GAP Philosophy

r lnput syetem
r Vlidate model by matching
- 'Glooths looB'bofora proceedhg

r Us modelfor prediction
r A'Snapchot'of lleld perormance
- GAP ras wcll rnodala lor a epoclflc rseer$olr Frseuro
and wattr cut

GAP combines individual well performance models to build a complete

production system model. The well models are first built and validated using a
systems analysis program such as PROSPER. The effect of gathering system
pipeline pressure drops, well interaction and process pressures can be
investigated using GAP.
GAP optimises oil production by setting wellhead chokes for naturally flowing
wells and determining the optimum allocation of lift gas for gas lifted wells. The
philosophy s to frst construct the system model then prove that it can
reproduce actual production rates and pressures. Once the model has been
proved, it can then be confidently used for optimisation and sensitivity studies.
The well performance models are calculated for the current reservoir pressure,
water cut, free GOR etc, and are therefore representative of well performance
at a particular point in time. As reservoir conditions change, the models must
be re-generated for the current conditions and the GAP system model re-
matched and optimised.
The current version of GAP includes well pertormance (VLP & IPR) inside
GAP and links to MBAL for reservoir information. This enables well
performance to be re-calculated in response to changes in reservoir pressure
and fluid saturations and thereby produce a production profile over time.
GAP V3 can also use VLP & IPR to quickly determine well production rates for
the prevailing conditions without the need to run PROSPER.

Page 1
 GAP Methodology

t Geneafeto lind woll responasg

t Buildlofind system response

r Gomposile rasponse by combining nodes

r Flow streams cornbined opllmally

t Allocatsto allocate gas and calculaie
psssuros & ratee

Wellperformance is calculated by Generating well production rate solutions for

a range of wellhead pressures and (where applicable) gas lift injecton rates.
GAP can call PROSPER to batch Generate well rate solutions or when well
IPR and VLP lft curves have been pre-calculated, GAP can calculate directly.
Production rates can also be directly entered f the data is available from
another source. GAP represents each well by a polynomial curve fitted to the
solution data.
GAP then Builds the system response by combining the well responses that
meet at a node to form a single composite response. For an Optimisation run,
GAP optimally allocates lift gas and honours gas lifted well production
constraints during lhe Build process.
The effect of pipeline pressure losses are then calculated to determine the
production performance at the downstream end of each pipeline.
The production system is progressively simplified by combining the responses
at each node until the entire system is represented by a single optimised
performance curve.
During lhe Build process, a database is built up which records how much gas
to allocate to each branch to optimise production. To calculate production
rates, lhe Allocafe process begins at the user-entered separator pressure and
volume of lift gas available.
The optimum gas iniection rate and the corresponding production rate for the
current separator pressure is determined from the system PC. Knowing the
production rate and gaslift injection rate, the pressure drop in the first pipeline
is calculated to find the arrival pressure at the next upstream node. With the
node pressure and the stored database values, production rates and gaslift
allocations are calculated for every node and well in the system.

Page 2
 GAP Flow Chart

This slide shows the GAP processing chain for a standard production
optimisation project. The importance of the Actual step in establishing the
accuracy of the well Performance Curves must be stressed.
lf the well PCs are correct, then the field production for the entire model will be
correct provided that the pipeline pressure drops give the same measured
wellhead pressures.
The pipeline matching procedure gives you the means to reproduce the
wellhead pressures and hence match the model production to measured
rates.
For production prediction runs, reseruoir models (decline curve or MBAL) plus
well inflow (lPR) and outflow (VLP) information are required also. These new
GAP applications are not covered in the flow diagram.

Page 3
 Gaslift Allocation

allocated to bpst producer for
each

Wells ranked accordfng ro oil production or

'ratg of rglum'

r GAP allocates gas incremnts until all gas is

allocated or marimum productlon is achiwed

For gaslifted wells, the production optimisation method is to find the

optimum volume of lift gas to inject to each well. For a single well, this is
simply achieved by calculating production rate lor a range of lift gas
injection rates. The optimum lift gas injection is given by the peak of the
performance curve at the current wellhead pressure.
For a multi-well system, the assumption is that lift gas is a scarce
commodig. Gas must be allocated to wells so as to maximise oil
production for the amount of injection gas available.
For a given group of wells, the principle is to allocate each increment of gas
to the well that gives the maximum unit oil production. For a specified
production pressure, the wellperformance curues can be ranked in order of
of oil production for an increment of lift gas injection.
The increment is allocated to the well with the highest oil production (or
maximum revenue) and the production rate entered in the performance
curve database for the node representing the combined production from all
the wells.
The next injection gas increment is allocated in turn until all the available
gas has been allocated, or the maximum production has been achieved.
The production rates in the PC database can be curves fitted using the
same algorithm as used for the individual wells. An illustration of optimal
combination of gaslifted performance curves is shown in the following slide.

