Production Planning in an Operations-Centre Environment

Abstract

Abstract The real-time asset management (RTAM) domain has received a lot of attention over the past several years. A key RTAM component has been the uptake and utilization of operations centers for implementing new work processes. In early stages of this development, the operations centers have been utilized for conducting, e.g., morning meetings and increase the communication between the asset and operational teams (e.g., between onshore and offshore teams). In this paper we will address how existing work processes can be implemented in new ways in such environment, in an attempt to take advantage of the new communication opportunities and data and model availability. Our focus is on parts of the production optimization work process, namely that connected with production planning. Production optimization requires knowledge of well behaviour and topside processing constraints. The production engineer must consider all wells simultaneously in order to optimize the production from the wells to the processing plant. The objective is to use the equipment effectively to maximize oil and gas production. Finding the operating conditions where this is achieved, requires an integrated production planning-with participation from production engineers, reservoir engineers, offshore operators, and topside processing engineers. A typical challenge related to this is the lack of a common framework for integration of work processes between the disciplines, preventing decisions to be made based on a common view of the status and challenges ahead. This paper outlines how this challenge can be addressed using a real time system approach to production optimization work processes. Features of the real-time system will be described and a new work process for production planning using this system will be outlined.