Enhancing Well Testing Performance by Installing a Reliable Water Cut Meter Along with Coriolis Flowmeter

Abstract

Abstract This article shows the impact of installing Weatherford's online Red Eye water cut meter to work with the Micromotion Coriolis meter on the monthly well testing validity. This was applied on HwGOSP-2 test trap which is used to test the GOSP's wells on a monthly basis. The wells' testing validity has been an issue since the installation of the new Coriolis flow meter. After several comparisons between the Coriolis flowmeter, multiphase flowmeter and the lab sampling results for more than a month, it was concluded that the coriolis was not giving accurate water cut readings, due to the variation in the well's liquids specific gravity. This analysis revealed that specific gravity independent water cut meter is needed to be installed to work with the existing Coriolis mass flow meter. The water cut reading will be fed into the Distributed Control System (DCS) to report accurate net volumes of oil and water. It was an opportunity to trial test the Red Eye 2G water cut meter which is using Near Infra Red (NIR) technology for real-time water cut measurement, the technology is based on NIR absorption spectroscopy, and independent of density changes. Red Eye water cut meter has been installed in the liquid leg of the test trap, to accurately measure and evaluate its capabilities of measuring the full range of water cut (0 to 100%) in a commingled oil and water stream. The success criterion for this meter was defined as having the Red Eye data matching the lab data to a 90% confidence level. These success criteria have been met and the trial test was successfully concluded. The meter is presently operational at HwGOSP-2 since installation in April, 2010; performing to the desired results.