Fiber Optic Surveillance for Water and Polymer Conformance Monitoring in an EOR Project in Petroleum Development Oman

Deepwater drilling is an expensive complex operation. Real-time surveillance data and analysis for drilling operations are very important for ensuring safety and cost control. Due to the high production rate and high expense of deepwater wells, there are usually not many wells planned for developing a deepwater field. Therefore, the results of each well hold particular significance as additional reservoir surveillance data and are crucial for optimizing field development and production forecasts. The subject field of this paper is WRB (pseudonym) which is a deepwater field located in the Gulf of Mexico. In the past few years, about one to two new wells per year came online at WRB field. Thus, there has been a constant stream of surveillance data from both drilling new wells and production/injection at existing wells. All the surveillance data were processed and utilized for updating the reservoir simulation model that ultimately serves as the engine for optimizing the future well locations. This paper is intended to review and share the key learnings and best practices of Surveillance, Analysis and Optimization (SA&O) during the active drilling campaign of WRB field. A comprehensive effort was undertaken to review the historic surveillance activities carried out during drilling and post-drill, and to review the consequent value-adding decisions from effective use of surveillance information.

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Performance Optimization of Water Injection Wells Using Autonomous Outflow Control Device Technology in Offshore Norway

Kvilaas,

Moradi,

Voll

et al. 2024

SPE Norway Subsurface Conference

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Making good horizontal water injection wells is more challenging than making good horizontal producers, linked to the uncertainty around formation impairment (if no or limited clean-up) and the possible problem of "thief zones" that steal a major part of the injected water and deliver low sweep efficiency. Autonomous Outflow Control Devices (AOCD) can reduce the problem of "thief zones" and were piloted in a recent well in the Ivar Aasen water injector offshore Norway. To limit injection into possible thief zones (or limit the chance of making such thief zones) normal ICDs, often used for injectors as well as producers, were installed in combination with the new technology that close at a certain differential pressure or injection rate. As a dual system, this should give quite an even injection along the whole well. Completion design studies were performed in both the full dynamic reservoir model and a simpler steady-state inflow/outflow wellbore modelling pre-drill. The completion design was finalized post-drill by quickly updating the model with the actual log data from the drilled well. While tracers indicated a clean well after the initial clean-up, the well surveillance during injection logging confirmed injection along the entire completed interval of the wellbore. Also, a significant breaking point on the step-rate test (SRT) was observed which was different behaviour than what has been conventionally observed from the wells completed with non-AOCD completion. Improved water management is key for many assets such as Ivar Aasen field. The first pilot installations of AOCD technology in Norway in this field demonstrated this technology could help to make better wells and improve sweep efficiency in difficult geological formations. This again improves the environmental measures such as power usage and the need for chemicals to treat injected and produced water.

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Fiber Optic Surveillance for Water and Polymer Conformance Monitoring in an EOR Project in Petroleum Development Oman

Cited by 5 publications

References 14 publications

Mechanisms of sand production, prediction–a review and the potential for fiber optic technology and machine learning in monitoring

Mechanisms of sand production, prediction–a review and the potential for fiber optic technology and machine learning in monitoring

Surveillance, Analysis, and Optimization (SA&O) During Active Drilling Campaign

Performance Optimization of Water Injection Wells Using Autonomous Outflow Control Device Technology in Offshore Norway

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