Inflow Control Research Articles

Development of a downhole incharge inflow control valve in intelligent wells

A complex hydraulic control system for intelligent wells is costly and cannot use numerous producing layers. Thus, it cannot be easily employed in China oilfields that demand a downhole electric drive inflow control valve, which can be combined with the downhole electronic monitoring system, applied to a 5.5-inch wellbore, and remotely controlled with low cost. In this study, a tubular linear motor is used in developing an incharge inflow control valve (IICV) to drive the sliding sleeve. A rotor displacement detector and a tubular linear motor are integrated to measure the IICV opening. The resulting intelligent well systems only need three 0.25-inch power wires and a 0.25-inch signal transmission cable to control over 12 producing layers. Such intelligent well systems can also reduce the number of holes on the feed-through production packer. The IICV can be combined with the downhole electronic monitoring system to achieve the electronization of intelligent well systems and reduce costs. Field application results show that the IICV continuously ran fault-free in the downhole for 15 months. The cumulative increase in oil production capacity is > 8 × 106 kg, which directly increased profit by >$3 million. The proposed systems can effectively use reservoir energy and enhance oil recovery.

RESERVOIR AND WELL COUPLING SIMULATION WITH DISTRIBUTED ALGORITHM

A major goal when using a horizontal well is to increase the productivity rate when compared to the vertical layout, due to a larger area of the reservoir exposed to the well. The coupled solution into the reservoir and through the well requires finding the answer to the Darcy equation in the reservoir and the Navier-Stokes equations in the well. Additionally, several types of completion, which introduce new flow resistances, such as completions with inflow control device (ICD), stinger completion, packed off, gravel pack, and slotted liner are considered. All these details are not available with the current reservoir simulators, since the level of local detail would require a very large computational time and a complex model. In this work, the coupling between the reservoir and the well is accomplished through a distributed system, where the flow, at various types of completion, is handled through correlations obtained analytically or provided by completion equipment manufacturers. The proposed procedure consists of a fast tool, accurate and easy to use for a petroleum engineer. The results of this work show that the distributed system allows a detailed view of the flow into the well and its completion, quantifying the flow rate and pressure over the annular and liner for different types of completion, adding more physics into these simulations.

Measurement of Thermoelectric Potential Coupling Coefficient for Sandstone Rock Sample

Excessive water production is one of the main problems that occur during hydrocarbon production. During water injection, the less viscous water which has higher mobility than the reservoir fluid, tends to by-pass the oil. This phenomenon is normally called water fingering. Density difference between denser water and oil makes the water segregate to the bottom of layer, creating water tongue. Uncontrolled excessive water production will reduce oil production potential and increase the cost for water management and treatment. This phenomenon is economical unfavorable. Intelligent well integrated with monitoring systems and inflow control valve (ICV) has been applied in producing hydrocarbon. The excessive flow of water into well can be controlled using ICV. There are various methods and approaches been proposed to control water production. One of them is by measuring the spontaneous potential (SP) using permanent sensor outside the insulated casing. However, thermoelectric (TE) potential could also contribute to the measurement of the SP. The main objective of this experiment is to measure TE potential across sandstone rock sample at four different salinities which are 0.001M, 0.01M, 0.1M, and 1.0M of brine (NaCl). The core samples dimension is 7.62 cm in length and 3.81 cm in diameter. Temperature difference up to 80°C was applied to rock sample inducing different TE potentials at different salinities. Gradual heating technique was applied in creating temperature difference by using a temperature controller. Three different experiments were conducted for each salinity and real-time voltage (V) and temperature (T) were recorded using data acquisition system. Then the TE coupling coefficient can be determined by calculating the slope after plotting Voltage versus Temperature Difference. The result is as the salinity increases, TE coupling coefficient decrease and drop to zero around 0.1M. The result shows small but still measurable thermoelectric coupling coefficients.

