K as
a constant to represent all the
constants in the above equation.
 Designing a well model
Inflow Performance Relationship (IPR)

Darcy’s
Law What is this expression?
 Designing a well model
Inflow Performance Relationship (IPR)

The productivity index (PI) is equal to the flow rate divided by the “drawdown”.

The straight line PI works great for single phase fluid (i.e.
water, oil or water/oil*) flowing into wellbore. But , what
happens if gas “comes out of solution” in the reservoir?

*even though water and oil are two separate phases, they are considered single phase since
thy are both liquid.
 Designing a well model
Inflow Performance Relationship (IPR)

• Vogel’s Backpressure equation for Pwf < Pb to

account for the two-phase flow.
• Works reasonably well for water cuts below
50%.
• For higher water cuts, we use a “composite
IPR” which is an arithmetic average of the PI
and IPR equations
 Designing a well model
Inflow Performance Relationship (IPR)

Graphical illustration of composite IPR

 Designing a well model:
Flow through pipes and Outflow Performance

• Mechanical energy equation.

• Several correlations uses this mechanical energy
equation for pressure gradient calculation, dp over a
pipe length, dz.
• One of the correlations is Hagedorn and Brown, 1965.

• Typically, multiphase will occur during the producing life of a well. Even the Pwf is above Pb, further pressure
decrease will be needed to drive the reservoir fluid to the surface.
• In almost all cases, gas will come out of the solution and more than one phase will coexist during the vertical
lift.
• Free gas may help to lighten the liquid hydrostatic column up to a certain point. But, too much leads to
friction losses.
• In general, multiphase flow deals with the concurrent flow of oil, water and gas in vertical and inclined
pipes.
• In a more complex situation, we can have sands, and solids such as waxes, paraffins and asphaltenes.
• Such cases needed an advanced strategy such as controlling reservoir drawdown, maintaining Pwf and Pwh
above flocculation and injecting chemicals may be necessary to assure flow.
 Designing a well model:
Flow through pipes and Outflow Performance

• Pressure vs Depth for different GLRs

and WORs using Hagedorn and
Brown, 1965.
• This figure is also known as pressure
gradient plot.
Designing a well model:
Well Deliverability

• Figure shows an example of a nodal analysis i.e.

the well performance analysis.
• Lets start at initial given reservoir pressure,
11,000 psia, THP set at 125 psia, GLR is 500, no
water. Assume The 2 7/8” tubing has no artificial
lift, no choke restrictions at the surface. The
above bubble point PI is 16 stb/d/psi.

• Q1: What is the operating point for the initial

case? – Point 1 OR 2 OR 3 OR 4

• Q2: If water-cut increases to 50%, what would be

the operating point? Point 1 OR 2 OR 3 OR 4

• Q3: Do you think, at the current well’s operating

point, further increase of GLR does improve the
well deliverability? YES OR NO.

• Q4: Do you think decline in reservoir pressure

does affect the well deliverability? YES OR NO
 Designing a well model (cont’d)
Perform sensitivity analysis on tubing size at various operating conditions

Some examples of sensitivity analysis

 Artificial Lift
Selection & Design

Objective:
Evaluation of
• To choose type of artificial lift system to be used in types of artificial
lift
Detail design
the FDP and the perform detail design of the based on worst
condition
artificial lift system.
Production
optimization
based on the
selected
artificial lift
system

Updated well model with artificial lift

and revised lift curve for reservoir
simulation
 Artificial Lift
Selection & Design
 Artificial Lift
Selection & Design

• During the life of a producing field, static reservoir pressure may not be in adequate amount to lift economic
flow-rates through the wellbore and overcome surface pressure restrictions.
• Low production rates are also observed when wellbore fluid gradient increases as a consequence of water
presence form the reservoir.
• Thus, artificial lift is used with the objective to reduce bottom hole flowing pressure, Pwf and increase the flow
rate:
✓ ESP – creates head i.e. delta P to lower the Pwf
✓ Gas lift – reduces fluid column gradient to lower Pwf
✓ PCP – creates head i.e. delta P to lower Pwf
✓ Jet pump – provides pressure drop in venturi to lower Pwf
✓ Rod pump – intermittently sucks fluid from wellbore, thus lowering Pwf
▪ Q: Are all the methods above increase drawdown to produce flow? Y/N
• Selection is many. Decision should be based on the method that most applicable to expected surface
requirement, reservoir fluid and operating conditions.
• Compare the advantages/disadvantages

Not ‘one size fits all’

 Material Selection

Objective: Partial
pressure
• To choose suitable material of the for CO2 ,
completion equipment. PVT report H2S

Tubing
stress
analysis

The right grade of material

 Material Selection
Nippon Steel Sumitomo chart – for grade selection
 Completion Strategy and Well architecture

Completion options:
1. Vertical/slanted/ horizontal/multilateral/extended reach – recovery must be justifiable
2. Open hole vs perforated – cost, technical
3. Single zone vs commingled – fluid compatibility, back pressure (thieve zones), water, IOR opportunity?

