Wellhead The wells provide the conduit for production from the reservoir to the surface, and are

therefore the key link between the reservoir and surface facilities. The type and number of wells required for development will dictate the Hydrocarbons drilling facilities needed, the operating pressures of the wells will influence the design of the production facilities.

To production equipment
Tubing Casing Sliding sleeve Packer

Perforations

Typical flowing well

The application of multi-lateral wells may where appropriate greatly reduce the number of wells required Multi-lateral wells can also be used to cost efficiently access remaining oil in mature fields.

5.6 Well completions

When a production or injection well is drilled, it is common practice to cement in place a casing which extends across the reservoir interval (cased hole completion). The alternative is to leave the reservoir uncased, in a socalled bare foot completion or open hole completion, which is rarely done. When the drilling department finishes its work on the well, it is often left in the state of a cased hole, as on the left of Figure.

The purpose of the well completion is to provide a safe conduit for fluid flow from the reservoir to the flowline.

Completions in horizontal wells are also tailored to the individual reservoir. Figure shows some options for completing horizontal wells. The bare foot completion, which leaves an open hole section below the previous casing, is cheap, simple and suitable for consolidated formations which have little tendency to collapse. The slotted finer is an uncemented section of casing with small intermittent

Figure .Horizontal well completions

Process flow scheme

A process flow scheme such as the one shown would typically be used as a basis for: 1. preparing preliminary equipment lists 2. advanced ordering of long lead time equipment 3.preparing a preliminary plant layout 4.supporting early cost estimates (25-40% accuracy) 5.preparing engineering design sheets 6.basic risk analysis

basic three phase separator

Three phase separator. In three-phase separators, well fluid is separated into gas, oil, and water with the three fluids being discharged separately. The inlet section is designed to separate out most of the liquid phase such as large slugs or droplets in a two phase stream. These simple devices redirect the inlet flow towards the liquid at the bottom of the vessel, separating the stream without generating a mist.

Figure A basic three phase separator

As small droplets of liquid are usually still present in the gas phase, demisting sections are required to recover the liquid mist before it is 'carried over in the gas stream out of the separator. The largest liquid droplets fall out of the gas quickly under the action of gravity but smaller droplets (less than 200 microns) require more sophisticated extraction systems.

cyclone
Centrifugal demister (or cyclone) devices rely on high velocities to remove liquid particles and substantial pressure drops are required in cyclone design to generate these velocities. Cyclones have a limited range over which they operate efficiently; this is a disadvantage if the input stream flowrate is very variable.

As well as preventing liquid carry over in the gas phase, gas 'carry under' must also be prevented in the liquid phase. In summary, separator sizing is determined by 3 main factors 1. gas velocity (to minimize mist carry over) 2. viscosity (residence time) 3. surge volume allowances (up to 50% over normal operating rates). (Adequate volumetric liquid capacity to handle liquid surges (slugs) from the wells )