An Artificial Lift study was commissioned to iProdTech by an international operator to help decide the optimum Artificial Lift technique(s) and strategy for a large onshore oil field where ASP flooding has been planned for enhanced oil recovery. An ASP pilot was recently conducted using a small group of selected wells to test the impact of ASP flooding.
The Artificial Lift study was conducted using the following steps:
The main flow assurance issues were identified as solids production (scale/polymer precipitation or formation solids although catastrophic sand failure has not been considered to be a major risk as per the geomechanical studies), wax formation, emulsion and corrosion. The hydraulic analysis of Artificial Lift methods included the effects of increase in viscosity due to ASP fluid breakthrough in the production wells. For the comparison of hydraulic performance of the lift methods, iProdTech have developed a fit-for-purpose tool for Artificial Lift well performance calculations. The methodology is documented in an SPE Paper (SPE-181344-MS, “Well Performance Calculations for Artificial Lift Screening”, Kefford P., Gaurav M., 2017). The approach allows each artificial lift technique to be evaluated in a consistent manner (same fluid property modelling, same multi-phase flow correlations etc.) and is independent of any individual equipment vendor.
01/10/2018