| dc.description.abstract | Fields producing by pure depletion face challenges due to the low reservoir pressure after some years of production. This pressure is insufficient for fluid to flow at a desired rate from the reservoir up to the surface facilities. In this way, hydrocarbons are left behind in the reservoir.
The Morvin field has been producing by pure depletion since 2010 and its reservoir pressure has decreased significantly. In this project, studies and simulations have been done to analyse the possibility to implement some technologies in this field, in order to keep it producing at an accelerated rate and for longer.
In the case of this project, those technologies, which help the hydrocarbons flow from the reservoir up to the surface facilities, involved: boosting the production by adding pressure to the system (multiphase pumps with and without subsea separation, jet pumps and caisson separator followed by electrical submersible pumps); and reducing the required pressure of the system (increasing pipeline diameter and artificial lift using gas-lift).
In the simulation part, the goal was to estimate the new production profile of the Morvin field when each of these methods were applied. The results were satisfactory and it was proven that in almost all the scenarios, the production had actually increased with the use of these technologies. The only scenario that the results were proven to be negative, was the one with gas-lift as an artificial lift, in order to reduce hydrostatic pressure in the wellbore. Due to the gas injection, the mass flow of the system increased and it led to a higher pressure loss along the pipeline, reducing the production.
Moreover, with the production profile, economical calculations were performed in order to prove the profitability of those IOR methods applied in the field. Since the artificial lift method with gas-lift was proven to not improve the oil production, this option was not considered after the simulation stage and therefore, no economical evaluation was performed for this method.
It was noted that for calculations based on the current oil and gas price, almost all the results appear to not be profitable, since revenue is relatively low. Surface jet pump technology was proven to be the best, and it is the only solution that provides a positive net present value even with low oil price, due to its low investment cost. Other scenarios also had profitable results for relatively high oil prices (80US$/bbl). | en |
