Abstract
This paper describes the integration between a dynamic surveillance tool and a system analysis tool to provide the surveillance engineer with a new, fully automated and technically rigorous system, capable of true performance monitoring and reliable production test validation.
The combination of the software tools and workflows resulted in an innovative PROduction Management and Optimization system (PROMO), with new and extended capabilities beyond those of either of the stand-alone packages. Algorithms were defined in order to automatically compare actual and modeled production (taking into account FTHP variations) on a daily basis. Additionally, as new production test data becomes available, the system can automatically display it on a calibrated IPR plot for fast and rigorous validation. The system has also been designed such that when a new well test is approved and validated, the IPR curve will be automatically re-calibrated to honor the new performance measurements.
In principle no gas or oil field is outside the scope of such an application. Once an appropriate interface is set up to allow for data exchange between the surveillance and system analysis tools, it is a matter of building the appropriate processes that will yield the most beneficial results in terms of production optimization and data validation. The addition of data linkages to corporate data warehouses results in a system that requires little maintenance of input parameters and is always up-to-date with respect to the available data.
The PROMO system, currently deployed in one gas plant (comprising of seven offshore gas fields, 14 platforms and 180 production strings) and one oil plant (comprising of two onshore oil fields and 10 production strings), is allowing the production engineers to easily identify under-performing strings (completions) and promptly intervene. In addition to providing a more reliable and time effective production test validation process, the engineer can fully analyze current well performance with daily, historical and forecasted data. Additional benefits include calculation of historic SBHP’s from production tests, dependable production allocation (with great benefit for overall field management and reservoir modeling) and considerable time savings as pertinent data is automatically (as opposed to manually) handled and used in the system analysis algorithms.
