PEE 403: PETROLEUM PRODUCTION ENGINEERING

SUBSURFACE AND SURFACE OPERATIONS. OPERATIONAL

FUNCTIONS AND OUTPUT OF SUBSURFACE PRODUCTION
ENGINEER.

A. SUBSURFACE OPERATIONS:
Subsurface operation involves all the activities and operations of production
engineering carried below the surface of the earth (i.e. below the wellhead). These
are:
1. Well completion: The well completion is the lowermost portion of the
well, comprised of tubulars and downhole equipment, that enables the safe
and effective production from an oil or gas well. The objectives of the
completion are to: connect the reservoir to the production tubing; provide
a conduit for well stimulation fluids; protect the well from sand/fines
production; among others. The different types of well completion include;
Open-Hole or Bare Foot completion, Screen or Liner completion: (Slotted
Liner completion, Screen completion, Gravel pack completion), Cased and
Perforated completion.
2. Perforation: This is probably the most important of
all completion functions in cased holes. Adequate communication between
the wellbore and all desired zones, as well as isolation between zones, is
essential to evaluate and to optimize production and recovery from each
zone. The objective of perforating a well is to establish communication
between the wellbore and the formation by making holes through the
casing, cement and into formation in such a manner so as not to inhibit the
inflow capacity of the reservoir.
3. Fracturing: Fracturing is the process of pumping a fluid, typically
composed of water, sand and chemicals, into a wellbore at very high
pressures to induce the fracturing or “breaking-down” of the geologic
formations. This is done to increase its permeability which facilitates, in
process, the high throughput flow of oil or gas from the reservoir to the
wellbore
4. Acidizing: This is a technique used to extend the useful life of an oil and
gas well. The process of acidizing involves pumping acid into the well in
order to dissolve the rocks that line the contours of the well. It increases
production rates by creating channels into the rock through which the oil
and gas can flow into the reservoir. An additional benefit of acidizing a
well is that it can help dissolve any loose debris found in the well.
 5. Sand control (in unstable formations): Sand control is a method to control
sand production into a wellbore. This is common requirement for several
oil and gas producing wells around the world. There are two situations
which cause sand production. The first cause is rock mechanical failure
near wellbore and the second one is dragging force from producing or
injection fluid. Sand production can lead to several issues such as
production impairment due to sand plugging, erosion to completion string
and down hole tool, damage surface facilities as separator, piping, etc.
6. Artificial lift: This process is used on oil wells to increase pressure within
the reservoir thereby enhancing oil production to the surface. When the
natural drive energy of the reservoir is not strong enough to push the oil to
the surface, artificial lift is employed to recover more production. While
some wells contain enough pressure for oil to rise to the surface without
stimulation, most don't, requiring artificial lift.

B. SURFACE OPERATIONS:
Surface production operations focuses on the operations and equipment
involved with oil production from the wellhead to the refinery. The purpose of
the surface production facility is:
1. To separate the well stream into its three fundamental components—
gases, liquids, and solid impurities
2. To remove water from the liquid phase
3. To treat crude oil to capture gas vapors
4. To condition gas
 Facilities will be referred to as the following:
 Oil production facilities as batteries
 Primary gas production facilities as gas units
 Water handling/disposal as brine stations

From a technical point of view, production equipment can be divided into:

1. Pressure vessels: Pressure vessels in the oilfield are used for separating
well fluids produced from oil and gas wells into the gaseous and liquid
components. Common vessels in oil and gas productions are separators,
scrubber or gas knockout, 3-phase separator, liquid-liquid separator or
free water knockout, filter separator, line drip, slug catcher, flash tank,
expansion vessel and desander.
2. Storage tanks
3. Prime movers (pumps and compressors)
4. Piping

Operations related to Gas

The processes and equipment involved with gas-handling, conditioning, and
processing of natural gas for sale. The objective of gas-handling, conditioning,
and processing facilities is to separate natural gas, condensate, or oil and water
from a gas-producing well and condition these fluids for sale or disposal.
a) Plant (facilities) piping and pipeline systems. It also covers relief, vent
and flare systems.
b) Also focuses of rotating equipment, specifically pumps, compressors and
drivers.
c) Focuses on instrumentation, process control and safety systems.

