JurAssIC - KwIDF - Kuwait Oil Company

BY bader nasser al-qaoud, team leader production support gas group
BY QASEM DASHTI, TEAM LEADER, FIELD DEVELOPMENT GAS GROUP
Unique Challenges of the Complex
Jurassic Gas Field
Applying Digital Processes and
Technology to Exploitation Strategy
“HPHT gas fields that contain near critical fluids add
a dimension of complexity to the overall exploitation
strategy in terms of resource management,” says
Mr. Al-Qaoud. He adds, “High drawdown pressures
will inevitably lead to condensate drop-out in the
reservoir structure, itself, with consequences of
lower ultimate recovery, depletion of reservoir
energy, and reduced gas flow potential.”
In the KwIDF Jurassic project, “the complex geology
is evidenced by areas with a tight rock matrix
associated with a dense network of connected
fractures. While this leads to good production,”
Mr. Al-Qaoud cautions, “there is also a high
probability of liquid loading. Further complexity is
found in other areas of the same structure, which
have very poor reservoir properties with a sparse
fracture network.”
Smart views
See what you need
to see in time to respond.
Performance engine
Smart analytics: optimization
for your daily constraints.
Data factory
Open, easy access
to reliable data.
Basic components of the Jurassic field intelligent
Data Management System.
A clear strategy
Mr. Al-Qaoud wants to develop “a clear strategy
to maximize the gas field’s ultimate recovery and
maintain its production regularity.” He plans to
accomplish this in conjunction with the KwIDF
Jurassic change management program. He
states, “To minimize wellsite interventions due
to the toxic nature of the Jurassic gas field’s flow
stream, intelligent automated systems have to be
developed and integrated with advanced wireless
instrumentation.” This sophisticated technology,
driven by remotely operated production management
and surveillance software, is part of the new, stateof–the-art
intelligent Data Management System
implementation made possible through partnering
with Schlumberger Information Solutions (SIS).
Key software features
The automated data management solution,
powered by the Schlumberger Avocet*
production software suite, will provide:
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proactive identification and visualization of
potential production problems by analyzing
data in the context of operating processes
aggregation of real-time and other
data from multiple sources, providing
extensive capabilities, including event
detection, reporting, trending, data
diagnostics, predictive modeling, and
a calculation engine
insights into performance issues when
plugged into a comprehensive production
software suite with integral intelligent
surveillance
immediate access to actionable data via a
Web-based user interface, enabling engineers
and managers to see what they need to see
in time to respond
design of real-time production surveillance and
optimization workflows, which allow automating
and standardizing of the designed workflows.
(Note: Results of 22 such workflows, including
one for key performance indicators (KPIs), are
visualized and accessible in SmartView, a Web
portal solution for building production surveillance
advisory tools.)
Quick decision-making
On an ongoing basis, the Production Support team is
faced with critical decision-making challenges that
require fast solutions to avert potentially serious
problems. Mr. Al-Qaoud and his team will greatly
benefit from the various productivity-enhancing
features—ranging from the SmartView Web portal
to Smart Analytics supported by a server-based
workflow engine, instead of distributed workflows in
scattered applications. “The easy access to a wealth
of data in the new Data Factory,” Mr. Al-Qaoud says,
“will give us the ability to make better-informed,
production-related decisions from a shared
Mr. Bader Nasser Al-Qaoud, Team Leader of KOC’s
Production Support Gas group, is responsible for gas
field operations, working daily within the company’s fast
decision-making loop.
knowledgebase of validated, trustworthy data.
This will positively impact the speed and quality
of our decisions, and influence every other aspect
of our exploitation strategy going forward.”
Expected safety improvements
Once the intelligent Data Management System
is in place and providing remote, real-time daily
production information, Mr. Al-Qaoud believes
that “safety will naturally improve due, in part,
to the need for fewer wellsite visits, resulting in
less exposure of KOC workers to harmful toxins.”
He expects that “re-purposed visits will be more
common, as checkers will no longer visit the well to
perform mundane production support tasks; they will
have a more high-value purpose to their visits than
just reading dials manually.” n
Mr. Dashti contends, “Many production data
management systems and practices in use today
were not designed for real-time compliance, often
creating a mistrust of data due to poor quality
and unavailability at the time of need.” Mr. Dashti
believes that “the absence of appropriate
workflow tools can lead to missed opportunities
for optimizing production.”
According to Mr. Dashti, “Only a step change in
production workflows and collaboration can ensure
that data, human resources, and software application
requirements are relevant to actual needs.”
Intelligent automation
“The greenfield nature of Jurassic gas field makes
it an ideal candidate for digital field processes and
technologies,” says Mr. Dashti. “However, this high
pressure, high temperature (HPHT) gas field is
geologically complex. It has fluids in near-critical
condition with elevated concentrations of H 2
S and
CO 2
. ”Mr. Dashti’s goal is to “maximize ultimate
recovery, maintain production regularity, and
minimize wellsite interventions due to the toxic
nature of the flow stream.” He claims that
”intelligent automation at the wellhead combined
with advanced instrumentation will minimize
HSE exposure of field personnel.”
Interventions at the wellsite will be supported
by handheld PDAs embedded with work orders.
His Field Development Gas group will also use
new digital field work processes supported by
state-of-the-art collaboration rooms. These facilities
enable proactive, real-time decisions to be made in
accordance with the field’s exploitation strategy. Mr.
Dashti asserts, “It is now possible to quickly
leverage multidiscipline competencies that can
easily contribute in real time to production
operations, instead of conducting long-term studies
and reviews.”
Exploitation strategy—
goals and implementation
Mr. Dashti describes the field’s exploitation strategy
as “concurrently maximizing the production of
individual wells while minimizing the liquid
drop-out in the reservoir. This will maximize
reserves recovery, leading to a new paradigm
in resource management.”
“An ‘intelligent’ Data Management System,”
says Mr. Dashti, “will eliminate the risk of
non-validated data and inefficiencies of data
retrieval and utilization. We want to achieve
production regularity, aided by our highly
instrumented wells that not only address the
acquisition of well and reservoir data,
but also capture additional information—
such as sour and flammable gas detection
and video images—that directly feeds into
work routines governing loss prevention
activities.” This is a big step toward improved
safety conditions.
Mr. Dashti says, “Using the new collaboration
rooms for multi-disciplinary decision-making
will help align individuals with pre-defined
rules of the exploitation strategy. The active
participation of team members also ensures
that rules are modified, as needed, during
field maturity.”
The implementation of SIS smart tools is “helping to
achieve production regularity via an integrated
network model enabling production technologists to
generate what-if scenarios and set the rules for
routines to control automatic chokes. This prevents
weak wells in tight areas of the reservoir from being
overwhelmed by the wells in densely fractured
areas.” Furthermore, features like alarms embedded
in the Avocet Production Surveillance system allow
problems to be flagged and mitigated proactively.
The intelligent Data Management System supports
Mr. Dashti’s goals by democratizing data, so that
raw data is transformed into the right information
and pushed to the target audience in a reliable and
efficient manner.
“Trustworthiness is a key requirement for real-time
production optimization. It is absolutely necessary
to have validated and conditioned data, as it will
ensure cross-discipline collaboration is functioning
at a high level. Viewing reliable data simultaneously—
whether or not the decision makers are in a single
collaboration room—is a KOC initiative destined to go
beyond just this one gas field. n
Mr. Qasem Dashti, Team Leader of KOC’s Field
Development Gas group, is mainly involved in production
optimization and well performance issues, working daily
within the company’s medium decision loop.
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