The paper presents the flow assurance challenges and the mitigation steps taken in the deep, high pressure & high temperature North Kuwait Jurassic (NKJ) Fields. Flow assurance is extremely diverse subject linked to different engineering disciplines. Understanding the reservoir fluid behavior, rock minerals, completion & pipeline metallurgy and operating envelope is critical to understand and overcome the flow assurance challenges. Pipeline Hydrate Formation is the biggest operational challenge, which frequently disrupts the production of some of the high producing gas wells during the winter months. Different chemicals and combinations of such have been attempted to mitigate the hydrate problem, still optimization of the chemical injection process is ongoing. Other problems of solid, scale or salt blockage in the tubing, surface chokes and pipelines have occurred and steps were taken to clear the obstructions. The NKJ fluids are highly corrosive and a corrosion inhibitor is injected at the wellhead to protect the surface pipelines. Addressing all these challenges require thorough knowledge of the specialized subjects and advance modeling to improve the field operational philosophy. In the NKJ fields, the pipeline connecting the well to the processing facility (5 – 30 Km long) are neither buried nor insulated. During the winter months (during night & early morning), the well fluid cools down below the hydrate formation temperature in the flowline causing hydrate crystallization and even plugging of the pipeline. Out of the 30 producing wells in the NKJ fields, half of the wells produce water and have hydrate tendency. The produced water salinity varies from well to well and range from fresh water to highly saline water with salinity as high as 330 kppm. This makes the system highly complex and manifest need for a robust solution. The paper walks through the traditional methods of hydrate mitigation done in the NKJ fields and the way in which transient model was initially built and continuously improved with more data. Currently methanol is used as the hydrate inhibitor and an anti-agglomerate (AA) is under trial. The methanol concentration is governed mostly by experience and on a reactive mode. An offline transient model advisor was built to understand the hydrate mechanism and optimize the methanol injection The advisor is still under trial, once simulation matches with the field conditions, then it will be online and linked to the existing KwIDF (Kuwait Integrated Digital Fields) technology program. Under KwIDF, Chemical Management workflow will be designed to optimize methanol injection to minimize the well downtime and reduce the OPEX cost. The transient advisor also can predict the surge at the facility inlet which can assist in balancing the production in and out of the facility.

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The North Kuwait Jurassic Gas (NKJG) reservoirs are currently under development by KOC. The fractured carbonate reservoirs contain gas condensate and volatile oil at pressures up to 11,500 psi with 2.9% H2S and 1.5% CO2. Currently around 20 active wells are producing to an Early Production Facility (EPF-50) that falls short of achieving the desired capacity and capability to handle production efficiently. To understand wells and field performance, an integrated system model comprising of wells, flow line and gathering system separator network was created. The setting up a model and its use is an integral subset of WRFM (Wells, Reservoir and Facilities Management) process that is essential for effectively managing the current asset and for further field development. The application of the model is to be an enabler for wider implementation of the WRFM process in KOC and a tool to meet the following objectives: It should closely match the EPF-50 throughputIt should identify problem wellsIt should identify well intervention and data gathering opportunitiesIt should be a tool for training engineers on nodal analysis and WRFMIt can be used for back allocationIt could be used to benchmark against any existing models The model has shown close approximation with field metered production and is already achieving many of its desired objectives. This paper describes the use of integrated nodal analysis model to generate data gathering and well intervention opportunities not only to operate the facilities efficiently but understand well and reservoir behavior for input to full field development plan.

Kuwait Digital Integrated Field (KwIDF Jurassic) is a complex field located in the North Kuwait. As with many other Digital oil field projects the IT challenges are numerous. The current infrastructure is based on physical servers and resource handling is challenging. Require integrated infrastructure solution to build new workflow demands and to cater large amounts of real-time data being retrieved wells and facility sources. Adoption of Cloud computing for oil and gas is increasing over the last few years, this document primarily focus on Private Cloud strategy for KwIDF Jurassic. A comprehensive assessment was done with the KOC IT Stakeholders, during the in assessment phase captured all the challenges and we ensure the Security is prime requirement accessing the KwIDF applications, One of the prominent challenges was to have offered in cloud computing is the centralized data-handling requirements, the solution creates such a change in technological as well as new workflows Validation tests on the KOC recommended hardware was successfully completed. This delivers the learning and experiences for cloud road map and strategy creation for KOC IT, Based on the validation proof of concept results, the solution private cloud implementation framework was designed primarily on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). Includes Kernel-Based Virtual Machine (KVM) virtualization technologies, the VDI Solution will integrate with KOC Application cluster, the VDI Solution provides anytime, anywhere access to KwIDF applications with improved security. The Cloud and Virtualization solution will improve the application delivery system with high performance for the provide solution and enhance operational and business outcomes. Adding private cloud platform can take the project to a new level of business improvement and enhance operational performance. The potential benefit of implementing secure cloud includes benefits like high-resource utilization and IT resource management for operations team in Datacenter.. Providing high availability and disaster recovery, also allow user self-service provisioning templates with rapid delivery of virtual machines, the whole solution is aligned with KOC CITG business strategy.

Over the years, cybersecurity threats have grown significantly, and securing Operations Technology (OT) assets is one of the biggest challenges within the oil and gas industry today. Poor security policies could lead to unauthorized access to business-critical assets, confidential information leakage and result in business disruptions causing HSE, financial, and reputational impacts. This paper details how advanced and robust security policies shall mitigate cybersecurity risks and enable a smooth execution of Digital Oil Filed (DOF) projects and other complex O&G projects involving high convergence between IT & OT environments. The DOF projects include integration of Industrial Control System (ICS) network with corporate network at various levels, and this mandates consideration of multiple layers of security controls to implement a defense in depth strategy in order to secure ICS & Corporate infrastructure. It includes establishment of an integrated governance model that orchestrates the Cybersecurity Management System (CSMS) that encompasses IT & OT, define a secure architecture for ICS, lay enforcement zones to segregate ICS network from the Corporate/ Enterprise network by enabling strong firewalling/ intrusion monitoring policies, perform continuous monitoring and develop response capabilities to combat cyber-attacks/ intrusions. Additionally, the awareness level of the entire workforce should be escalated to ensure they are ‘cyber risk-aware’ and comprehend how crucial it is to incorporate ‘security sense’ at work. Since cyber-attack aimed at ICS environments heavily leverage physical security weaknesses to introduce a cyber-physical impact, it is quintessential to consider robust physical safeguards to protect marshalling rooms, control equipment, and the overall perimeter of facilities. The "security" factor for DOF primarily focuses on the availability of the systems, minimizing downtime risks which is of paramount importance for Oil & Gas business. This paper focuses on KOC's comprehensive approach to secure its critical assets within DOF which comprises people, process and technology components that contribute towards achieving KOC's business objectives.