Pressure Transient Technique Adds Value to ESP Monitoring

摘要

A novel pressure transient technique is combined with routinernperformance monitoring of ESP’s to economicallyrncharacterize the well/reservoir producing system.rnInformation derived from the proposed procedure enablesrnthe engineer to compute the maximum production of the wellrnand to decide what productivity improvements may bernemployed to achieve this maximum. Specifically, accuraternvalues of permeability, damage and average pressure may bernobtained as well as the presence of heterogeneities and theirrncharacteristics. In a multi-well implementation, the procedurernallows both the temporal and spatial variation of reservoirrnproperties and fluids to be monitored.rnFundamental to the technique is the modulation of thernwell’s flow rate to produce an unambiguous pressurernresponse. Flow rates are modified programmatically usingrnvariable frequency devices which vary the speed of the ESP;rnwe consider several possible flow rate scenarios and discussrnthe practical implications of each. The resulting pressurernresponse is modeled analytically, continuously andrnautomatically, in a least squares sense, to monitor the wellrnand reservoir properties. Computational considerations arerndiscussed.rnThe objective of this paper is to allow operators to optimizernproduction rates and recovery while minimizing capitalrninvestments and operating expenses. The efficacy of therntechnique described is demonstrated using simulated data.