Marginal Wells Inside Brownfields a High Profitability Business

Abstract

Abstract There are many mature fields in Latin America. Beyond the definition of maturity applied, the common factor to all of them is that surface facilities and field operation have been running for many years. This is one advantage to generate profits. However, operations are governed by old practices for defining profitability of wells and in some cases do are not specifically developed or evaluated for these wells, therefore, underestimate the economic return generated. Another characteristic of these fields is the dispersion of production per well. Production may vary from very low to moderate on a mature field. It is also known that in order to optimize equipment some resources such as surface artificial lift equipment is moved from low production wells to higher production wells. The big losers of these practices are wells that have low but stable production. Those big losers should be a marginal benefit to the ongoing production system. This paper presents the benefits of applying alternative technologies to return to production low production wells in fields with available gathering system. This work also makes a significant contribution to identify profitability potential in low production wells and recommends management models for implementing, surveillance and maintaining low rate active wells. It is also necessary to define the optimization processes for these wells because most companies do not have staff available to address these designs of low productivity. This profitability approach allows to redirect resources, including human resources to increase benefit.