Hydraulic Jet Pumps Prove Ideally Suited for Remote Canadian Oil Field

摘要

With 150 Million Barrels of recoverable reserves, the NexenHay River Bluesky oil pool is among the largest oildiscoveries in Western Canada in the past two decades. Initialpilot production testing lead to the conclusions that, in order toproduce the field in its most economical fashion, the followingwould be needed:? Triple lateral horizontal producing wells? In field horizontal water injection/water disposalwells for pressure maintenance? Artificial Lift from the outsetFurther complicating production of the Hay Pool, which islocated in a remote area of North-Eastern British Columbia,was the fact that road access would be limited to 4 months ofthe year because any road through the muskeg would need tobe “frozen in” prior to use. It was therefore extremelyimportant to the economic viability of the project thatwhatever means of artificial lift were chosen should be highlyreliable and require minimal maintenance. The methodchosen, apart from being reliable and safe, would also need tobe capable of lifting large volumes of fluid with a significantpressure drawdown. In addition it would need to be able tooperate successfully in the extreme well deviations common inthe “build” sections of the development wells.This paper will review the development of the Bluesky oilpool and present the case for the choice of Jet Pumps forartificial lift. The authors will go on to detail the performanceof the Jet Pump system installed in the field that has met orexceeded all performance expectations.