Let’s spend a little time talking about safety and environmental issues that sometimes come up during production. Risks of explosion, releases of poisonous gases, and potential groundwater contamination are just some of the things that must be guarded against to keep personnel and the environment safe.
There are a number of problems that can arise during the production stage of operations. Since producing sites are not always attended, it’s important to be able to plan ahead for the types of problems that may occur for a particular well.
The problems that occur during production can be divided into two types.
The first kind of problem poses either short or long term hazards to the production site and surrounding area. These problems include sand production, lost circulation, compaction/subsidence and induced seismicity.
The second category of problems poses an immediate threat to people working at the site, such as fires, explosions, spills and leaking gases.
In this section, we’ll provide an overview of all of the potential production problems just mentioned, including how they can be predicted, techniques for detecting problems when they occur, and potential solutions.
Why It Matters
Even the best well design is not immune to human error, equipment failure or even systemic failure of a formation. Identifying potential production problems early is a critical component of a sound environment, health and safety (EHS) program, and protecting everyone working on and near an operating well pad.
Learning Objectives
- Explain why sand is produced and under what circumstances.
- Identify rock and reservoir properties that lead to subsidence.
- Discuss the various mechanisms for over-pressure generation and recognize when and where they would be of concern.
- Identify rock and reservoir properties that lead to fault reactivation and/or induced seismicity.
- Identify fire hazards by sight.
- Recognize and estimate the size of surface spills by sight.
- Describe how to behave around, on, and in tanks.
- Recognize the danger of hydrogen sulfide and how to respond to its presence.
- Witness the current conditions concerning methane leaks in drilling operations.
Images: “Problems” by Michael Black