A leading production platform in the Gulf of America delivered 156,233 bbl/d from 13 light oil wells to the production line. An oil operator drilled and planned two additional wells and found that the new wells produced heavy oil (16 API gravity) and could not be sent by the same pipeline due to low pressure. For a recovery method, the operator planned to use gas lift compressors but faced operational delays, forcing it to test and produce the two new wells using nitrogen to flow to an FPSO. The capacity of those wells had the potential of 8,100 bbl/d. However, the FPSO only operated at about 40% to 45% capacity per day because of weather conditions, and this resulted in a production rate of only 3,200 to 3,645 bbl/d. The operator needed another solution that would enable continuous operation and maximize production to ensure full capacity.
Additionally, in 2019, the operator's engineers identified high-backpressure issues that bottlenecked field performance. Due to pressure loss, some of the light oil wells were bottlenecked by high production pressure, and the operator faced issues with total production decline.
For the two new heavy oil wells, SLB designed, mobilized, and installed an integrated surface pressure boosting solution, part of the Production Express™ rapid production response solutions portfolio. The solution combined surface well test equipment, a horizontal pumping system, and software simulation to boost production via a processing facility installed on the offshore production platform instead of relying on FPSO output.
The facility combined SLB well test equipment and the operator's production separator to separate and treat well effluent. The effluent was then boosted by Reda HPS™ horizontal multistage surface pumping system to overcome production backpressure. Total production was monitored by Vx Spectra™ surface multiphase flowmeter. All incoming well data was made available for real‑time visualization. Surface equipment capabilities vs. expected well performance were proved by using the Pipesim™ steady‑state multiphase flow simulator to boost production, and SLB technical experts provided support throughout the duration of the project.
To address another production backpressure challenge, the operator tested mixing light oil wells with the two heavy oil wells: One of the light oil wells facing high-backpressure issues was diverted to the Production Express rapid production response solutions to be mixed with incoming heavy oil. By diverting the light oil well, it was now possible to overcome the bottleneck of production backpressure using the surface pressure boosting solution. Also, mixing heavy oil wells with light oil wells showed an increase in efficiency of the separator and multiphase pump.
With this cost-effective, fit-for-purpose Production Express solution, the operator:
After the success of this operation, the operator decided to implement customized Production Express solutions to simultaneously produce several wells, with the flexibility to add extra wells from teh operator's production lines. The solution accommodated five more wells and enabled the operator to gain an additional 16,000 bbl/d, which accumulatively delivered about 9 million bbl by early October 2021.
