Water Shutoff Technologies for Reduced Energy Consumption

Abstract

AbstractOil and gas operators on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) are working to reach goals of reduced CO2 emissions associated with production of hydrocarbons. Emissions from offshore operations mainly comes from generation of power required for processing and drainage of the oil and gas fields. Therefore, one option for reducing emissions is to reduce the energy consumption associated with water injection and production. Inflow control devices and smart wells have traditionally been used to increase oil production. They can also have benefits like reducing need for lifting produced water to platform and reducing volume of injected water necessary to maintain production.The LowEmission Centre (LowEmission) is an eight-year research program managed by SINTEF that aims to develop technologies and solutions for reduced offshore greenhouse gas emissions on the NCS in line with the emission goals of the government and the petroleum industry. This paper presents work performed in the centre on modelling and simulating the effect of autonomous inflow control devices on oil and water production profiles and on energy use for water injection. The largest potential for this technology seems to be for long horizontal wells with autonomous devices that can discriminate between and constrain selected phases flowing into the well. The specific inflow technology investigated can discriminate between phases based on their (reservoir) densities.Reducing water production will reduce the need for lift in wells with high water production. It is demonstrated that a reduction in water production will also reduce the need for water injection, giving opportunities for reduced energy use in the drainage process. Restricting water production can also give a reduced oil production rate, however this reduction is modest compared to the reduction in water production.