Technology Focus: Production Monitoring/Surveillance (March 2016)
Authors: Kuck Marc 
Published: January 2017

Technology Focus

Despite the market conditions during the last year, our industry continued to demonstrate further advances in the monitoring and surveillance field and to attest to the added value provided. General trends from past years are still being pursued to further our knowledge related to the issues seen as most important for production optimization and field management. Studies and methods were shared regarding unconventional development such as fracturing performance and analysis. New developments for multiphase-flow-metering evaluation and verification continue to be a leading topic. Additional studies were shared in understanding flow regimes in long horizontal wells using new methods and combined data gathering. Downhole solutions providing data in horizontal and difficult wellbore trajectories without intervention were further developed with tracers and other technology. New and novel methods for the use of fiber optics continue to come forth with advancements in strain and acoustic measurements that have been shown to add value. Challenges regarding the management of large data streams are still being discussed, although some interesting practical applications incorporating multiple data streams managed simultaneously in real-time scenarios were shared during the past year.

Newer trends indicate further cooperation across the industry. Results from multiple collaboration efforts were released and discussed that involved partners from government agencies, operators, service providers, and various third parties working together to solve problems for the future. Case studies are now being presented for practical applications of advanced technology and optimization methodology that were considered only visions not that many years ago. It is very exciting for us to see the results from the efforts that have taken place over the past several years. Success cases for fieldwide implementation of real-time data gathering combined with work flows, modeling, and predictive analysis are becoming more prevalent. Subsurface monitoring applications relating to kick detection and managed-pressure drilling are gaining more attention as we also push the limits on the drilling side of the surveillance field. The technology initially developed for production monitoring may be forging the way for wide applications across oilfield operations.

The following is a selection of articles to demonstrate the accomplishments shared by the exceptional peers who chose to publish their knowledge from the last year. Additional reading suggestions are also provided. JPT

Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org.

SPE 173452 Lessons Learned From Worldwide Deployments of Model-Based Real-Time Production-Optimization Solutions by Amol Bakshi, Chevron, et al.

IPTC 17773 Real-Time Calculation of Fluid Level Using Dynamometer Card of Sucker-Rod-Pump Well by Yang Haitao, PetroChina, et al.

SPE 172593 Combining Horizontal Production-Logging and Distributed- Temperature Interpretations To Diagnose Annular Flow in Slotted-Liner Completions by T. Ben Haoua, Schlumberger, et al.