Operational Functions and Output of Subsurface Production Engineer

The role of a production engineer is to maximize oil and gas production in a
cost-effective manner. Familiarization and understanding of oil and gas
production systems are essential to the engineers. Good production engineers
never stop looking for opportunities to improve the performance of their
production systems. Performance enhancement ideas are from careful
examinations and thorough analyses of production data to find the controlling
factors affecting the performance
The design and completion of both production and injection wells must:
1. Provide optimum production/injection performance.
2. Ensure safety (both pressure and fluid containments).
3. Maximize the integrity and reliability of the completion over the
envisaged life
4. of the completed well
5. Minimize the total costs per unit volume of fluid produced or injected, i.e.
6. minimize the total costs of initial completion, maintaining production and
remedial measures
8. Other criteria e.g., control sand production depending upon the particular
reservoir characteristics or development constraints.
SURFACE EQUIPMENT: GATHERING SYSTEMS; SERVICE AND
CLEANING SYSTEMS; DESIGN AND TESTING OF FLOW LINES

SURFACE EQUIPMENT:
WELLHEADS:
The wellhead sits on top of the actual oil or gas well leading down to the reservoir.
A wellhead may also be an injection well, used to inject water or gas back into the
reservoir to maintain pressure and levels to maximize production. Once a natural
gas or oil well is drilled, and it has been verified that commercially viable
quantities of natural gas are present for extraction, the well must be 'completed' to
allow for the flow of petroleum or natural gas out of the formation and up to the
surface. The well flow is controlled with a choke. The wellhead structure, is often
called a Christmas tree, and allows for a number of operations relating to
production and well workover.
MANIFOLDS:
Onshore, the individual well streams are brought into the main production
facilities over a network of gathering pipelines and manifold systems.
For gas gathering systems, it is common to meter the individual gathering lines
into the manifold.
Offshore, the dry completion wells on the main field center, feed directly into
production manifolds, while outlying wellhead towers and subsea installations
feed via multiphase pipelines back to the production risers. Risers are the system
that allow a pipeline to “rise” up to the topside structure. For floating or structures,
this involves a way to take up weight and movement. For heavy crude and in arctic
areas, diluents and heating may be needed to reduce viscosity and allow flow.
SEPARATORS:
Some wells have pure gas production which can be taken directly to gas treatment
and/or compression. More often, the well gives a combination of gas, oil and water
and various contaminants which must be separated and processed. The production
separators come in many forms and designs, with the classical variant being the
gravity separator.
In gravity separation the well flow is fed into a horizontal vessel. The retention
period is typically 5 minutes, allowing the gas to bubble out, water to settle at the
bottom and oil to be taken out in the middle. The pressure is often reduced in
several stages (high pressure separator, low pressure separator etc.) to allow
controlled separation of volatile components. A sudden pressure reduction might
allow flash vaporization leading to instabilities and safety hazards.
GAS COMPRESSION:
Gas from a pure natural gas wellhead might have sufficient pressure to feed
directly into a pipeline transport system. Gas from separators has generally lost so
much pressure that it must be recompressed to be transported. Turbine
compressors gain their energy by using up a small proportion of the natural gas
that they compress.
STORAGE:
Most plants do not allow local gas storage, but oil is often stored before loading
on a vessel, such as a shuttle tanker taking the oil to a larger tanker terminal, or
direct to crude carrier. Offshore production facilities without a direct pipeline
connection generally rely on crude storage in the base or hull, to allow a shuttle
tanker to offload about once a week. A larger production complex generally has
an associated tank farm terminal allowing the storage of different grades of crude
to take up changes in demand, delays in transport etc.
METERING AND EXPORT:
Metering stations allow operators to monitor and manage the natural gas and oil
exported from the production installation. These metering stations employ
specialized meters to measure the natural gas or oil as it flows through the pipeline,
without impeding its movement. This metered volume represents a transfer of
ownership from a producer to a customer Metering. It forms the basis for invoicing
sold product and also for production taxes and revenue sharing between partners
and accuracy requirements are often set by governmental authorities.
The export facility must contain equipment to safely insert and retrieve pigs form
the pipeline as well as depressurization, referred to as pig launchers and pig
receivers. Loading on tankers involve loading systems, ranging from tanker jetties
to sophisticated single point mooring and loading systems that allow the tanker to
dock and load product even in bad weather.
UTILITY SYSTEMS:
Utility systems are systems which does not handle the hydrocarbon process flow,
but provides some utility to the main process safety or residents.
1. Process control systems.
a) Safety systems and functional safety
b) Emergency shutdown and process shutdown
c) Fire and gas system
d) Control and safety configuration
e) Telemetry/Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)
2. Digital oilfield
a) Reservoir management and drilling operations
b) Production optimization
 c) Asset optimization and maintenance support
d) Information management systems (IMS)
e) Training simulators
3. Power generation, distribution and drives
4. Flare and atmospheric ventilation
5. Instrument air
6. Heat Ventilation and Air Conditioning System (HVAC)
7. Water systems
a) Potable water
b) Seawater
c) Ballast water
8. Chemicals and additives
9. Telecom

