By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, May 3 -- A senior Saudi Aramco official Monday predicted that within 10 years the oil giant could be relying on "intelligent" well technology for 30% of its wells.
Aramco's prediction came at an Offshore Technology Conference press briefing in Houston to announce the first well completion in Saudi Arabia using technology from the Halliburton Co.-Royal Dutch/Shell Group joint venture WellDynamics.
The WellDynamics system was installed in a trilateral maximum reservoir contact well, Shaybah 119, located in southern Saudi Arabia's Empty Quarter.
Nansen Salieri, manager of reservoir management for Aramco said the state-owned company plans to evaluate four or five intelligent wells using technology from WellDynamics and its competitors before yearend.
"Advanced well completion is one of our technology focus areas, and we firmly believe that smart-well technology will contribute to our goals of improved reservoir management with maximum recovery while reducing well count," he said.
At an average cost of $1 million/well, Salieri said intelligent completion technology is still too expensive to be widely applied. But he predicted that within 10 years it could become an industry standard for wells with high-risk, high-productivity profiles.
Based on what it learns from Shaybah 119 and other wells, the company may expand the technology to other fields over the next 5 years. But Aramco officials stressed that they don't anticipate applying the technology to all fields across the board.
"Generalities do not apply," Salieri said. "We have to look field by field."
A clearer picture will crystallize before the end of the year, he noted.
"Six months from now we'll know 10 times more than what we do now." But if those results aren't as promising as the company hoped, Aramco has other options to consider, Salieri suggested. "We have an exit strategy."
