Continuous Well Production Flow Monitoring and Surveillance

摘要

In E&P, from asset managers to front end operations staff, therernis a common problem – we are data rich, but information poor.rnIn particular, timely well-by-well production surveillance andrnallocation often remains a problem. Gathering data, even realrntime data, from wells and facilities hasn't been an issue, butrnvalidating the data and relating this data to individual wellrnproduction rates in a coherent, consistent and timely manner andrnthen taking prompt action, is a challenge. Traditional routinernwell testing simply provides a series of snap-shots of a well'srnperformance, which may or may not reflect the productionrnduring the intervening period. Errors are typically spread acrossrnthe wells and reservoirs through a reconciliation processrncomparing estimated well productions and actual metered salesrnon a weekly or monthly basis.rnThis paper describes the development and application of a newrntool, FieldWare* PRODUCTION UNIVERSE * (PU)1, whichrnestimates real time well production rates from simple fieldrnmeasurements and provides online reconciliation against bulkrnmeasurements and export meters. The novel aspect of therntechnique is that it uses dynamic, data-driven models to describernthe production process, together with a new well testrnmethodology for capturing the data to build the initial models.rnWell tests include a deliberate disturbance to the production torndetermine the dynamic characteristics of a well. The models dornnot require underlying physical or process models,rnpredetermined multiphase flow correlations, compositional datarnor well/piping/equipment details. This has made the modelsrnquick to set-up and easy to maintain.rnFieldWare PRODUCTION UNIVERSE is now fully operationalrnand used for well-by-well production surveillance and monitoring at many of Shell's production facilities worldwide,rnboth onshore and offshore. The application of PU has helpedrnincrease production through improved monitoring, resolvedrnhydrocarbon allocation problems through real timernreconciliation, allowed an increase in time between well tests andrnreduced travel to field locations.rnThe availability of real time production data is a key enabler forrnfuture smart optimization and intelligent diagnostics. PU is arnfoundation element for Shell's Smart Fields initiative.