Advanced Production

Introduction
By Mohammad Behnood

1
General Definition
References:

Petroleum Production System – Michael J . Economides, A

Daniel Hill

Petroleum Production Engineering – Boyung Guo, William

Clyons, Ali Ghalambor

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Introduction
• Petroleum production involves two distinct but intimately connected general
systems:
a) the reservoir, which is a porous medium with unique storage and flow
characteristics;
b) the artificial structures, which include the well, bottomhole, and wellhead
assemblies, and the surface gathering, separation, and storage facilities.
Separation and storage facilities

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Introduction
• Production engineering is that part of petroleum engineering which attempts to
maximize production (or injection) in a cost-effective manner

• One or more wells may be involved. Appropriate production engineering

technologies and methods of application are related directly and
interdependently with other major areas of petroleum engineering, such
as formation evaluation, drilling, and reservoir engineering

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The Zone near the Well, the Sandface, and t
Well Completion
• The zone surrounding a well is important. First, all intrusive activities such as
drilling, cementing, and well completion are certain to alter the condition of the
reservoir near the well. This is invariably detrimental.

• Matrix stimulation is intended to recover or even improve the near-wellbore

permeability. (There is damage associated even with stimulation. It is the net
effect that is expected to be beneficial.)

• Many wells are cemented and cased. One of the purposes of cementing is to
support the casing, but at formation depths the most important reason is to
provide zonal isolation.

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The Zone near the Well, the Sandface, and t
Well Completion
• Contamination of the produced fluid from other formations or the loss of fluid
into other formations can be envisioned readily in an open hole completion. If no
zonal isolation or wellbore stability problems are present, the well can be open-
hole.

• A cemented and cased well must be perforated in order to reestablish

communication with the reservoir.

• Slotted liners can be used if a cemented and cased well is not deemed necessary
and if no wellbore stability problems are likely to be encountered.

• Finally, to combat the problems of sand or other fines production, screens can be
placed between the well and the formation. Gravel packing can be used as an
additional safeguard and as a means to keep permeability-reducing fines away
from the well.

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The Zone near the Well, the Sandface, and t
Well Completion
• The various well completions and the resulting near-wellbore zones are shown in
following figure

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The Well
• Entrance of fluids into the well, following their flow through the porous medium,
the near-well zone, and the completion assembly, requires that they are lifted
through the well up to the surface.

• There is a required flowing pressure gradient between the bottomhole and the
well- head. The pressure gradient consists of the potential energy difference
(hydrostatic pressure) and the friction pressure drop. The former depends on the
reservoir depth and the latter depends on the well length.

• If the bottomhole pressure is sufficient to lift the fluids to the top, then the well
is under “natural lift.” Otherwise, artificial lift is indicated.

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The Well
• Mechanical lift can be supplied by a pump.

• Another technique is to reduce the density of the fluid in the well and thus
to reduce the hydrostatic pressure. This is accomplished by the injection of lean
gas in a designated spot along the well. This is known as "gas lift.”

• Next figure shows a typical flowing oil well, defined as a well producing solely
because of the natural pressure of the reservoir. It is composed of casings,
tubing, packers, down-hole chokes (optional), wellhead, Christmas tree, and
surface chokes.

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The Well

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The Well
• Surface choke’’ (i.e., a restriction in the flowline) is a piece of equipment used to
control the flow rate.

• In most flowing wells, the oil production rate is altered by adjusting the choke
size.

The choke causes back-pressure in the line.

The back-pressure (caused by the chokes or
other restrictions in the flow line) increases
the bottomhole flowing pressure. Increasing
the bottom-hole flowing pressure decreases
the pressure drop from the reservoir to the
wellbore (pressure drawdown). Thus,
increasing the back-pressure in the wellbore
decreases the flow rate from the reservoir.
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The Surface Equipment
• After the fluid reaches the top, it is likely to be directed toward a manifold
connecting a number of wells. The reservoir fluid consists of oil, gas (even if the
flowing bottomhole pressure is larger than the bubble-point pressure, gas is
likely to come out of solution along the well), and water.

