Making Intelligent Energy Business As Usual
Date: 04/09/2010
With operations moving to deeper, harsher, or more remote locations and steeper reservoir decline rates, complexity and diversity are some of the challenges facing the industry where intelligent energy can have an impact.
Speaking at the first of three plenary sessions at the SPE Intelligent Energy Conference & Exhibition on March 23 in Utrecht, Satish Pai, Vice President Operations, Schlumberger, took the opportunity to highlight several areas in which an intelligent energy approach is already creating business value while at the same time telling the delegates that “adoption is still lacking in scale” throughout the E&P industry.
The Schlumberger real-time hydraulic fracture monitoring and optimization service called StimMAP Live* is one of those technologies that is having an impact, particularly in harnessing the potential of shale gas. The technique, he said, involves lowering an array of geophones into a nearby well during frac operations to listen and record, in real time, the microseismic events initiated during the fracturing process. Computer images display the activity in 3D space relative to the location of the frac treatment. This real-time data is then transmitted to operators’ offices during the pumping operation allowing them to modify fracturing strategies and to plan diversion schemes as the job progresses.
On a recent well in the Barnett Shale, Pai said, real-time diagnostics enabled changes to the completion design and subsequent fracturing stages, preventing breakout into a water-bearing zone and establishing effective fracture length and drainage area. Additionally, the results gained from that job provided the operator a field-wide understanding that reduced well stimulation costs and optimized field drilling plans.
Another area that Pai pointed to as an example of progress since the last conference in 2008 is reservoir testing. There, real-time capabilities allow domain and field experts to stay in communication seamlessly throughout the test execution. Quality checks can be made on real-time data and adjustments can be made to the well test design while the test is being performed. This collaboration also enables interpretation while testing, which ensures all test data and objectives required by the operator are collected before terminating the test.
“Integrating the three phases of reservoir testing and enabling them with real-time data and collaborative decision-making brings about better and more efficient reservoir testing,” Pai said. “Enabling clients to achieve test objectives first time, every time, and to be certain of their decisions—this is the value of intelligent energy.”
Pai also elaborated on a new generation coiled-tubing service that integrates fiber-optic technology. The combined technologies allow real-time surface readout of downhole measurements so that wells and treatments can be monitored live. In Alberta, Canada, this new service has made it possible to accurately identify thief zones, and wells treated with this method have demonstrated, on average, a 54% production improvement compared with wells using traditional treatment methods.
“Although there are obvious benefits to be gained from intelligent energy, implementation at scale in the industry is still lacking,” Pai said. “The industry needs to take an industrialized approach to the implementation of intelligent energy in the next few years for measureable and significant impact on the long-term challenges related to operations, reservoirs and people. Clearly, technology is not a limitation, and so success depends on making intelligent energy business as usual.”
*Mark of Schlumberger