Improving Gas Well Deliverability; A Case Study

Abstract Production optimization has become a major discussion worldwide, where production from oil and gas field could be optimize by selecting proper tubing size, completion equipment, with consideration of the driving mechanism of the gas reservoir. Gas sales agreement of the field was set to deliver 46 MMSCFD with 12 years contracts. Three infill wells have been drilled in the area with tubing 2-7/8 installed as production string. The Field development flow capacity relatively low in contrast with the high reservoir deliverabilities. The field is a single layer wet gas reservoir with water drive mechanism. The aim of this paper is to determine a simple, field applicable model to properly select the optimum tubing size with considerations of critical rate in water drive mechanism in a gas reservoir. The details of model approach and Nodal construction for this well will be presented in this paper. RESULTS???

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Introduction Reservoir production management plays a major role in developing a moderate size gas field. This study was developed to evaluate one of Indonesia gas block with certified reserves of 294 BSCF. The field is located in Java Island which consists of single thick carbonates layer that have matrix porosity around 8-12% and matrix permeability ranging from 40 md to 236 md with aquifer on the bottom. There are two wells already drilled during the exploration phase, and based on the Plan of Development (POD), three more development wells will be drilled to achieve the production plateau capacity of 46 MMSCFD for 12 years as stated in gas sales agreement for that field. The wells depth is around 2700 m to 2900 m with proposed single completion tubing 2-7/8 as production string. Based on the new drilling result, the AOFP (Absolute Open Flow Potential) has shows improvements due to PMCD (Pressurized Mud Cap Drilling) Method that has been utilized to avoid cement plugs and combating the losses during drilling the prospect carbonates. This method has given smaller Skin and higher well deliverability for all new drilled wells in the field. Hence an evaluation of optimum tubing size and reservoir production management should be addressed to achieve more economical field development cost. Five wells are ready to be completed, and based on the POD on the fifth years of production, an infill wells should be drilled as a buffer well.

Background Evaluation on tubing size that going to be used in the completion string plays a major factor in well deliverability and recovery factor of the field. Some parameters are considered in designing the optimum tubing size such as, erosional velocity, and critical rate to avoid liquid loading in gas well. The produced gas is categorized as wet gas with very small liquid yields at surface (ranging from 6-8 bbl/MMSCFD) and from the PVT analysis in retrograde condensation during depletion, the maximum Liquid Volume is 0.12% at 1000 psig at 296F. The reservoir is classified as type A naturally fractured reservoir (after McNaughton&Garb), where the reservoir storage capacity is mostly in matrix where the is relatively below 0,001. From the well testing for all three new drilled wells, high deliverability gas rate was indicated during well testing. After carefully running the Pressure Transient Analysis data, the AOFP ranging from 278 600 MMSCFD with low Skin factor. The well produce ability was differing from the two explorations wells. Based on this new data, a new study on the deliverability based on tubing size optimization should be done instead of running the planned completion string as explain above. Nodal Analysis

Optimum Tubing Size

Field Deliverability to Maintain Gas Sales

Conclusions

Acknowledgement

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Picture 1. Reservoir Data for Well Modeling Picture 2. Phase Envelope Picture 3.