China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Fundamentals of Heavy Oil Recovery and Production
Published in Cesar Ovalles, Subsurface Upgrading of Heavy Crude Oils and Bitumen, 2019
Many crude oil wells require artificial lift to produce oil to the surface. Sucker rod pumping (SRP), electrical submersible pumping (ESP), jet hydraulic pumps, and gas-lift are the various modes of artificial lift currently used. However, when heavy oils and bitumens are encountered, these methods of artificial lift fail to provide the necessary pressure for the crude to reach the surface [Awarval et al. 2015]. In some fields, electrical submersible (or submergible) pumps or ESPs are favored because of the significant drawdown they can produce. ESPs comprise a series of rotating turbine type blades that have the drawback of being very sensitive to even small amounts of sand production. Pump failures can form the primary component of operating expenditures in such fields [Smalley 2000].
Petroleum Reservoir Lifecycle
Published in Ashok K. Pathak, Petroleum Reservoir Management, 2021
Primary oil recovery is the first phase of oil and gas production, which utilizes the inherent reservoir energy to bring the underground resource to the surface by successfully drilling and completing a set of wells. It may deploy artificial lift methods such as Gas Lift and Electrical Submersible Pumps (ESPs). The primary recovery phase continues until the reservoir pressure is inadequate to produce a commercial quantity of oil.
Optimization of production and lift-gas allocation to producing wells by a new developed GLPC correlation and a simple optimization method
Published in Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects, 2019
Hamed Namdar, Mohammad Amin Shahmohammadi
Different methods are used in the artificial lift. Gas lift is one of the common method of artificial lift in oil reservoirs. In the gas lift, the gas is injected into the tubing and the density of oil and the hydrostatic pressure of the oil column will decrease and oil is brought to the surface (Fleshman and Harryson 1999). There are two methods for gas lift: continuous and intermittent. In the continuous method, gas is injected into the well at an appropriate depth and rate to be mixed with oil. This method is used in the high flow-rate wells (higher than 0.5 STB/D/psi) which have a high hydrostatic pressure. The intermittent method is used in the low-pressure reservoirs which have a low flow rate (lower than 0.5 STB/D/psi) (Boyun, William, and Ghalambor 2007). In this method, oil is let to accumulate in the borehole and then a plume of gas is injected into the oil column to bring the oil to the surface (Schlumberger Well Completions and Productivity, 1999). Generally, in the process of gas lift, the optimum gas injection rate plays a crucial role. The gas lift performance curve (GLPC) shows the rate of oil production with respect to the rate of gas injection (Figure 1). For instance in Figure 1, curve A illustrates a well that naturally has low oil rate and by gas lifting its oil rate increases. In curve B, well has no production without a gas lift operation. Curves C and D show the performance of wells that need a significant amount of gas injecion to begin oil producing, although in this condition, well C has some oil production rate (Hamedi, Rashidi, and Khamehchi 2011).