RIASSUNTO
Abstract
Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP) first started completing Smart Wells in 1999, trialing standalone technologies such as permanent downhole gauges and inflow control valves in individual wells. Once these were seen as successful, the technology was used extensively on a single platform. This was later extended to application in a whole field, taking advantage of refinements such as variable downhole control valves and multiphase flow metering.
Learning from the successes of other oil producing fields such as Champion West and Bugan, Seria North Flank was planned and designed as a fully Smart field. Seria North Flank would be the first field to fully integrate Smart technology with Smart field processes, improving the efficiency of Well and Reservoir Management activities and accelerating reservoir understanding in order to reduce uncertainties for future development. This resulted in the development of over 120 million barrels of oil, with improved Unit Technical Costs compared to an offshore development.
Building Smart capabilities
Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP) initially trialed the individual elements of Smart technology in standalone wells from 1999. Downhole gauges and fibre optics (for Distributed Temperature Sensing, or DTS) were run on different wells, mainly to trial the technology and study reservoir inflow profiles. Several key findings from these wells formed the basis for the requirements of surface operated inflow control valves (ICV). The main one of these was that contribution from long horizontals tended to be negligible from the toe of the well (furthest from the stinger section).
The Champion West field was selected to further develop Smart technology. In order to manage and develop appropriate solutions for the network infrastructure, a dedicated IT team was created to support to real time data management. A small team within the operations discipline was also formed to help manage the interfaces with the existing offshore network infrastructure.
Initial completion designs incorporated one ICV above a ball valve and a dual gauge for multizone wells. At this stage, only monitoring was applied remotely with the downhole and surface gauge data transmitted to the main production facility and control requiring human intervention at the platform location. These wells showed the time benefits of have surface operated capabilities to monitor well pressures and change zones. In 2002, Shell started to develop the Smart Fields program, defining the technology and processes required in order to operate a Smart Field.
In 2003, the surface control was further developed so that remote operations from one of the Champion West jackets was possible from the main production platform and then from the Head Office. These successes led to the development of the Champion West Drilling Platform in 2005, a fully Smart, not normally manned platform. This platform incorporated almost all aspects of Smart technology that were available commercially at the time, with almost all aspects of the wells operated and monitored remotely. Surface flow control valves and sequencing valves to control surface rates and select wells for testing, a multiphase flow meter to accurately test wells, and the full suite of downhole tools that included inflow control valves to control flow, permanent downhole gauges for pressure data and fibre-optics to acquire distributed temperature surveys. Each well had up to five individual zones to maximize hydrocarbon recovery and value.