GATHERING SYSTEMS:
By definition, gathering means to “come together, assemble or accumulate.”
That’s exactly what happens in a gas gathering system. After a well is drilled and
is producing gas or oil (product), that product has to be gathered, separated and,
many times, processed before it can be used in our homes and businesses.
The gathering system consists primarily of pipes, valves, and fittings necessary to
connect the wellhead to the separation equipment. The gathering system may
contain one or more lines with branches to each well, or it may consist of separate
lines from each well, which are connected to a group header or test header system,
as distance and distribution dictates.
A gathering system usually consists of multiple pipelines laid in one area that are
designed to “gather” the product that is produced from multiple wells to a central
point. This central point may be a compressor station, a storage facility, a
processing plant, a larger transmission pipeline or a shipping point.
Gathering and separating systems fall into three groups. All three types of system
start at the well and end at the storage tanks of the oil pipeline or in the intake of
the pipeline driver pump.
The first group includes production systems of extremely high-capacity wells.
Each well has its own facilities for separation and metering, possibly also for
treatment. This setup is seldom economical.
The second group is the gathering and separating facilities permitting the common
handling of several well streams also called the well-center system.
The figure above shows a well-center system after Graf (1957). Individual wells
I on the lease are connected to well centers 2. Each well stream is transported to
the well center in an individual flowline. At the well centers, the well streams at
least of the wells selected for individual testing and metering are kept separate;
their oil, gas and water rates are metered; then either the united well streams are
transported as they are to the central gathering station 3 of the lease or the gas
separated at each well center is introduced into the gas gathering line while the
liquid is forwarded to the central gathering station.
In the third group called the common line gathering system several wells produce
into a common flowline. Oil, gas and water production of individual wells are
metered at intervals by means of portable well testers installed at the well sites.
All other treatment takes place at the central station.

SERVICE SYSTEMS
1. Wireline system
a) Monitoring and cleaning operation
b) Measurement operation
c) Setting and retrieving operation
2. Well test
3. Workover: to repair a well.

CLEANING SYSTEMS
1. Pigging: In order to ensure the efficient and safe operation of the pipelines,
operators routinely inspect their pipelines for corrosion and defects. This is
done through the use of sophisticated pieces of equipment known as pigs.
Pigs are intelligent robotic devices that are propelled down pipelines to
evaluate the interior of the pipe.
Pigs can test pipe thickness, and roundness, check for signs of corrosion,
detect minute leaks, and any other defect along the interior of the pipeline
that may either impede the flow of gas, or pose a potential safety risk for
 the operation of the pipeline. Sending a pig down a pipeline is fittingly
known as 'pigging' the pipeline. Intelligent pigs also contain
instrumentation for remote control and cameras, etc.
2. Scale removal: Acid soluble deposit can be removed by using
hydrochloric acid solution.

