Intelligent Wells to Intelligent Fields: Remotely Operated Smart Well Completions in Haradh-III

Abstract

Abstract Haradh-III, Saudi Aramco's latest developed field within Giant Ghawar Field, is regarded as one of the industry firsts in terms of its application of advanced drilling techniques, multilateral wells, smart well completions and permanent monitoring systems. This recently commissioned field, on February 2006, integrated all of the above mentioned technologies with an advanced SCADA system that enable the real time monitoring and control of the downhole and surface equipment remotely from the control room. The design and installation of the automated surface control system to remotely monitor and control the smart completions is a multidisciplinary project integrating subject experts and tools from well completions, production engineering, facilities, instrumentation, and communication engineers. The system enables the operator in the control room to remotely operate the downhole valves in all the multilateral smart wells through the SCADA system. The paper will present the design, installation and commissioning of the surface control system and remote monitoring capabilities and cite a field case of remote operation to flow test a well with three zones smart well completion, permanent downhole gauge and surface multiphase flow meter. The system has enabled the operator to remotely perform flow testing of the individual laterals of the multilateral wells through different settings of the downhole valves. The remote control capabilities enabled these tests to be done from the control room without the engineer spending extended periods in the well site. The learning discussed in this paper will provide an insight into how the implementation of such control system was systematically handled to achieve a successful conclusion. Introduction Haradh-III field is located in the southernmost part of the Ghawar field and has been developed with 32 Maximum Reservoir Contact (MRC), multi lateral wells with intelligent completions installed on 28 wells. This setup reduces the well count required while achieves higher productivity from each well1. Studies have shown that field development with MRC wells and smart completion technology in Haradh-III will delay water encroachment, improve flood front conformance and recovery while lowering water production and reducing operating costs2. Table 1 shows the project statistics summary3