Recently there has been an effort to develop new measurement capabilities forultra-deepwater oil and gas production. Beginning in 2005, work began on whatwere perceived to be the most important gaps in deepwater measurementtechnology.
Since October 2008 a consortium of seven operating companies, in partnershipwith the US Department of Energy (DOE), has addressed six of the most pressinggaps for multiphase flow measurement:
Deepwater fluid sampling
ROV-assisted measurement
HPHT sensor development
Virtual flow meter evaluation
Meter fouling effects
Multiphase system uncertainty
The work was made possible by the Research Partnership to Secure Energy forAmerica (RPSEA), an entity established to promote cooperative efforts betweenindustry and the DOE. Key to its success was the active support of a JIPsponsored by seven deepwater operating companies: BHP, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Shell, Statoil, and Total.
Due to increasing dependence on deepwater production, these technologydevelopments are of great importance. There is a need to improve reservoirrecovery from deepwater, possibly yielding tens of millions of barrels ofadditional reserves, but such is not practical using traditional periodic welltests.
Of equal importance is the provision of more accurate and reliable deepwatermeasurement to ensure that the assessment of royalties and the allocation ofrevenues among owners is sufficiently precise and equitable.
In light of the Deepwater Horizon incident, however, perhaps the most importantapplications for these new measurement technologies lie in the realm of safetyand the environment. In retrospect, better and more extensive measurement couldhave proven extremely beneficial both before and after the accident. What hasbeen accomplished in this project has set the stage for future work aimed atproviding these kinds of capabilities for future drilling and productionsystems.
The paper and presentation will provide a look at progress that was achieved inclosing each of the six gaps addressed in this first major RPSEA measurementproject, and will discuss new follow-on projects sponsored by RPSEA to addressthe remaining deepwater measurement problems.