DESIGN AND TESTING OF FLOWLINES

In the oil and gas industry, Flowlines transport fluids between a wellhead and a
gathering station like Regulating and metering station (RMS) or Multiport
selector valve (MSV) or treatment facility and vice versa. In a larger well field,
multiple flowlines connect individual wells to a manifold. The flow from the
manifold is then transferred by a gathering line to a pre-process stage or to a
transportation facility or vessel. Flowlines can run over land or subsea well-field.
Flowlines may be buried or at grade on the surface of land or seafloor. The
pipelines that collect the flow from multiple flowlines are known as gathering
lines.
Flowlines are to a specific well and hence they are located at the well site. It may
be a metallic or nonmetallic pipe or a hose. Most flowlines are usually very short.
However, they can run for kilometers in onshore applications. Once the flowlines
have brought the fluid to a manifold or other piece of process equipment, gathering
lines are used. Flowlines carry unprocessed crude oil whereas pipeline carry
partially processed or fully processed fluids.
Subsea flowlines are pipelines that carry fluid in between a subsea wellhead and
a surface facility or manifold.
Flowline design consideration includes: temperature and pressure, design code,
determination of material, routing, mechanical strength, diameter, wall thickness,
insulation, and corrosion protection measure.
a. Temperature and Pressure: The operating temperature for flowlines is
usually less. However, the design pressure is very high. The design pressure
can range up to 238 bar. The design temperature of flowlines is normally
decided based on the environmental conditions as usually process
temperature is low (In the range of 60 Deg C).
The design pressure selected must be more than the maximum pressure that
can be produced at any instant of the full flowline life cycle.
b. Design Code: The normal design code followed for flow lines is ASME
B31.4 or ASME B31.8
c. Mechanical Strength: Depending on the process requirement, flowlines
sizes vary. The wall thickness of these flowlines is determined using the
Barlow formula with a design factor of 0.72. at all locations including road
crossings. The Barlow formula assumes a metallic pipe. Carbon steel
 flowlines are typically installed above ground and this imposes additional
bending and thermal (expansion) stresses not taken into account by the
Barlow formula. To ensure that code allowable stresses are not exceeded
due to these additional stresses on flowlines, support span, expansion loop
size & spacing between limit stops, etc should be designed and checked by
pipeline stress engineers.
d. Flowline Routing: For laying new flowlines, designated flowline corridors
or streets are followed to minimize land use. For these purposes, flowline
town maps showing clearly designated flowline routes are developed for
each field, and flowlines are planned to follow these routes only.
Opportunities for inspectable bulk lines and headers should always be
explored. In planning flowline routes, inspection/maintenance access must
be considered. Flowline crossovers wherever required should be provided.
The number of road crossings shall be minimized. Space must be
maintained for future flowlines. usually, a minimum clearance of 250 mm
is required between adjacent flowlines to allow inspection by an external
MFL tool. Marker plate to identify the flowline shall be provided every 200
m and at the crossings (before and after the crossing). Welding is not
permitted on the coated flowlines.
e. Flowline Materials: In general, a standard line pipe (API 5L) is used as
metallic flowline material. The usual grades that contribute to metallic
flowline materials are API 5L Grade B. grade X42, X52, and grade X60.
f. Flowline Expansion Loops: Expansion or contraction will occur when the
temperature of the flowline material is different from that at the time of
installation, or due to pressure and end-cap effects at changes in direction.
Suitable expansion loops must be considered while designing flowlines. To
prevent preferential expansion in one direction, anchors should be provided
to ensure that each expansion loop absorbs only the thrust for which it has
been designed.
g. Flowline Hook-ups: Hook-up refers to the piping required to tie-in flowline
to the wellhead and to production facilities. Hook-up piping is designed to
ANSI B31.3.

Pipeline Testing
Depending on the application, each pipe or complete section should be subjected
to final acceptance tests in accordance with written procedures. The tests may
include:
hydrostatic pressure test
pig passage test
electrical continuity test