• Traditionally, the oil, gas, and water are not transported long distances as a
mixed stream, but instead are separated at a surface processing facility located
in close proximity to the wells.

• An exception that is becoming more common is in some offshore fields, where

production from subsea wells, or sometimes the commingled production from
several wells, may be transported long distances before any phase separation
takes place.

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The Surface Equipment
• Finally, the separated fluids are transported or stored. In the case of formation
water it is usually disposed in the ground through a reinjection well.

The reservoir, well, and surface facilities

are sketched in the figure

The flow systems from the reservoir to the

entrance to the separation facility are the
production engineering systems that are
the subjects of study in this course.

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The Surface Equipment
• After separation, oil is transported through pipelines to the sales points.
Reciprocating piston pumps are used to provide mechanical energy required for
the transportation.

• There are two types of piston strokes, the single-action piston stroke and the
double-action piston stroke.

• The pipelines are sized to handle the expected pressure and fluid flow. To ensure
desired flow rate of product, pipeline size varies significantly from project to
project.

• Compressors are used for providing gas pressure required to transport gas with
pipelines and to lift oil in gas-lift operations. The compressors used in today’s
natural gas production industry fall into two distinct types: reciprocating and
rotary compressors

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Well Production and Production Engineering
• The Objective of Production Engineering
• All of the components of the petroleum production systems can be condensed
into the productivity index.

• The role of a petroleum production engineer is to maximize the

well productivity in a cost-effcctive manner.

• Understanding and measuring the variables that control the productivity index
(well diagnosis) become imperative.

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Well Production and Production Engineering
• Mentioned Equation succinctly describes what is possible for a petroleum
production engineer. First, the dimensionless pressure pD depends on the
physical model that controls the well flow behavior. These include transient or
infinite-acting behavior, steady state (where pD=In re/rw) or others.

• For a specific reservoir with permeability k, thickness h, and with a fluid with
formation volume factor B and viscosity 𝞵, the only variable on the right-hand
side of equation that can be adjusted is the skin effect, S.

• It can be reduced or eliminated through matrix stimulation if it is caused by

damage or can be otherwise remedied if it is caused by mechanical means. A
negative skin effect can be imposed if a successful hydraulic fracture is created.
Thus stimulation can improve the productivity index. This would ordinarily result
in a higher production rate.

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Well Production and Production Engineering
• In reservoirs with pressure drawdown-related problems (fines production, water
or gas coning), increasing the productivity can allow lower drawdown with
economically attractive production rates.

• Increasing the drawdown (p — pwf) by lowering pwf is the other option available
to the production engineer to increase well productivity. While the productivity
index remains constant, reduction of the flowing bottomhole pressure would
increase the pressure gradient (p — pwf) and the flow rate, q, must increase
accordingly.

• The flowing bottomhole pressure may be lowered by minimizing the pressure

losses between the bottomhole and the separation facility (by, for example,
removing unnecessary restrictions, optimizing tubing size, etc.), or by
implementing or improving artificial lift procedures. Improving well productivity
by optimizing the flow system from the bottomhole location to the surface
production facility is a major role of the production engineer.

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Well Production and Production Engineering
• In summary, well performance evaluation and enhancement are, the primary
charges of the production engineer.

• The production engineer has three major tools for well performance
evaluation:
• (1) the measurement of (or sometimes, simply the understanding of) the rate-
versus-pressure drop relationships for the flow paths from the reservoir to the
separator;
• (2)well testing, which evaluates the reservoir potential for flow and, through
measurement of the skin effect, provides information about flow restrictions in
the near-wellbore environment;
• (3) production logging, which can describe the distribution of flow into the
wellbore, as well as diagnose other completion-related problems.

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