Winning the Battle to Scale Precipitation from the Face of T Reservoirs in the Largest Ecuadorian Oilfield

Abstract

Abstract The largest Ecuadorian field is a brown field located in the Oriente Basin, as shown in Fig.1. Its current oil production is 56,000 bopd with 82% water cut from 150 producing wells from different reservoirs, mainly from the lower U and lower T sands which have contributed with more than 90% of the total cumulative production. The secondary reservoirs are Basal Tena, Upper U and Upper T. The field faces several typical production challenges of a mature field, including severe inorganic scale deposition problems throughout the production system and corrosion in the tubing and surface flowlines. As development strategies have evolved, flow assurance problems have increased in magnitude and frequency, representing low operating efficiencies and extra costs. Once flow assurance problems have appeared in the field it is impossible not to have costs associated with their remediation; however, the objective is to minimize such costs through an exhaustive analysis that determines the root cause and the prevention measures that can be applied in the field. In terms of corrosion, an excellent job has been done in controlling the problem in the wells through the introduction of new metallurgy tubing and good operating practices, while the challenge in the field is now focused on scale deposition.