Page 4
 Allocation Details

7
Well 1+Vell2

7
I

This slide illustrates how the response lrom 2 wells are combined to form the
Performance Curve for a connection node.
The pressures used to Generate the individual well PCs are scanned to
determine 3 suitable pressures to evaluate the combined node PC for. For
each pressure, the production rate can be evaluated for each well as a
function of lift gas injection. The well with the maximum oil production for the
current lift gas injection increment is found.
The combined response is built up step by step by adding the production from
the besl producing wells as the gaslift injection rate is increased. The process
is repeated for each of the 3 Generate pressures and the results are curve
fitted to form the node PC.
This process can be repeated to combine the production from each producing
well to form the optimised system responsa as a function of lift gas injection.
Note that this assumes the gas has been optimally allocated at every step.

Page 5
 Setting up GAP

eystsm

- Wella, lnta, eeperators

r Graphically link compononls

- Oaw plpellne connaetlone

r Entar system dsta

- Plpellne gsdnfy, envlronment varlab

The components of a GAP production system model are:

. Wellperformance data (from PROSPER)
. Production system flow logic (system sketch)
. Pipeline geometry data
. Separator pressures
. System constraints (optional)
The first step n constructing a GAP production system model is to construct
PROSPER models for each of the wells. ln conjunction with appropriate field
data, this step willallow diagnosis of downhole wellproblems. This important
step often results in greater production increases than gaslift optimisation.
The relationship between the wells and gathering lines is defined by the GAP
system drawing. The drawing graphically displays the wells, connections and
pipelines that make up the entire production system.
The pipeline geometry data is then entered to complete the system definition.

Page 6
 Example Systern

Separator

Joint

This simple sketch shows the elements that make up a GAP production
system model.
At the bottom of the system, boxes identily lhe Wells. Wells are represented
as a Performance Curve polynomial fitted to pre-calculated well production
rates. Wells are connected to Joints. A joint is a calculation node and can
also have constraint properties.
Pipes connect joints together. Pipes are shown as lines with a box in the
middle. The system is built up by connecting allthe wells together to joints via
pipes until the Separator is reached. A separator in GAP a point having a
fixed pressure regardless of flowrate. Systems can have more than one
separator. Since the separator pressure is not affected by production in each
sub-system, they can be optimsed independently - after abcounting for system
level constraints on e.g. lift gas availability or water handling capacfty.

Page 7
 Generafe Ttfel I Performa n ce

r Generating to
'System

- For Pesum alFlrc lodeand GLR trnated

r Performanoe'Surface' by curve fitting

- 3{ persmGlcr sed to tprelent well responee

- FG aro NOT lntorpolated

r Generete pressute eeleclion impont

Wells are represented by a polynomial describing the production rates of oil

water and gas as a function of manifold pressure an (where applicable) lift gas
injection, The rates are found by calculating system solutions for a user
delined range of pressures.
An automatic procedure allows GAP to control PROSPER for generation of
the performance curve solutions. The GLR injected is increased until the
production inversion rate (maximum production) is found. The algorithm uses
an efficient search procedure to minimise the number of rates that must be
calculatsd to find the solutions.
The results are copied into a table in GAP for each well and a sophisticated
non-linear regression routine is used to fit a smooth function to the data. The
resulting polynomial expression is evaluated to determine production rates,
water cut etc. during the optimisation calculations. The performance curves
are NOT interpolated in GAP.
The choice of pressures used to Generate the well performance curves is
important. For producing systems, it can be expected that the well operating
pressure will not be too different to those during optimised production.
Generate pressures should be chosen to span the curlent operating point.
when designing new systems, use PROSPER to estimate gathering system
pressure drops and hence expected wellhead pressures. Use this as a guide
- it may be necessary to re-generate with revised pressures if the calculations
give operating pressures outside the range used for PC generation.
For naturally flowing wells, 5 pressures are used to calculate performance
curve solution rates. GAP can optionally select the pressures for flowing
wells.