Private Property Infiltration and Inflow Control

Private Property Infiltration and Inflow Control

Evaluation of Electromechanical Systems Dynamically Emulating a Candidate Hydrokinetic Turbine

Implications of conducting hardware-in-the-loop testing of a specific hydrokinetic turbine on controllable motor-generator sets or electromechanical emulation machines (EEMs)are explored. The emulator control dynamic equations are presented, methods for scaling turbine parameters are developed and evaluated, and experimental results are presented from three EEMs programmed to emulate the same vertical-axis fixed-pitch turbine. Although hardware platforms and control implementations varied, results show that each EEM is successful in emulating the turbine model at different power levels, thus demonstrating the general feasibility of the approach. However, performance of motor control under torque command, current command, or speed command differed. In a demonstration of the intended use of an EEM for evaluating a hydrokinetic turbine implementation, a power takeoff controller tracks the maximum power-point of the turbine in response to turbulence. Utilizing realistic inflow conditions and control laws, the emulator dynamic speed response is shown to agree well at low frequencies with numerical simulation but to deviate at high frequencies.

The application of risk-based methods to multilateral well design

Horizontal and multilateral oil and gas wells are used to maximise hydrocarbon recovery while reducing the required well count and associated costs. Presently, lateral lengths are designed using semi-quantitative methods. Guided by a desire to minimise the risk of poor well deliverability, the tendency is to design producing lengths longer than required, with the rationale that the well connects with sufficient hydrocarbon bearing reservoir to provide good deliverability. Drilling long producing lengths, however, is expensive and generates a higher risk of drilling and lifecycle (intervention and workover) problems. Furthermore, attempting to increase deliverability by extending the producing length encounters the law of diminishing returns as the flow becomes constrained by tubing friction loss. This paper seeks to quantify the optimal length for a horizontal well for a given range of reservoir conditions through multiphase fluid modelling and stochastic analysis. A discretised horizontal well model was created, which shows how changing the well length transforms the probability density function of the production rate for the well. A parametric case study was conducted, which demonstrates the evolution of the optimal well length and production rate with parameters including well diameter, fluid viscosity and well flowing bottomhole pressure. A simplified economic analysis illustrates the incremental change in discounted cash flow and quantified risk from drilling a longer well. The model also considered the influence of inflow control devices (ICDs) to adjust the inflow to match permeability and even-out inflows along the producing length, thus reducing the risk of gas and water coning, and improving hydrocarbon recovery.

Adult Embryonal Sarcoma of the Liver: Management of a Massive Liver Tumor.

Undifferentiated embryonal sarcomas of the liver are extremely rare cases in adults. We report the case of a 30-year-old male who presented with early satiety and abdominal pain due to a massive tumor originating from the left liver and occupying the entire epigastrium. The patient underwent bland embolization in an attempt to decrease the size of the tumor. He then underwent a formal left hepatectomy with resection of liver segments 2, 3, and 4. Extrahepatic inflow control of the portal vein and hepatic artery was performed prior to parenchymal transection. No Pringle maneuver was required. Pathology analysis showed a 45 cm tumor consistent with an undifferentiated embryonal sarcoma and negative microscopic margins. The epidemiology, treatment, and prognosis of this unusual cancer presentation are reviewed.

ICD Well History and Future Use in a Giant Oil Field Offshore Abu Dhabi

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 171836, “ICD Well History and Future Use in Giant Offshore Field, Abu Dhabi,” by Graham Edmonstone, Curtis Kofoed, Alfred Jackson, Shardul Parihar, Adriana Alvarez, Saad Mumtaz, and Ghassan Abdouche, Zakum Development Company, and Chris Shuchart, Christian Mayer, and Andrey Troshko, ExxonMobil, prepared for the 2014 Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, Abu Dhabi, 10–13 November. The paper has not been peer reviewed. As part of a project that involves the use of four artificial islands to drill and complete more than 300 extended-reach-drilling (ERD) wells in a giant offshore oil field, several completion designs have been piloted for brownfield development. One well design incorporated the use of inflow-control devices (ICDs) and swell packers, which was the operator’s first use of such technology in a production well. The technology was installed in the pilot well to test inflow control and to manage future water production. Introduction The giant 1200-km2 offshore oil field is located 84 km northwest off Abu Dhabi Island and consists of a layered carbonate formation that was discovered in 1963. It has still only produced a small percentage of original oil in place, with water cut (WC) less than 15%. There have been almost 500 wells drilled in the field since field discovery. Development was based on pattern producer/injector wells, with each well using a dry tree on a wellhead platform tower. To achieve the strategic goal of increasing the production rate by approximately 40% and maintaining a plateau for up to 25 years, a brownfield development plan (UZ-750) has been generated that will use four artificial islands (Fig. 1) with large 3,000-hp land drilling rigs. The aforementioned island arrangement will allow the drilling of approximately 360 wells that will use ERD to drill horizontal laterals approximately 10,000 ft in length at measured depths up to 35,000 ft. The brownfield development plan calls for a parallel line drive for producer/injector-well pairs, to provide optimum sweep of the reservoir. The well-completion type is determined by geologically defined areas, which are differentiated by High- and low-permeability regions Faulted and fractured regions Transition regions Current (predicted) oil-water-saturation profiles The well-design process takes these into account along with sector modeling to determine well-completion design for the life of the well. Typically, wells in the crest of the field will have an ICD liner, in the near west of the field will have a predrilled liner, and in the west/ far northwest of the field will have a stimulation liner.

