Abstract
With 150 Million Barrels of recoverable reserves, the Nexen Hay River Bluesky oil pool is among the largest oil discoveries in Western Canada in the past two decades. Initial pilot production testing lead to the conclusions that, in order to produce the field in its most economical fashion, the following would be needed:
Triple lateral horizontal producing wells
In field horizontal water injection/water disposal wells for pressure maintenance
Artificial Lift from the outset
Further complicating production of the Hay Pool, which is located in a remote area of North-Eastern British Columbia, was the fact that road access would be limited to 4 months of the year because any road through the muskeg would need to be "frozen in" prior to use. It was therefore extremely important to the economic viability of the project that whatever means of artificial lift were chosen should be highly reliable and require minimal maintenance. The method chosen, apart from being reliable and safe, would also need to be capable of lifting large volumes of fluid with a significant pressure drawdown. In addition it would need to be able to operate successfully in the extreme well deviations common in the "build" sections of the development wells.
This paper will review the development of the Bluesky oil pool and present the case for the choice of Jet Pumps for artificial lift. The authors will go on to detail the performance of the Jet Pump system installed in the field that has met or exceeded all performance expectations.