Page I
 Calcu I ale Actual Producti on

t of PC generalion and fitting
pfocess

r Enter test flowing pressuros to oh8ck that the

wsll model predicls meEeurd rales

To match field production rates, tssl

pressurss must all be compatlble

r Model errors now conflned to plpeline

Having generated PCs for each well, and entered the other model data, the
next step is to validate the accuracy of the well descriptions.
This is achieved by entering the wellhead pressures and gaslift injection rates
for the well tests ihat wer used to tune the PROSPER- well m'odels. Test
rates, water cuts and GORs are entered for comparison with those calculated
by GAP using the fitted performance curyes.
Accuracy of well PCs is confirmed by agreement with the measured test data.
ln addition to identifying any problems with the performance cures, Actual
can be used to quickly check well test data.
Having established the accuracy of your well PCs, enter new well tests in
Actual and compare the results. Deviation between model and measured
production indicates a change in well conditions (reservoir pressure, water cut,
GOR) or a problem with the test data.
With careful matching, the model should be able to match the measured data
within 2"/o in most cases.
once Actual has established the accuracy of the well models, GAp will
necessarily reproduce the system production rates if the well flowing
pressures also match the pressure that the welltests were carried out at.
For platform systems, the test and flowing pressures will be similar. For sub-
sea systems, the production pressures may be considerably different. Actuat
-normal
can be used to estimate well production by entering the production
pressure in place of the test conditions. GAP will sum the well productions to
find the system production rate.

Page 9
 Pipelines

r Uses standard conelalions as in PROSPER

- Slrre radchng procadurer avllsble ln GP

r Pipeline PCs reler tho upstrearn nodg

fesponse to ths plpeline outlet

r Pipeline prssura logses matchodto

rmasured prossures and rates

Production optimisation against a fixed, known pressure is a relatively simple

problem compared to real systems in which the well backpressure is affected
by production from other wells. Pipeline models are used to account for these
effects.
Pipeline geometry, roughness and elevations are required for flow
correlations. The same industry standard correlations in PROSPER are also
used in GAP. Lasater's correlation is used to evaluate oil PVT for pipeline
pressure loss calculations. A pipeline rate multiplier can be applied to model
the effect of identical parallel pipes if required.
The PVT properties of pipeline fluids are determined by mixing the inlet
streams to find the average oil gravity, water cut and solution GOR of the fluid
entering the the pipe. The mixture properties are then used in the Lasater
correlation to determine FVF and in-situ GOR as a function of pressure and
temperature.
PVT correlation matching is not supported in GAP, since the validity of
matching the inlet stream PVT properties is lost by mixing and lab data for the
mixture is not available.
Pressure matching is used to ensure model and measured pipeline pressure
drops agree.

Page 10
 Pipeline Pressure Traverse

t ste lor inlet preosure fiom PGs

r Traverse pipeline to ffnd arrival pressure

- 6st bck rale (lncroaae lnhl prasswel until rsl arrtueg

r Galculato downstrasm PGs

- PGs on notlor conclsnt pre8sutr. Eqrh plottd polnt lr

fo s dlflerent arrtual ptsssutr.

The effect of a pipeline is to cause a pressure loss between the inlet

(upstream) and outlet (downstream) ends. The pressure drop is a strong
function of flow velocity and lift gas iniection (since the gaslift gas must also
return to the separator through the production lines). For a given intake rate
and pressure, a suitable pipeline correlation can be used to determine the
gravity and friction pressure drop and therefore the 'arrival' pressure at the
downstream node.
To build a performance curve for a pipeline, GAP successively takes the
pressure and rate points from the intake node performance curue for a range
of pressures and calculates the arrival pressure for each point at the
downstream end. This builds up a table of arrival pressures for each
combination of pressure/rate/GLR lnjected on the ntake node PC.
The arrival pressures are curve fitted using the non-linear regression PC
algorithm to form the new PC for the downstream end of the pipe. This
procedure effectively gives the production potential from the viewpont of the
downstream node looking upstream.
Since each rate/GLR point on a pipeline PC represents a different arrival
pressure, the response can no longer be accurately represented by a 2-D plot.
GAP overlays a fitted curve calculated for one arrival ressure for bomparson
with the calculated results. The points no longer plot directly on the line
except where the pipeline pressure losses are insignificant for all rates
considered.

Page 11
 Plpeline Pressure Plot

High pressure.

t 7w
1 ratg
ut Anivl Pssura
P1
ltf, FLOW
tf) -> P1a
tJ
(
a P2

Rale cannot anfue

Low
Higfr Rale

Upetream Dorrynsraam

This simple principle can be more complex in practice. High productivity wells
may be able to produce more fluids than can be carried by the pipeline. The
sketch above illustrates the principle.
One solution is to generate well PCs for high pressures, close to the final
operating point. However, this approach gives lttle flexbility for adjusting
wells in response to constraint requirements.
When a particular rate/pressure/GLR injected combination cannot arrive to the
downstream end of a pipe, GAP automatically increases the inlet pressure
(and hence also lowers the flow rate) and re-calculates the arrival pressure.
Rates are cut back until there are sufficient arrival pressure/rate points to
enable an accurate regression curve fit to be carried out.
ln this way, GAP is able to accurately handle systems having long pipes
connect to high productivity wells.
Note that the gathering system pipes carry both the produced fluid and return
the lift gas to the separator. This necessarily increases pipeline flow velocities.
ln horizontal pipelines, the additional friction losses due to the lift gas will
reduce both the maximum production rate and optimum GLR injected. -

