Digital Oilfield Implementation in Naturally Flowing Oil Fields with Increasing Water Encroachment: One Company's Experience in Burgan Field

摘要

Kuwait Integrated Digital Field Gathering Center 1 (KwIDF-GC1) pilot project was launched in Burgan field in 2009 as an investigation into how a cross-functional and cross-domain infrastructure could be established to aid in the achievement of corporate goals set for the following two decades. The company’s vision for 2030 includes a philosophical shift in the way that the country’s workforce accomplishes its tasks, employing latest technologies and work processes. The project solution integrates field instrumentation with workflows automated in software and focused collaboration. All well sites were instrumented with pressure and temperature gauges, multiphase water cut meters, remotely automated chokes and electronic H2S detectors. Automation of field was the first step in providing the advanced technology required of this project, realizing tangible advantages in minimizing the health, safety and environmental (HSE) exposure of field personnel. Well site data can be read, and choke positions can be set, remotely at the gathering center without the need for field personnel to enter hazardous areas. The implementation is digital throughout, employing a field-level WiMAX radio system to provide fast and secure Ethernet-based communication from gathering center to the wellhead. Work processes were converted into automated digital workflows supported by advanced network modeling and nodal analysis software in a state-of-the-art collaboration center. This paper presents framework of the pilot project demonstrating the hardware and software tools that have been used to optimize production of the Burgan field assets as a part of the KwIDF-GC1 project. The concentration of this paper will be a detailed discussion on designing of the field instrumentation system.