“balance between cost and the benefit it offers”

 Completion Strategy and Well architecture

• Completion expenditure is just a limited

portion of the total capital costs of the
field.
• However, completion have huge effect on
revenues and future operating cost.
• Some basic economic considerations are
shown in the figure here.
• It is not necessarily to install a
completion that have to survive for the
entire field life. It may be optimum to
design for tubing replacement or artificial
lift installation when the flow conditions
(BHP, WC, GOR) change.
• An engineer needs to make choice
between spending more money by
installing with all the possible things at
the time of completion OR installing a
cheaper completion and make
replacement if failure occurs. IT IS ALL
DOWN TO ECONOMIC.
 Completion Strategy and Well architecture

• Single zone completion is one of the

types of upper completion which allows
producing only one zone. Production
tubing is a flow path for fluid from a
reservoir to flow to the surface so it
protects the casing from corrosion and
maximizes the efficiency of the flow.

• In a single tubing string completion,

typically a packer is set on top of a
reservoir so the reservoir fluid can flow
up into the production tubing. Types of
packers are based on several factors as
temperature, pressure, reservoir fluid,
etc. Additionally, complexity of tubing and
packer installation is driven by objectives.
 Completion Strategy and Well architecture

Features of Features
a single ofstring
a Single String
Completion Completion
are listedare listed below:
below:
- Through -tubingThrough tubing perforation
perforation
can be performed.
Can be performed.
- Packer can be set with x-mas
- Packer can be set with x-mas
tree in place.
Tree in place.
- Reservoir can be isolated and
- Reservoirworkover
can be isolated
operationand can be
Workover done.operation can be
Done. - Downhole measurements can
- Downhole bemeasurements
effectively conducted.
can
- Artificial
Be effectively lift methods as gas
conducted.
- Artificial lift,
lift ESP, etc. can
methods asbe
gasdeployed.
Lift, ESP, etc. Can be deployed.
 Completion Strategy and Well architecture

Multiple zone completion is one type of

completion which allows operators to
selectively produce or comingle
reservoir fluid from different zones into
one well.

It is also possible to workover the upper

part of completion string without
removing the next interval completion.

Additionally, through tubing perforation

is can performed at the bottom zone.

A multiple zone completion can be

divided into two parts, which are single
string completion and multiple string
completion.
 Completion Strategy and Well architecture

A multiple-string configuration
consists of two or more
completion strings in one well.

This is more expensive and

complicated to install than a
single-string configuration.
However, it has some advantages
such as the ability to
simultaneous produce and inject
into different zones and has a
more accurate production
allocation than a single string
type.
 Sand Control

• Sand, if not addressed properly can cause a wide range of costly and potentially hazardous problems.
• Sand production accumulating in the tubulars will reduce oil and/or gas production from wells.
• If the well has enough energy to carry the sand to surface, it can cause severe pipe erosion.
• Premature failure of downhole equipment such as ESP, can prove very costly.
• Failure of SSSV can be extremely dangerous.
• Thus, it is important that the potential of sand production is identified before completing the well and
steps are taken to prevent it.

Methods for sand production control:

1. Production control (restriction)
• Reduces the fluid velocity in the formation.
• But the lower rates might not always work and not economical for certain wells.
2. Mechanical method
• Installing some kind of device to filter and prevent the formation sand from entering the wellbore
3. Chemical method
• Injection of plastic or resins into the formation to provide grain to grain cementation (sand
consolidation) without jeopardizing the permeability.
 Quiz: Production Profiles
Which one is better? A/B/C

Production build-up period and the duration of production plateau

optimization by adoption of appropriate drilling-time schedule.
 APPENDIX I
Completion Planning – things to be considered. Not a must-have, but good to know

A. Pre-planning:

The following should be considered during designing a completion

• Production objectives and target rate
• Reservoir properties (pressure, fluids, drive mechanism, permeability)
• Inflow performance
• Tubing size and artificial lift method (if any)
• Casing and drilling considerations
• Functional specifications (servicing, anticipated production problems, corrosion tendencies)
• Regulations and general corporate operations philosophy (SSSV, pressure ratings, master valves)
• Special fluid requirements and packer fluid selection
• Stimulation or sand control requirements
• Well-killing requirements
 APPENDIX I
Completion Planning – things to be considered. Not a must-have, but good to know

B. Post drilling analysis:

Before starting to design the completion program, engineer should collect and review :
• The location data, especially the ground and derrick floor elevations
• The casing and wellhead specifications
• The drilling fluid data corresponding to any pay zones (weight, type, losses)
• The drilling highlights (TD, plugback depth, problems, drilling time in production casing, cement tops, well status)
• The core data and geological description of the pay zones
• The pressure data collected in this well and offsets
• The logs and their interpretation, especially the resistivity, density, sonic, gamma ray, and caliper, remembering to
• The data from any dsts, rfts, or kicks
• The casing leakoff tests
• The cementation data on the production casing (pressure, volumes, cement type)
• Any special completion requirements from the geologist or reservoir engineers (required separation of zones, exp
• Any reservoir fluid analysis
• The performance of any offset wells
 APPENDIX I
Completion Planning – things to be considered. Not a must-have, but good to know

C. Production reviews:

If the new well (to be completed) is not the only well in the reservoir, completion engineer should ascertain:
• The performance data in the offset wells (rate, watercut, pressure)
• Completions used in the offset wells
• The the production decline curves of the offset wells
• Well test analyses
• The reservoir development plan and drive mechanism (can depletion drive have water breakthrough?
And is the completion were planned to have that?
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION