Technology Focus: Production Operations (March 2008)

Abstract

Technology Focus Welcome to the Production Operations feature. Practicing production-operations engineers may employ a wide variety of technologies in their work, and several of these technologies are highlighted in this feature. Some of the commonly used technologies are the analysis of the production performance of oil or gas wells, methods for identification and remediation of water-production issues, fluid-inflow-control design, and actions in a horizontal or complex multibranched wellbore. In each case, reliable and accurate characterization of the productive formation and the well-completion properties is fundamentally required. This issue includes summaries of some excellent research efforts and field-application results in the evaluation of well performance in low-permeability and complex reservoirs. Reservoir complexities addressed in the selected technical articles include the practical reservoir- and production-engineering aspects of stress-sensitive formations, composite and multilayer formations, single- and dual-porosity reservoirs, fracture cleanup and/or damage with respect to production time, and the very common effect of wellbore liquid loading. Specific issues that pertain to the evaluation of fractured and horizontal wells are addressed in the selected technical papers, including the design and application of inflow-control devices to enhance the production of horizontal-well completions. In addition to the cited articles, some extremely valuable developments and insight are available in the additional reading references. The research presented in these articles includes the tomographic evaluation of skin-damage evolution in unconsolidated sandstones and the control and remediation of water production in stratified and low-permeability gas reservoirs. Each of these issues is also extremely important in production operations. Production Operations additional reading available at the SPE eLibrary: www.spe.org SPE 107832 • "Study of Skin Damage in Unconsolidated Sandstone by Computed Tomography" by E.S. Sales, COPPE/UFRJ, et al. SPE 106640 • "Optimum Control of Unwanted Water Production in Stratified Gas Reservoirs" by Nampetch Yamali, SPE, University of Texas at Austin, et al. SPE 105262 • "Successful Innovative Water-Shutoff Operations in Low-Permeability Gas Wells" by Hassan Chaabouni, SPE, Schlumberger, et al.