Left hepatic inflow control associated with less blood loss and operative time in laparoscopic left lateral sectionectomy for intrahepatic lithiasis

RESULTS: The overlay mode allows surgeons to clearly visualize both HCC and CLM in a single image. An LC-NIR indicates the superficially located additional occult HCC nodules in 1 of 6 cases and additional occult CLM nodules in 1 of 6 cases that were not detected by use of any preoperative examinations. The ICG fluorescence was easily visible in transection plane of liver in all patients at laparoscopy. Patients with a fluorescence had adequate surgical margins (median, 18.5 mm; range, 11-32) compared with patients without a fluorescence (median, 6 mm; range, 0-14; p < 0.05). There were no complications associated with the LC-NIR image-guided surgery.

Preserving low perfusion during surgical liver blood inflow control prevents hepatic microcirculatory dysfunction and irreversible hepatocyte injury in rats.

Hepatic ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury is of primary concern during liver surgery. We propose a new approach for preserving low liver blood perfusion during hepatectomy either by occlusion of the portal vein (OPV) while preserving hepatic artery flow or occlusion of the hepatic artery while limiting portal vein (LPV) flow to reduce I/R injury. The effects of this approach on liver I/R injury were investigated. Rats were randomly assigned into 4 groups: sham operation, occlusion of the portal triad (OPT), OPV and LPV. The 7-day survival rate was significantly improved in the OPV and LPV groups compared with the OPT group. Microcirculatory liver blood flow recovered rapidly after reperfusion in the OPV and LPV groups but decreased further in the OPT group. The OPV and LPV groups also showed much lower ALT and AST levels, Suzuki scores, inflammatory gene expression levels, and parenchymal necrosis compared with the OPT group. An imbalance between the expression of vasoconstriction and vasodilation genes was observed in the OPT group but not in the OPV or LPV group. Therefore, preserving low liver blood perfusion by either the OPV or LPV methods during liver surgery is very effective for preventing hepatic microcirculatory dysfunction and hepatocyte injury.

Pringle's Maneuver With a Releasable Insulok Band.

Currently, there are many conventional instruments being applied to perform hepatic inflow control, the Pringle's maneuver, distal to the hepatic hilum during hepatic resections. We wondered if a commonly used Insulok band can be added. Insulok band is a plastic tying device molded in one piece with an excellent cam-lock mechanism. We have applied releasable Insulok band to the Pringle's maneuver in 10 partial hepatectomy cases, which are not suitable for application of Chang's needle. After opening the lesser omentum, the band was passed through the Winslow foramen to the lesser sac, and the portal triad was occluded by locking the band. During the intermittent reperfusion period, this Insulok band allowed easy and fast control of hepatic inflow with its simple releasable locking device. Single inflow block was used on 6 cases while repeated block on 4 cases for partial hepatectomy. The average ischemic time was 15.2 ± 8.2 minutes with an interval of 5 minutes. There was neither procedure-related morbidity nor mortality. No patient had developed postoperative hepatic failure or prolonged liver dysfunction. The efficacy of bleeding control was excellent and the average blood loss during Pringle's maneuver was 6 ± 12.6 mL. Furthermore, locking and unlocking of the Insulok band each took only 5 seconds. Releasable Insulok band is a simpler, faster, cheaper, and safe alternative to the conventional methods for blocking hepatic inflow in Pringle's maneuver, especially in those cases not suitable for using the Chang's needle.

