Reservoir Drainage with Downhole Permanent Monitoring and Control Systems. Real-Time Integration of Dynamic Reservoir Performance Data and Static Reservoir Model Improves Control Decisions

Abstract

Downhole Permanent Monitoring and Control Systems invoke the vision of adapting real-time process control to the hydrocarbon drainage process. This paper discusses some aspects of the evolution towards that vision. Three functions of Reservoir Management are focused:Estimating physical downhole states (inverse problems) for Reservoir CharacterizationUpdating models (history matching)Controlling well inflow The potential for a real-time system to contribute successfully seems to differ from function to function. Introduction Downhole Permanent Monitoring and Control Systems, or Intelligent/Smart Wells implies that the reservoir and the well are continuously monitored and that the well completion may be remotely reconfigured to adapt to changes and/or surprises in downhole conditions. Todays objectives are toImprove reservoir characterizationAvoid interventions both for logging and completion reconfigurationsAccelerate productionImprove total recovery If these objectives are reached, remote production systems like deep water fields may hopefully be drained as effective as more accessible platform and onshore wells. According to generally accepted experience data, accessible wells feature up to 20% higher recovery than subsea production systems. Other reservoir candidates include: complex structures, reservoirs with high model uncertainty, etc. Today, the industry is working hard to demonstrate the new technology. Poor life cycle reliability seems to be the main challenge. The evolution of the systems is slow compared to the operators' expectations. It seems to be a conflict of interest between technology suppliers, who want to build up some experience data from field installations, and the operators' wishes to "sit on the fence", not taking the risk until the technology is fully qualified. However, systems like the multiple zone SCRAMS system from PES/Halliburton and other more simple systems have been installed in several wells worldwide. The benefits are clearly demonstrated in some cases. An example is the Oseberg field in the North Sea, where the operator seem to have reached their objectives by successful handling of reservoir surprises with wells equipped with up to four isolated zones each. During the next few years, the system life cycle reliability is expected to come up to the level required to reach today's objectives in most fields, the next step to be added to the list of objectives for Permanent Monitoring and Control Systems is most likelyProduction optimization. Given a suitable permanent monitoring system, the reservoir engineers may be able to fine-tune some of the processes related to the hydrocarbon drainage by the use of downhole linear chokes and the right zone isolation. Status, Downhole Permanent Monitoring The benefit of permanent monitoring has already been demonstrated through the last ten years. Several cases are reported,1,2,3,4,5 and various conclusions are drawn:Generally, long-term data from permanent gauges have the potential to provide more information about the reservoir than traditional short-term data.

Feedback control of proppant bank heights during hydraulic fracturing for enhanced productivity in shale formations

“…Over the last two decades, the oil and gas industry has employed optimization techniques for a variety of purposes such as determining optimal well location and spacing of fracture stages, [4][5][6] field development under uncertainty, 7 resource scheduling, 8,9 maximization of net present value, 10,11 optimization of water management in shale oil and gas production process, [12][13][14][15] shale oil and gas supply chain optimization, 16,17 history matching of reservoir parameters, [18][19][20][21][22][23] and development of well and reservoir simulators. [24][25][26][27] Specifically, for a given amount of proppant to be injected, a unified fracture design (UFD) that provides the optimal fracture geometry was proposed by Ref. [28] for conventional oil and gas reservoirs to maximize well performance, and recently, the approach has been further extended to unconventional (low-permeability) resources by Ref.…”

Measurements of Streaming Potential for Downhole Monitoring in Intelligent Wells

“…Laurence and Brown, 2000;Tolan et al, 2001;Manin, 2002;Brown et al, 2003Brown et al, , 2004Bui and Jalali, 2004;Kragas et al, , 2004Silva and Kato, 2004;Webster et al, 2004). Robison, 1997;Rester et al, 1999;Storer et al, 1999;Nyhavn et al, 2000;Lie and Wallace, 2000;Armstrong and Jackson, 2001;Tolan et al, 2001). Nyhavn et al, 2000;Addiego-Guevara et al, 2008).…”

A feasibility study of borehole radar as a permanent downhole sensor

“…The combination of measurement and control techniques is being increasingly used in the oil industry, as it has the potential to significantly improve the oil and gas production (Robison 1997; Nyhavn, Vassenden and Singstad 2000; Brouwer and Jansen 2004a; Glandt 2005). This is due to the recent development of smart well technology, which allows zonal production control and monitoring in real time through, respectively, inflow control valves and downhole sensors (Jansen, Bosgra and van den Hof 2008).…”