Oil and Gas

Production Operations
PETE 2050 Introduction
to Petroleum Engineering
DRILLING
Chinese invented first methods of
completion for water, salt water,
and gas wells in about 1000 BC
Oil wells first drilled in China in 347 AD
to 800 feet using bits attached to
bamboo poles
The oil was burned to evaporate brine
and produce salt
DRILLING
Earliest oil wells in modern times were
drilled percussively, by cable tool
Soon after, cable tools were replaced
with rotary drilling
COMPLETION
Final operations needed to produce
from the well
Bringing well fluids to the surface
PRODUCTION
SERVICING
Routine maintenance of well
WORKOVERS
More extensive servicing
Pumping
Walking beam used for drilling also used to
pump well
1880 single steam engine prime mover
pumped several wells
Steam engines later replaced by internal
combustion engines
Self contained beam pumping unit
developed for individual wells (still the
most common)
Followed by electrical submersible pump
and later by gas lift
Storage and handling
Wooden (wine) barrels used for
collecting and shipping - 42 US
gallons
Earthen pits
Wooden tanks
Riveted iron tanks
Bolted or welded steel tanks (after 1920)
Attention to oil/gas/water separation
including chemical and electrical
treatment
Wooden barrels were the first containers for produced oil
WELL
COMPLETION
Will reservoir be economic?
If so, set final casing string
Casing: Typically four concentric strings of pipe -
conductor, surface, intermediate, production (long string)
Each casing is cemented separately through a casing shoe
Production liner for deep wells (sometimes used for wells
greater that 10,000 ft)
Open hole or barefoot completion
Perforated completion
Need good cement job
Perforating gun set to chosen spacing
Shaped charges called jet perforating
Wire wrapped screen completion
Needed for unconsolidated rock to limit sand production
Sand in hole is first washed out and replaced by gravel
Followed by wire wrapped slotted liner
Wire wrapped screen
Production tubing:
Hangs inside casing from well
head
1 to 4.5 inches OD
Narrow tubing gives better flow
characteristics
Has a subsurface safety valve
near the top that senses
change from normal
flow
Can be easily be removed to
clean or replace tubes
that may be plugged,
eroded, or corroded
Packers (rings of metal and rubber that expand against the casing) keep
the well fluids out of the tubing/casing annulus
Usually have a circulating valve to allow flow of fluid through the packer
if needed
Packers are either permanent or retrievable
Tubing-less completion:
For small diameter casing
Usually in low pressure gas wells that do not produce liquids
Slips that grip the wall of the casing and hold the packer in place
Multiple completions:
More than one tubing string
Packers separate the production
zones
Wellhead:
Supports the production strings
Seals off the well
Controls fluid flow rates
Have at least one casing head and hanger
A tubing head and hanger (usually)
Includes the Christmas tree
Christmas tree:
Regulates and measures flow from the well
Measures pressure in tubing and casing (leak detection)
Choke determines rate of production (fixed or adjustable)
Washing In
Removal of mud by brine
Then packer is set
Reservoir pressure may be sufficient to
remove column of brine
Swabbing
If well does not produce well is swabbed
by removing brine until pressure is
reduced sufficiently for production
Bringing well fluids to the surface
Artificial lift
PRODUCTION
In a water drive reservoir, salt water
under the oil pushes the oil to the surface
Eventually, the water level rises to the
bottom of the well in a water drive reservoir
Water at the edges of the reservoir helps drive the oil into the wellbore
In a dissolved-gas drive reservoir, gas
comes out of the oil, expands, and lifts
it to the surface
In a gas-cap reservoir, the free gas in the
cap and the gas dissolved in the oil
expands to move oil up to the surface
In a gravity drainage reservoir, the oil flows downhill to the well
Beam pumping units like this one are a common sight in oil country
Beam pump
Reciprocating action moves
sucker rods up and
down inside the
tubing string
Rods are connected at
bottom to a sucker
rod pump
Electric submersibles
Down hole pump can be stacked inline (typically
15 to 20 pumps)
Used when water production is excessive
Sensitive to sand and gas
Hydraulic pumps
Use hydraulic energy
instead of sucker
rods
Two pumps electric at
surface to force
power fluid down
the hole and
hydraulic downhole
Water or crude oil used as
hydraulic fluid
Gas lift
Natural gas can be injected downhole into a
dead well (non-flowing) and replaces
the action of gas coming out of solution