Optimal suppression of flow perturbations using boundary control

Boundary perturbations are considered as flow control forcing and their distributions are optimised to suppress transient energy growth induced by the most energetic disturbances in the domain. For a given control cost (square integration of the control forcing), the optimal control calculated from the proposed optimisation algorithm is proved to be unique. For small values of control cost, a sensitivity solution is obtained and its distribution indicates the sensitivity of perturbation energy on boundary control. For larger control cost, the distribution of the optimal control approaches the stablest mode of a direct-adjoint operator and tends to be grid-to-grid oscillatory. A controllability analysis is further conducted to identify the uncontrollable component of perturbations in the domain. This work underpins the recently thriving linear feed-back flow control investigations, most of which use empirically distributed control actuators, in terms of choosing the location and magnitude of the control forcing and evaluating the maximum control effect. Two case studies are conducted to demonstrate the proposed algorithm; in a stenotic flow, the optimised wall boundary control is observed to suppress over 95% of the transient energy growth induced by the global optimal initial perturbation; in the Batchelor vortex flow, the optimal inflow control can effectively suppress the spiral vortex breakdown induced by the development of initial perturbations.

Application of neural network and fuzzy mathematic theory in evaluating the adaptability of inflow control device in horizontal well

Abstract Inflow control device (ICD) has gained popularity since its first introduction to oil industry. However, ICD completion isn’t suitable for all reservoirs because the economic value of ICD technology depends on various factors. This paper first establishes a mechanism model and summarizes the influences of single factors (permeability variation coefficient, reservoir thickness, average permeability, K v / K h (the ratio of vertical permeability to horizontal permeability), horizontal section length, base pipe diameter, segment number and Δ P ICD /Δ P reservoir (the ratio of pressure drop caused by ICD to the pressure drop of the reservoir)) on ICD completion adaptability by static evaluation method. Next, sensitivity analysis of the influencing factors is conducted by orthogonal experiment. Then, different subordinate functions of each influencing factor are established according to the variation tendency of water yield reduction and inflow profile variation coefficient difference (compared with conventional screen completion) resulting from mechanism model. After that, six cases of ICD completion are introduced, and the weight sets and evaluation sets of the cases are established, according to which fuzzy evaluation model of ICD completion adaptability is obtained. What’s more, a neural network synthetic evaluation model with superior in self-learning ability and computing power is proposed by improving the fuzzy evaluation model. The results of case studies demonstrate that both fuzzy evaluation model and neural network synthetic evaluation model are practical and feasible.

Sensorless Control of Heat Inflow to a Thermal Display Using a Heat Inflow Observer

The acquisition of information on heat inflow is essential to the control of thermal displays and the rendering of thermal sensations. This paper addresses a method of estimating the amount of heat inflow without using a heat flow sensor and demonstrates sensorless heat inflow control using a Peltier device, which is often employed as a thermal device in thermal displays. Moreover, this paper introduces a method of identifying the thermal contact resistance of the device needed for the proposed observer. The observer estimates heat inflow by using information on electrical currents and temperatures. By using the observer instead of a heat flow sensor, which generally has a larger thermal capacity than a temperature sensor, an improvement in the response of a thermal device is expected. The applicability of the proposal is tested by experiments.

Опыт и перспективы применения скважинных фильтров с устройствами регулирования притока

Опыт и перспективы применения скважинных фильтров с устройствами регулирования притока

Laparoscopic Right Posterior Sectionectomy for Malignant Lesions: An Anatomic Approach.

Good indications for laparoscopic hepatectomy are still considered to be tumors located over anterolateral segments of the liver. Tumors located over the right posterior section are considered to be difficult for laparoscopic resection. In this case series, we present our experience on laparoscopic right posterior sectionectomy. All patient data were prospectively collected. Data on patient demographics, tumor characteristics, operative data, and postoperative outcome were collected and analyzed. During the period of May 2010-May 2014, we performed 13 laparoscopic right posterior sectionectomies. The diagnoses were hepatocellular carcinoma in 11 patients, of which 2 were cases of colorectal liver metastasis. Median operative time was 381 minutes, and median blood loss was 1500 mL. Significant bleeding occurred in the first 5 patients. The median size of the tumor resected was 3.7 cm, and the median resection margin was 8.7 mm. Four of the 13 patients (30.8%) were cirrhotic on histological examination. There was no postoperative mortality. Median hospital stay was 7 days. Laparoscopic right posterior sectionectomy is technically demanding. A proper inflow and outflow control is mandatory for proper anatomical resection. This surgical principle should not be compromised in the era of laparoscopic hepatectomy.