Page 12
 Pipe Matching

r As for and friction ar
seprat8d

r Whsre no elevaton chango, Paramey | = 1.0

r Dsa often muet be inlerrsd" e.g. ratee by
subtraction

This step is vitalto obtain good match on

actual production

An accurate production model must be able to match production rates and

pressures throughout the system. As outlined above, a successful Actual
calculation ensures that the sum of the well production rates will match the
field productlon provided that the wellhead pressures also match measured
values.
The objective of pipeline pressure matching is to ensure that model calculated
prqPSlF drops reproduce field values. Having verified the accuracy of the
well PCs, Actual can be used to calculate te combined producton rate
entering pipes with the current producing manifold pressure. wth the
upstream (or separatoO pressure known, regression is used to tune the
pipeline pressure drop calculation to reproduce the measured pressures.
Pressure matching applies the same principles used in pRospER. The
gravity and friction pressure loss terms are separately adjusted to achieve a
natgh. ln pipeline systems having little elevation chanle, the dominant term is
friction, therefore, Parameter 2 (friction) will be adjusted, while parameter 2
(head) remains fixed at 1.0.
The main difficulty in pipeline pressure matching is to obtain the rates and
pressures at intermediate points in the system. These must often be inferred
by using Actualto estimate rates for th current header pressure and Nodal
analysis to calculate pressures at intermediate pipe nodes.
once pressures have been matched, the model will be able reproduce
measured rates and pressures working back from the separator pressure out
to each well.

Page 13
 Build Aetual

systom respons for actual gas
injection retes

r Sloils at well level and celculates .sponsa

bsck to the saparator

Build Actualis carried out after the pipes have been matched. For the current
test rates of gas injection (as entered on the Actual screen), rates and
pressures are calculated using performance curves for each wellfor a range of
Generate pressures. The results are combined at the pipeline intake ndes
(i.e. joints) then pipeline prssure drops are calculated.
The entire system response is Built to lind the separator arrival pressures and
rates for the specified Actual lift gas injection rate.

Page 14
 Allocate Actual

r Allocatss actual volumse of lift gae
r Calculates production rates and pressures
from separator towerde the ulellg

r Pyoduction rates aro correct when plpeline

pressurb drepe Tfich etual values

using lhe Actualsystem performance curve and the separator pressure, GAP
determines the system production rate. with the rate and downstream
pressure known, the pipeline pressure drop can be calculated to find the
upstream node pressure.
This fixes the pressure to evaluate the production from the nodes that feed
into each pipe. The Allocate calculation proceeds from the separator
upstream toward the wells until the production rates and pressures are
calculated for each system element.
lf both the wells and pipes have been carefully matched, the results of Build
Actual and Allocate Actualmust necessarily reproduce measured test rates
and pressures closely.
For gaslifted wells, GAP takes takes the lift gas injection rates directly from the
Actualscreen. These rates should reflect-the injection rates durig normal
production and are not necessarily the same as when wells are run through
the test separator.
At this point the base model has been verified - a necessary, but not sufficient
req u irement for accu rate production optim isation predictions.

Page 15
 Build Optmised

Perlormancs Gurw for
combinad reeponss at a node

- Greatea databas conlalnlng dcstlnatlon tsr cach

lncrament of ltt gns

r Optimleod systom respons obtained by

combnng nodes until singfe response at
separator ls obtalnod

The accuracy of well performance and pipeline pressure drop calculations

have already been established by Build Actual. The next step is to build the
optimised response for the entire system.
The Performance Curves at the well manifold joints are found by optimally
combining well production rates for increments of lift gas availability as
described previously. The Optimised system response is found by running the
joint PCs through the pipelines and re-fitting the arrival pressures. Arrival PCs
are combined with PCs from other sub-systems until the optimised response
for the entire system at the separator level is found.
ln GAP, Build Optimised carries out this process. Optimised system
production rates can be simply read off the separator performance curue as a
function of pressure and lift gas. To calculate well rates and pressures, the
Allocation process must be carried out.
The optimum production for systems containing naturally flowing wells cannot
be directly calculated as for gas lift only systems. A constrained optimisation
algorithm is used to set wellhead chokes and iterates to determine optimum
production rates. This is described in a later slide.

