Technology Explained

The Digital Oilfield

Yggdrasil’s production optimisation

Emerson
solution into its Roxar reservoir
management software portfolio.
This acquisition is not simply a

Are We There Yet? TAHA TAHA

Emerson Process
Management
broadening of the Emerson reservoir
management software portfolio. The
tie-up will help integrate the disciplines
of production engineering and reservoir
A complete and integrated workflow for reservoir and production management engineering, where the daily management
of oil and gas production is combined
The last few years have seen a growing field data combined with optimisation production, completions and operations with reservoir modelling, uncertainty
focus on the digital oilfield and a future software, the task of finding optimum engineers tend to work in different quantification and simulation data
environment where operators integrate, operating conditions can be automated, domains with different workflows and to help operators optimise their field
interpret and action real-time reservoir avoiding trial and error procedures and only share information when they have to. development and production plans.
models and production information to increasing system throughput. This article argues that the digital The new software – known as
optimise field operations and support Yet, despite these developments, oilfield and a future vision of integrated Roxar METTE – includes network
production. From remote real-time obstacles still remain in realising the production management can only be optimisation, well performance,
facility monitoring and control through vision of the digital oilfield, in particular solved through a closer software link transient simulation and virtual
to real-time production surveillance, in the areas of production and reservoir between production management metering capabilities as well as built-in
advanced wells and production volume engineering. These two disciplines share and reservoir engineering and a fully interfaces to reservoir simulators. Network simulation: the production management software has a demonstrated capability for
management systems, we are closer to a number of things in common. While integrated workflow across the lifecycle handling large and complex networks, either coupled online to one or more reservoir simulators
or by using tank type models for well inlet boundary conditions. In this illustration, the purple line
this vision than ever before. production engineering tends to focus of the field. Four Main Components
represents non flowing/non producing and the green line represents flowing/producing.
Operators are able to evaluate the on the flow of fluids from the reservoir There is a need for easy-to-use, There are four key elements to an inte­
timings for tie-backs of new reservoirs, to production facilities, and reservoir practical engineering tools, applicable grated production management system. for flow line depressurisation. This coupled capability from the
phase in or re-route wells, implement engineering looks in more detail at the throughout the life of a field, to Network optimisation focuses Virtual metering provides a cost- subsurface allows for the seamless
pressure boosting and artificial lift, and subsurface geologies, reservoir mechanics streamline work processes, improve on the sur­face network and enables effective solution for finding well phase simulation of hydrocarbon flow through
ensure the effective flow of hydrocarbons and drainage strategies, they still share consistency in data use, and foster the operator to use software to find flows, requiring only the connection of the reservoir production system to
from reservoir to refinery – all from the common goal of increasing well multi-disciplinary collaboration. operating points and calculate network a computer to a production database a processing facility. This provides
the comfort of their control rooms. In production rates and ultimate recovery. performance data. ‘What if’ simulations for the retrieval and measurement of life-of-field (LOF) variations in mass
the field of production engineering and Yet, too often, there is lack of integration Integrating Production and can also be carried out. field data. Operators can measure and and energy balances and optimised
management, asset team members can between these fields. Reservoir, Reservoir Engineering Combining known well flow rates with interpret field sensor measurements power and gas lift use as well as
monitor the reservoir and its complex In May last year, Emerson Process a PID control module also provides the and calculate flow based on virtual hydrate inhibitor usage. It determines
production infrastructure of wells, Management acquired Norwegian operator with a set of points for active measurements coming from, for example, well routing, the effect of pigging and
flow lines and flow control devices, company Yggdrasil, a provider of flow components, such as chokes, pumps and temperature and pressure probes. scheduling for infill wells or third party
such as chokes, pumps/compressors assurance and production optimisation gas lift supply, which can all be used to tie-backs, the quanti­fication of the effect
and separators. By utilising measured software. Emerson is incorporating achieve specific production targets – Bridging the Gap of pressure boosting equipment and
subject to defined system constraints. The strong links with reservoir timing, and the quanti­fication of the
Well performance focuses on the simulation and history-matching is effect of subsea separation.
The production capabilities of the well in delivering where the production management Well inlet boundary conditions in the
management software oil and gas – from which profile data, software plays the most significant role network are generated by the reservoir
was used for planning on
gas lift hydraulic analysis, and vertical in bridging the gap between production simulator, providing phase ratios and
the Shtokman field.
flow performance tables can be created. and reservoir engineering. This can flowing bottom hole pressures in the
Components, such as compressors, be seen in the software’s focus on form of IPR tables.
pumps and choke valves, can be network simulation. This module is an A large number of additional network
Gazprom

