Intelligent Completion Design Enhances Well Recovery

Case study: Norsk Hydro achieves accelerated production offshore Norway

Challenge
Norsk Hydro needed to commingle production from three different zones into a single wellbore.

Conventional completion costly for multiple zones

Norsk Hydros Ness sands reservoir in the Oseberg field held approximately 44 million bbl of reserves remaining to be recovered. Completing the well in a conventional manner and perforating the zones successively could lead to significantly reduced initial production and high intervention costs.

Solution
A hydraulically operated intelligent completion system proposed, designed, and deployed by Schlumberger was used to provide real-time monitoring and regulate flow from three production zones in the well, each at a different pressure.

Intelligent completion enhances production, resolves problems

In 1999, in one of the first developments of its type, Schlumberger designed an intelligent completion system to commingle production from three different zones into a single wellbore. This innovative system called for remotely operated flow control equipment and involved the development of two packers, as well as numerous running and installation tools. The system provided real-time monitoring and the regulation of flow from the three production zones in the well, each at a different pressure. Schlumberger recommended a hydraulically operated intelligent completion system to control the foreseen gas or water breakthrough in the Oseberg 30/9-B-38 B well. The design optimization of the valves was critical. Each valve has nine choke positions in addition to fully open and closed. The choke areas were carefully selected based on reservoir modeling to represent the best possible valve resolution over the life of the zone/well. The results for the Oseberg field well were outstanding, with the valves being precisely matched to the reservoir characteristics.

Results
Completion was accomplished 6 d ahead of plan. Initial production was 21,800 bbl/d with possible ultimate recovery of 4 million bbl.

TRFC-H: Hydraulic tubing-retrievable flow controller QMP: Quantum* Multiport* production packer
9 5 8-in 51 2-in QMP 31 2-in TRFC-H 7-in 31 2-in QMP 7-in 31 2-in QMP 31 2-in TRFC-H 31 2-in TRFC-H

Some of the completion technology used on Oseberg B-38. An intelligent completion is driven by the individual needs of the reservoir.

Completion

Case study: Norsk Hydro achieves accelerated production offshore Norway

The system now provides real-time monitoring and the regulation of flow from the three production zones in the well, each at a different pressure.

Initial production went as expected, but gas breakthrough occurred after two weeks. Using the system, Norsk Hydro was able to control the reservoirs, greatly reducing gas production while maintaining the highest oil production level. If this system had not been in place, production would have been severely constrained and choked back on the surface because of the limited gas handling capabilities on the platform.

Early, enhanced production

The system was successfully installed 6 d ahead of plan. It has provided Norsk Hydro with accelerated production, increased ultimate recovery levels, and reduced production of unwanted fluids (gas/water). Initial oil production from the installation was 3,465 m3/d [21,800 bbl/d] with a possible ultimate recovery of 635,950 m3 [4 million bbl].

Contact your local Schlumberger representative to learn more.

www.slb.com/completions

06-CO-082 December 2006 Copyright 2006 Schlumberger. All rights reserved. Produced by Schlumberger Marketing Communications