Optimising Saudi production

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MPas packers are a preferred method of zonal isolation in all Equalizer installations in Saudi Arabia.

Adrian Villareal and Paolo Gavioli of Baker Oil Tools profile a regional production success story.

An open hole completion and natural gas lift system is enhancing well life and production in Saudi Arabia's Zuluf offshore field.

When water production goes up, oil production goes down.

As worldwide oil demand rapidly increases, operators are turning to new technologies to optimize reservoir production by delaying water coning in low drawdown, high rate horizontal wells.

Two cutting-edge technologies can improve sweep efficiency and enhance the life of a well by balancing / equalizing the horizontal flow along the entire wellbore to ensure uniform production profile and delay water-cut and gas coning. When combined, the two technologies create an open-hole natural gas lift intelligent well completion.

In the Zuluf field, one of Saudi Arabia's largest offshore producers, Baker Oil Tools has installed three natural gas lift Intelligent Well Systems (IWS) in conjunction with its EQUALIZER inflow control system.

The well-established Equalizer/MPas system was introduced in 2002, and the IWS natural gas lift valve was introduced in 2003. These three deployments are the first system configurations that combine the two technologies.

One of the main benefits of Equalizer/MPas system is the ability to control water-cut, a major concern in the later life of a well.

With more than 350 successful installations in Saudi Arabia, the system has been proven not only to control water-cut but also gas coning, increasing oil recovery by equalizing the flow along multiple zones of a single lateral wellbore to uniformly distribute reservoir production.

In the Zuluf application, the design of the assembly was customized in order to meet reservoir engineering needs. The horizontal wells in the field, due to lightweight oil and low reservoir pressure, can flow naturally with a limited water-cut, usually no more than 30-35 percent.

MPas packers were run between sections of Equalizer screens in order to hydraulically separate producing intervals of differing porosity/permeability or to divide producing intervals from zones that were not desirable for production, such as shale sections or high water/gas saturation zones.

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