Once a well has been drilled and completed, operations move into the production phase. This is the moment operators have been working towards – the moment when oil and gas begins to flow from the wellhead and through the sales meters which measure the total fluid volumes sold. In this section we’ll cover the planning and implementation of production operations at both oil and gas wells.
The Production Process in Short
The production process plays out over the entire productive lifetime of the well, which is measured in decades – a typical well may produce for 20, 30, 40 years or more. There are several steps involved in formulating and implementing a production plan.
First, operators need to determine the processing requirements for the hydrocarbons produced from the well – oil and gas sales contracts are very specific about composition and maximum level of impurities in the product.
Next, they need to design surface equipment which will convert raw hydrocarbons streams to saleable products. Depending on the fluids coming from the well, the equipment can be very simple or quite complicated.
A producing well is monitored continuously for efficiency and safety reasons. This allows operators to estimate the total future production from the well, ensure there aren’t any mechanical problems, and decide when and if to implement additional techniques to increase recovery from declining wells.
Why It Matters
“Be Prepared” might be the motto for the natural gas and oil production cycle. Often, we overlook the production cycle of the well, and focus our attention on the drilling and completion operations. The reality is drilling and completion are only the first steps in a long series of events in the life of a well.Over the lifetime of a well numerous other operations must occur. These operations include well maintenance (“workovers”), recompilation work, and plugging and abandoning
Learning Objectives
- Describe three stages of extraction.
- Identify what fluids are in a reservoir based on extant data.
- Describe the three basic reservoir flow regimes: 1) infinite acting, 2) steady state and 3) pseudo-steady state.
- Describe how operators induce flow in the reservoir.
- Describe the parameters needed to calculate production rates for oil and gas wells.
- Estimate production rates for oil and gas wells.
- Describe when artificial lift would be needed and how it works.
- Describe purpose and operations of different pieces of surface equipment.
- Describe how well site telemetry functions.
- Explain several processes used during enhanced recovery operations.
Images: “Production” by Jim Blecha