modelled. In addition, well or flow advanced engineering tool for single production targets and constraints can
lines capacities can be analysed using and multiphase flow systems. It relies also be specified, the implementation of
multiple boundaries and can quantify on a very fast and robust algorithm with which are executed during run time and
the effect on production potential. demonstrated capabilities that have been dict­ated by user-specified conditions.
Transient analysis is used for the in extensive use on the Ormen Lange The constrained problem is also solved
time-dependent simulation of well and field development offshore Norway and through employing active components,
flow line behaviour. Typical applications for planning on the Shtokman field in the such as chokes, gas lift, pumps, com­
where the transient module in the Roxar Russian part of the Barents Sea. pressors and heat exchangers. With no or
METTE software can be deployed By directly connecting to reservoir limited active components, solutions will
include cool-down times for different simulators, the software provides be dictated by well flow potentials.
pipe wall insulation configurations, the concept-dependent production profiles, The software’s calculation speed is
calculation of the necessary hydrate with reservoir out-takes reflecting high and scales linearly. Depending on
inhibitor amounts during cold start-ups, production targets and constraints in field complexity, LOF simulation times
and the evaluation of requested times the downstream production network. are typically measured in minutes. Using

34 GEOExPro February 2016 GEOExPro February 2016 35

Technology Explained

tank type models (decline curves), multi- Two North Sea Fields North Sea oilfield with a heavy non-
case production profiles can be made Examples of integrated production Newtonian fluid that required artificial
very quickly, providing a useful tool for manage­ment can be found in two lifting. In this case, the software provided
quantifying system parameter changes. North Sea fields. functionality for the use of shear-
When coupled to a reservoir In the first case, the software is dependent viscosity data during both
simulator, the software feeds back guide being used as a flow assurance tool on steady state and transient simulations.
rates to the reservoir for the next time a medium size oilfield in the North Sea Decline curve data from the reservoir
step, reflecting current production with three different reservoirs requiring simulation model was used as input to a
system capacity. The production artificial lift in the form of gas lift. A production network model. The network
network can be interfaced to service large number of development alternatives model was then used to predict artificial
networks for lift gas and/or continuous were screened in the early phase to create lift times, together with system lifetime
hydrate inhibitor distribution, with all concept-dependent production profiles. mass and energy balances. These used
networks being solved in each time step. To provide consistent LOF data, two alternative lift methods in the form
Constraints in the service network(s) will the software was used to perform of electrical submersible pumps and
be reflected in the production network. coupled simulations, interfacing the gas lift. The strong gelling tendencies of
The different available options for three separate reservoir simulation the production fluid also required the
production optimisation make this a models with gas lift optimisation. implementation of experimental yield
powerful tool for investigating different The production network model was stress data to perform realistic transient
productions strategies to see the effect simultaneously interfaced with a gas lift start-up simulations of the wells and
of recovery. supply network to determine its variation flow lines. The development concept
The software currently supports in mass and energy balances. Using also included SWAG (Simultaneously
interfacing to many reservoir simulators decline curves that originated from Water Alternating Gas) for gas
but will become more closely aligned these simulations, the effects parameter reinjection into the reservoir, simulated
with Emerson’s Tempest MORE as a variations, such as flow line and by the use of the software.
result of the acquisition. tubing sizes, were investigated to find
optimum sizes based on reservoir model A New Era
Other Reservoir Engineering Links predictions over field life. Lifetime mass Operators today are looking for a
There are other ways in which the and energy balances for the production workflow that integrates production
new software links in with reservoir system were generated for different and reservoir engineering and is part
engineering tools. Virtual metering development concepts including the of a truly digitally enabled oilfield.
results, for example, can be used with use of multiphase pumping. Using the Combining data from predictive
reservoir model history-matching as transient module, cooldown and heat-up reservoir models, production modelling
well as for daily or historical production simulations were performed to address and field instrumentation will enable
allocation. The combined virtual insulation requirements. Blowdown operators to monitor production
metering and forecasting capabilities simulations were also performed to continuously and use information
add up to a powerful production address both time and liquid drain from the field when forecasting future
management tool, in particular when volume requirements. reservoir performance and making
combined with PID control functionality. The second application is in a marginal operational decisions.
With the close integration
of the software with Emerson’s Effect of gas lift on oil production potential for different mandrel setting depths. Oil potential increases with
reservoir engineering solutions setting depth and has a maximum at given rates of lift gas, increasing with setting depth.
– its simulation tool Tempest
1050

MORE and history-matching and

sensitivity tool Tempest ENABLE
1000

– an effective system is available

for production forecasting and
optimisation. With Tempest
950

ENABLE’s ability to intelligently

AO (Sm3/D)

drive the simulator through

900

hundreds of realisations and

conduct ‘what if’ scenarios on a
850

wide range of reservoir scenarios,

the same will be the case when
combined with new software,
800

where the tools can work together

to provide a wide range of values
750

and look at a large number of 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
scenarios. Gas Lift (MSm3/D)

36 GEOExPro February 2016