Application of Inflow Control Devices in Horizontal Well in Bottom Water Drive Reservoir using Reservoir Simulation

Application of Inflow Control Devices in Horizontal Well in Bottom Water Drive Reservoir using Reservoir Simulation

The use of sound speed in downhole flow monitoring applications

This paper describes the use of sound speed in flow monitoring applications in the high-pressure/high-temperature downhole environment. Downhole flow monitoring is an area that continuously receives attention for many reasons including zonal production allocation in multi-zone intelligent completions with inflow control valves (ICV), detection of production anomalies, as well as reduction of surface well tests and facilities. The propagation speed of a sound wave is a powerful tool to extract useful information from a flowing fluid medium in pipe whether the medium consists of a single-phase or multiphase flow. Considering the complex nature of the flow patterns and changing phase fractions from reservoir to surface, obtaining the propagation speed of sound in this harsh environment is not a trivial task, especially if the interest is real-time flow monitoring. The demanding applications span a wide spectrum from very noisy medium (usually created in gas/liquid flows by the presence of ICV) to very quiet medium, which usually originates from slow-moving liquid/liquid flows. Real-life examples are used for demonstrations. Although most examples are based on strain-based local sensing of the flow, the use of sound speed is independent of the methodology and can be implemented by other methods such as acoustic-based distributed sensing.

A new semi-analytical model for predicting the performance of horizontal wells completed by inflow control devices in bottom-water reservoirs

Simulation and prediction the performance of horizontal wells completed by inflow control devices is the foundation of ICDs completion parameters design-optimization. In this work, a new semi-analytical model that couples the reservoir inflow to the downhole flow is developed for predicting the performance of horizontal wells with inflow control devices in a box-shaped reservoir with bottom-water drive. The reservoir inflow model is based on a 3D volumetric source model that incorporates reservoir permeability heterogeneity in the near well region, reservoir anisotropy, and near-wellbore formation damage. The downhole flow model considers pressure drops due to fluid flow in the tubing, ICDs, and annulus. The calculated results are compared with that obtained from reservoir simulator Eclipse™ showing a good agreement. Influential factors analysis indicates that the reduction in the ICD flow-restriction size gives an even more uniform inflow profile at the cost of reduction in well's productivity. For fractured reservoirs, the optimum well production performance is reached when the number of openhole packers is maximum, which means there is only one ICD joint per compartment. Variable ICD flow-restriction size design not only further improves the well production performance but also causes the increase in well's productivity compared with uniform ICD flow-restriction size design. Ignoring annulus flow will result in higher calculation value of well's productivity.

Optimization of the number of openhole packers in horizontal wells completed by inflow control devices for different types of reservoirs

Openhole packers are completion hardwares that are deployed as a part of the ICDscompletion system to produce a more uniform inflow profile. From the perspective ofthe operability and the economy of the ICDs completion system, the number of openholepackers needs to be optimized in order to achieve the most cost-effective completionsolution for different types of reservoirs. In this study, both steady-state approach andtransient-state approach are used to evaluate the effects of the ICDs completion withopenhole packers on the inflow equalization and the well performance optimization.The steady-state approach employs a semianalytical model that considers reservoirheterogeneity and pressure drops in the annulus, tubing, and ICDs. The transientstateapproach employs an advanced multisegment well model of the reservoirsimulator EclipseTM. The simulation results indicate that: (i) For a high-permeabilityhomogeneous reservoir, the most cost-effective completion solution should not useopenhole packers in the ICDs completion system; (ii) For a heterogeneous sandreservoir, the simulation needs to be performed in order to find the optimum numberof openhole packers depending on the degree of reservoir heterogeneity; (iii) For afractured carbonate reservoir, the number of openhole packers needs to be maximizedin order to guarantee that there is only one ICD joint per compartment.