Gas reduces pressure at the wellbore face
Good for off shore most of equipment is
down hole and gas is usually available
WELL TESTING
Potential test
Measures largest amount of oil and
gas produced over 24 hours
Required by state regulators to
determine allowable production
Bottomhole pressure test
Measures bottomhole pressure after 24
to 48 hours shut-in
Scheduled testing indicates rate of
reservoir pressure decline
Used to determine the most efficient
production rate
Productivity test
Measure shut-in pressure and then
bottomhole pressure at several
stabilized flow rates
Regulation of gas production in many
states is based on productivity
tests
Wireline formation test
Measures pressure at specific depths
Tool run on conductor line and perforates in
one or two places in the casing
Valve opens chamber to sample a few
gallons of fluid and measure pressure
Good for quick pressure reading, to confirm
permeability and porosity from other
logs and predict productivity
WELL
STIMULATION
Explosives
Nitro shooting
Nuclear explosives (three tests on
low permeability gas wells)
Hydraulic fracturing
Powerful pumps inject frac liquid at high rate to fracture the rock
(casing is much stronger than the rock)
New fractures act as flow channels
Fracing may be part of completion or later as part of a workover
Hydraulic fracturing
Fractures close is parting pressure drops
Proppants hold the fracture open
Sand, nutshells, beads of aluminum, glass, or plastic plus spacer material
Proppants
Fracturing fluid
Usually brine cheap, but also oil-based
fluids are used
Gels, polymer additives to reduce
friction, and to reduce fluid loss
Acidizing
Usually for limestone and
dolomite
Compromise between action of
acid on rock and on
equipment
Choice includes hydrochloric,
hydrofluoric, acetic, and
formic acids
Additives surfactants (easier
pumping and prevention
of emulsions),
sequestering agents (to
remove corrosion
products), anti sludge
agents
TYPES OF
TREATMENT
Acid fracturing
Same as hydraulic fracturing but no need for proppants
(carbonates)
Matrix acidizing
Two approaches:
1. Well bore is filled with acid and left to soak
2. Low pressure treatment (counters formation damage and
avoids fracturing into any nearby water or gas zone)
Acid is injected down the tubing and into the formation through perforations
to remove formation damage without fracturing the formation
IMPROVED
RECOVERY
TECHNIQUES
After natural drive, gas lift, and pumping 25 to
95% of the oil may still remain in the
reservoir
Major methods of improved recovery are:
Waterflooding, gas injection, chemical
flooding, and thermal recovery
Waterflooding
Originated by accident and was illegal until the early 1920s
If wells stopped producing oil then they were sometimes
converted to water injection wells to sweep oil to
surrounding producing wells
Waterflooding is widely applied and inexpensive
It is referred to as secondary recovery, but there are
advantages to application of waterflooding at the
outset of production
The next figure shows a five spot pattern waterflood
Injection water must be compatible with formation water
Water may be deaerated, softened, filtered, and chemically
treated
Prudhoe Bay, Alaska: injection into Sadlerochit formation is
up to 2 million barrels per day of sea water under
severe arctic conditions
In waterflooding, water is injected into wells around the producing well
This is a five-spot pattern four injection wells and one producer but
many other patterns can be used
Immiscible gas injection
Natural gas, nitrogen, flue gas
Miscible gas injection
Liquefied petroleum gases (but usually too valuable) and
carbon dioxide (from natural CO2 reservoirs )
Miscibility developed by injection of CO2
Gas injection often alternated with water to improve sweep
Surfactants can drastically lower interfacial tension and so reduce the
capillary forces that retain oil after a waterflood
Surfactant bank may be pushed by a polymer bank (viscosified brine)
to give better sweep efficiency
Chemical
Flooding
Alkaline flooding an alkaline
solution can react with certain
types of oil to produce natural
surfactants that lower
interfacial tension and other
effects that increase recovery
Thermal recovery
Injection of hot fluids to lower viscosity of
heavy oils
Steam drive
In steam drive or continuous steam injection the steam pushes oil through a
combination of actions to the production well
In cyclic steam injection (huff and puff) each operation involves a single well
Heat oil by steam injection and then back produce
Fire flooding (in situ combustion)
Usually compressed air is injected and oil is ignited
Steam, hot water, and gas all help drive the oil to production wells