Deployment of Down Hole Gauges in Sucker Rod Pump applications - New step in Optimization

Abstract

Sucker Rod Pump (SRP), one of the most common and mature artificial lift techniques is usually known to be designed with minimum available data. With the flexibility of the operational characteristics it is possible to find a combination of pumping unit, pump and rods to draw the fluid out of the well. A SRP system potentially could draw the bottom-hole pressures down to near-zero condition. However the need for accurate data for optimized design and operations is equally important in order to meet production targets and achieve reasonable run life.This paper summarizes a case study for one of the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) fields in Kuwait where down hole gauges were employed first time in SRP wells to receive the pump intake pressure (PIP) and pump discharge pressure (PDP) in real time, a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system to transfer the down hole and surface data to a real time optimization software. The initial designing of two wells were done with a very limited knowledge about the reservoir Productivity index (PI). Data limitations caused a conservative design approach which led to oversizing of the equipment. As the operations started, with real-time optimization system, the productivity index of the well was determined with a high degree of certainty. This information along with surface real time data helped • Optimize and scale down the pumping unit size for the future nearby wells, • Balance the units in real time • Fine tune the production in real time with the changes in reservoir inflow • Ensure the system integrity SPE-172845-MS