Revamping Old Fields Using I-Field Technologies

Abstract

Abstract With the ever growing demand for energy in the world, the need for timely and accurate data from oil fields to allow proper decision making becomes very crucial. Recent evolution in oil field technologies has made a great revolution in the oil and gas industry all over the world, leading to the emerging development of intelligent fields (I-Fields)1–4. The integration of I-Field technologies, whether downhole or at surface, coupled with communication networks along with sophisticated simulation and monitoring applications has led to significant advancements not only in monitoring and control capabilities, but rather also in decision making processes5. Therefore, the overall system upgrade has resulted in an enhancement of the field surveillance, which will lead to higher levels of oil production in these assets as a consequence of Saudi Aramco's development strategy for these fields. Three previously produced oil fields that were mothballed were revitalized and redeveloped after extensive drilling and workover programs. The latest downhole production technologies were installed in all oil production and water injection wells. Furthermore the project called for the construction of new oil and gas processing and water injection facilities, all linked to their respective wells via an elaborate fiber optic communication network for optimum control and surveillance capabilities in real time mode. The production and injection strategies were further optimized making use of I-Field components, such as Permanent Downhole Monitoring Systems (PDHMS), Smart Well Completion Systems, Multiphase Flow Meters (MPFM), Single Phase Flow Meters, pressure and temperature sensors with specially tailored monitoring, and simulation software. This paper will describe how the installed and applied I-Field technologies in these three fields have allowed better data management, helped in optimizing the production and injection and overall has enhanced the operation and safety of the field operations. Moreover, several examples will be discussed showing the benefits of real-time surveillance in optimizing the fields’ performance with a special focus on the use of monitoring and simulation tools to more accurately mimic the current performance of the wells, and consequently used to generate optimized production and injection scenarios.