Page 16
 A[Iacate Optimised

I gFs optimum mannr at
each syetem node

r Works down from eeparator to wells

r Rates, prosaureaand gns allocaon
clculatod during thls procsss

Productlon us injecllon fountl by allocating

gas volumee

Allocate Optimised proceeds to calculate well production rates and pressures

as in lhe Actual case with an important difference that the optimum gaslift
injection rates must be determined at e ch element.
The optimised PCs define the lift gas to inject to maximise production for a
range_ of manifold pressures. The allocation commences at the separator for a
specified pressure. GAP injects all the gas available or the optimum value
defined on the PC - whichever is th lower. This defines the optimum aystem
production rate. Allocation proceeds down through the system, calculatig the
split of .injection gas based on the PCs built up during th Generafe phase and
stored in the program's database.
The process continues until the optimum gas injection has been allocated to
each well in the system and the production rates and pressures have been
determined.

Page 17
 Reporting

r Summary

- For comparatlva dlaplay ol groupa ol ttems

- Uss to rhow nrrln produccl ln lar modcla

r ftailed
- All rssulls tor a selecled ltam y f,s alloclod

r Graphieal

- Efthar 8sanlry or Datollod

The volume of results to be handled can be significant for a typical production

system. GAP includes features that convenently summarise and group
results for ease of use.
Summary reports and plots show e.g. oil production or gas injection for groups
of wells, pipes or separators. Histogram plots quickly identify the main
producers in a field and the allocation of lift gas to wells.
Detailed reports provide all calculated results as a function of lift gas injection
and are used to examne all aspects of an optimisation run.
Parts of a system can be selected prior to making partial reports of particular
sub-systems.

Page 18
 Constraints

I Actual phaee

r Do not ovsr constrain

- Enss thsl consbalnls do not ccnll[ct
- Use erislrolnla eparlngly
r For vsry constrsnt, GAP must have ths
rnsans to nreet h

- Red*relng gaa lnloctlon

ln real systems, there are constraints at many levels. Well productivity,

pipeline capacity, gas and water processing and oil export limits constrain the
system's ability to produce.
When calculating Actualproduction, constraints are not required - since we
are simply reproducing the current state of the system. when optimising, we
must have the means to limit production and injection so as to honour
equipment and well limitations. For example, maximum well production rates
can be set to avoid sand production, maximum gas injection etc. can be
considered.
For joints and separators, maximum liquid, oil, water or gas rates can be set to
mgdel separation capacity, water disposal limits etc. When setting constraints,
it is important ensure that constraints do not conflict - or an optimum solution
may not be found. constraints should be used sparingly do not set -
csnstraints that will never become active for the current- model - excess
constraints may unnecessarily slow or confuse the calculations.
Always remember GAP must have the abilig to change some parameter in
order to meet the constraints set. This is lift gas injection for gas iifted wells or
wellhead choke pressure drop for naturally flowing wells.

Page 19
,)
 Naturally Flowing Wells

r PC is llow vs for 5 pressures
- Gonoratlon and Gurva flt le clmpllllad frcrn gnellft

r Actual adds production for 5 pressures

I Optimisation uses wellhead chokes
- Cholrs. actlo msGt conatrln whlla maxnlalng oll
producllon

- llsretlyE Eppr+EEh requ!rcd

Calculating well performance for naturally flowing wells is simpler and quicker
since gaslift injection does not need to be considered. Performance curves
are simply production plotted vs wellhead pressure a 'choke curve', -
Calculating system production rates and pressures is equivalent to a Build and
Allocate Actualwilh azerc gaslift injection rate.
Optimisation for naturally flowing wells is significantly different to the gaslifted
case. unless constrained by process or pipeline backpressure, the maximum
(or optimum) oil production is generally obtained by applying the minimum
possible well back pressure. Optimisation of oil production would be achieved
by simply opening all wellchokes completely.
ln real systems, limlted process capacity must be optimally utilised to
maximise oil production. This is achieved in GAP by setting well head
pressures so as to achieve the optimal combination of production from all
wells in the system.
Consider a system with a gas flaring limit. GAP will calculate the potential
production for the entire system. The gas production is compared to the
constraint. GAP will search to find the wellthat reduces gas production for the
minimum loss in oil production (i.e. usually the highest GOR well). The
production rate for the hghest GOR well is determined that gives a total gas
production within the constraint. Based on the downstream pipeline pressure
from the unconstrained calculation, the choke pressure to achieve the target
rate is determined.
Since the pipeline backpressure depends in turn on the well production rates,
the system rnust be re-calculated and the process repeated until the result
converges.

Page 20