The oil industry keeps finding new ways to maximize production from existing assets.
One operator has identified best practices for resurrecting production at dead gas condensate wells, while another has used machine learning (ML) to locate new reserves in a giant brownfield. Both highlighted their work during the International Petroleum Technical Conference (IPTC) in Kuala Lumpur in February.
After liquid loading halted gas production from some of Saudi Aramco’s wells, the operator identified two best practices for reviving production.
The resulting effort realized “significant gas gain” from previously dead wells and made it possible to prolong the productive life of those fields, Qassim Hashim, a gas production engineer for Saudi Aramco, and coauthors wrote in IPTC 25106, which he presented during the conference.
Liquid loading occurs in a gas condensate reservoir when the reservoir pressure drops below the bubblepoint and liquid starts to drop out of the gas phase. This isn’t problematic if there is enough energy provided by the pressure difference between the reservoir and wellbore to bring the liquid to the surface. But if the hydrostatic pressure exceeds the reservoir pressure, production will cease, Hashim said.
“Liquid loading is a common challenge in gas condensate producers, where liquid accumulation can hinder the flow of gas, reducing the well productivity, or in some cases, stop it altogether,” he said.
