Gas Lift has been applied in the oil field for more than 70 years, despite the new technology and developments there is always more optimization that can be done. In this paper we are giving a leading example of one of the oldest gas lift projects in gulf of Suez that has been running for more than 50 years where 540 MMSCFD being pumped on daily basis to produce more than 200 wells as of today. the experience in this field is quite historical but the question is always persisting are we making best use of lift gas volumes and pressure, does every well have the optimum design and receives the optimum gas lift rate. One more important question will be how to prioritize interventions and optimization operations to target wells with highest value. In order to assess the overall gas lift performance of the field an innovative dashboard was created including Key performance indicators that reflect benchmarking of Lift Gas Consumption compared with historical Performance of the field. This should spot the light to the field with lowest efficiency and most probably it is expected higher return of production if we dedicate efforts to this field. Moreover creating wells dashboard has valued new Key Performance indicators with New Diagnostic Graphs that was not given attention by the industry before. Having these diagnostic Plots allowed benchmarking performance of wells for similar reservoir, completion type, gas lift design and sand face completion. Using this technique, it became easy to detect wells with higher potential of production with proper gas lift intervention. Although Analytics can give some guidance on the required actions to enhance production of wells knowing the basic design, having the analytics coupled with Integarated Network modelling and well models added more value to the project. Data Driven Gas Lift Optimization approach was applied since Oct. 2021 in an extensive approach over GOS, the approach succeeded to define more than 74 Optimization and Intervention Opportunities 45 of them were actually intervened in less than a year and added more than 4000 BOPD to production capacity. It was not a surprise that some of historically known underperforming wells were interpreted underperforming for other reasons than gas lift in-efficiency but using Gas lift Analytics re-analysis of the system showed huge value for gas lift intervention in these wells and succeeded to revive them. Data Analytics and Data driven gas lift optimization is proved a huge leap in managing gas lift fields and keeping the system running closer to optimum.
Organic Chloride is organic compound that have chlorine atoms as part of its chemical composition. Over the last four years, there has been continuous increase of number of research papers addressing the corrosion impact of organic chlorides in processes that includes high temperature like distillation towers. Where chlorine atoms start to detach and form free radicals in moisture wetting metal surfaces and result in severe corrosion of distillation towers. The Fact that led regulatory agencies to set a threshold number for maximum allowable content of organic chloride in crude beyond which crude is either not accepted or depreciated. That puts pressure on oil producers to maintain acceptable levels of organic chloride content. Companies working in Refineries are more familiar with organic chlorides than upstream operators are. Having the regulatory agencies pushing on setting limits on maximum allowable content of organic chlorides in crude. Now many operators are looking for a way to keep monitoring OC within limits and to define potential sources. Organic Chlorides rarely naturally exist in crude oil. That means there should be external source to contaminate crude such as chemicals used during the extensive operations in the oil field from drilling chemicals, stimulation, production, process, ETC. A leading example from Gulf of Suez, late 2021 a concern was raised on organic chlorides levels in crude of one of the prolific fields and the risk was to have negative impact on crude oil pricing. The risk would be dramatic on the large scale since all crude from different fields gather at the processing facilities then goes to same storage tank. An integrated Multidisciplinary in house task force team was formed to investigate the root causes for OC levels. The team reviewed MSDS of all chemicals consumed in all operations, qualified a Lab from Local Market for testing OC in crude Following ASTM D4929. Developed a comprehensive sampling and tracing strategy to be able to trace back to root causes. Over 5 Months of Monitoring, tracing and correlation between ongoing daily operations and OC levels. In addition to testing chemicals for OC. It was concluded that batches of organic solvent from one supplier are contaminated by OC. Contaminated Batches were quarantined and not used for daily operations. Another supplier was qualified for temporary supply of this type of solvent. As a result of the deep investigation a set of lessons learnt and recommended practices were generated and communicated with different disciplines for awareness and compliance to maintain OC levels manageable. Which in return saved operator company from the risk of depreciation of Crude oil price. Testing Chemicals with organic components are key for eliminating OC in crude and this should be done in Batch basis.
Through Tubing Mechanical Shut off Process using electric line has been an economical and successful way to isolate undesired perforated intervals in cased whole completions. During the late 1980s & early 1990s the technology became more reliable so the oil & gas industry began to put more trust in eline capabilities for the through tubing shut-offs. Many of offshore operating companies including Gulf Of Suez Petroleum Company "GUPCO" adopted the technique in order to minimize the number of rig work overs and accelerate add rate activities using rigless units. TTBP has proved very reliable in most of the cases however; the success rate has been debatable for highly deviated wells with high-pressure differential across the plug. Eline applications normally struggle at deviations > 60°, because of losing the gravity force driving the tools downward, limitations of tool string length due to dogleg in the angle build up sections. Several through tubing options are now available to overcome these challenges, for example coiled tubing, which requires rig assist for offshore sattelites application, & eline tractoring, which adds more cost to eline job and depends on local availability in the area of operation. TT mechanical shut offs face some challenges more than ability to deploy tools to required depth. Several types of through tubing cement dump bailers are available in the market; however not many jobs were performed in deviations > 70°, there is always a debate about capability of bailer to dump all cement on depth at such deviation where gravity force is minimal. In addition, the effect of cement slumping in higher deviations is another challenge for building a good cement sheeth that guarantees good sheer bond strength and able to withstand required pressure differential. A Challenging example was an offshore horizontal well where the primary target is required to be isolated and the objective is to test a new reservoir in the field which was not tested before in the area. Due to uncertainity in productivity, saturation & fluid type "Oil or gas" of the new characterized reservoir. The operations was intended to be at the minimum possible cost in order to keep the business risk at the lowest level. The target perforation interval was located in the build section of the horizontal well where deviation angle is 74-76 degrees. The existing perforations were flooded out and it was necessary to isolate prior to test of the target reservoir. Isolation using through tubing bridge plug on eline was assessed and different operation risks were evaluated, conveyence to the target depth without an eline tractor was assessed in the planning phase using a tension model. Slickline operation was modified to confirm the validity of the model and we successfully reached the target depth using slickline. During the planning phase, we considered many precautions to guarantee job success. A successful mechanical shut off job in a deviation of 74-76 degree was confirmed by positive test to the plug and the successful production from the well that produced more than 10 MMSCFD & 300 Barrels of condensate per day.
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