Drilling & Production: Smart wells, ‘e-fields’ shaping production plans

Jan. 1, 2007
Technology remains key to how fast and how much of the world’s remaining oil and gas resources the industry can produce economically from the varied environments that hold most potential: deep water, arctic regions, coalbeds, partially depleted reservoirs, and deep, tight formations with high temperature and pressure, as well as formations containing heavy oil or bitumen.

Technology remains key to how fast and how much of the world’s remaining oil and gas resources the industry can produce economically from the varied environments that hold most potential: deep water, arctic regions, coalbeds, partially depleted reservoirs, and deep, tight formations with high temperature and pressure, as well as formations containing heavy oil or bitumen.

The industry has an assortment of technologies at hand or under development, but applying the technology to any given situation is seldom clear-cut. For new technologies, a lag time, often lasting years, still exists for wide use. But high oil and gas prices combined with cost pressures provide incentives for their use. New technologies may cost more than traditional methods initially but can reduce costs over a project’s life. In many cases they provide the only means for accessing remaining resources.

Technologies gaining acceptance include smart or intelligent well completions, expandable tubulars, and multiphase pumps and meters. Development and testing continue for subsea processing and compression.

In 2007, King oil field will become the site of the first installation of deepwater twin-screw subsea boosting pumps in the Gulf of Mexico. The field lies in more than 5,000 ft of water.

The industry is working toward more remote control of producing fields under various labels such as “fields of the future” and “e-fields.” Software and control equipment are evolving as greater communication bandwidth becomes available. One example is BP America Inc.’s plan to link seven of its Gulf of Mexico fields with an 800-mile undersea fiberoptic system.

BP says this system will provide continuous broadband connectivity to its offshore oil and gas facilities, enhancing operating flexibility and allowing safer production for longer periods when hurricanes enter the gulf. The system also will shorten the time for returning facilities to production after storms pass.

The industry also has heightened its interest in enhanced oil recovery projects. These projects include steam, gas such as carbon dioxide, and chemical injection. Much of the EOR technology exists, but the additional costs of these processes compel the industry to look at ways to optimize their use.

The worldwide allure of sequestering CO2 emissions also is raising interest in enhancing oil production though CO2 injection. Fields supplying CO2 for EOR in the Permian basin of West Texas and New Mexico are at capacity. Investments in additional capacity are being made. There also is talk in the industry about obtaining CO2 for the Permian basin and elsewhere in the world from other sources such as new integrated gasification combined-cycle power plants.

Unconventional resources continue to attract attention, including gas hydrates and oil shale. The industry is testing various processes to recover these vast resources.

A recent paper discussed laboratory experiments that showed CO2 injected at high pressure and low temperature into porous sandstone would spontaneously displace methane from naturally occurring gas hydrate. If proved in the field, the process would sequester CO2 while producing methane, while the water would remain in hydrate form. Field tests of this and other processes for producing methane from hydrates will take place in 2007.

Field tests also continue for removing hydrocarbons from oil shales in various countries. Several companies with in situ tests in the Piceance basin in Colorado say their tests show promise, although commercialization is several years away.

In one Colorado test, Shell Frontier Oil & Gas Inc. uses downhole electric heaters to heat the oil shale to convert organic matter in the shale to oil and hydrocarbon gas. The test features an innovative freeze wall system to prevent groundwater from entering the test area.