bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Enhance Compressor Performance by Value Engineering
Authors: Saxena Ankit , Al Hammadi Hamed
Published: October 2022

Background

The continuous operations of axial and Centrifugal type of blowers and Compressors are critical for the Gas Processing facilities and Compressor Surge which can cause catastrophic failure of the equipment, leading to loss of containment and production upsets

Whenever there is no insufficient forward flow through a compressor, surge occurs. Surge is the inability for the compressor to sustain the forward flow and flow reversal happens very quickly.

The purpose of the Anti-surge valve (ASV) is to protect the machine from surge conditions by increasing the suction flow. To sustain the forward flow, a recycle line is provided with ASV which quickly opens as per the requirement with minimum dead time and hysteresis.

Hence the response of Anti surge valve plays an essential role in compressor performance and compressor life cycle. In current set up, sometimes the response time of anti-surge valve was not achieved, and this caused machine going to surge or process upset. To overcome this certain minimum opening of ASV is kept, which introduces continuous recycle and energy wastage.

New technology

Considering the above limitations, a new actuator technology has been reviewed. The newly introduced Electraulic technology is combined between both, Electric mechanism and hydraulic system, to achieve faster response time, almost negligible overshoot and dead time. This enabled anti surge valve to open very fast on demand which comes and bring the machine out of surge quicker.

As a Pilot project, this actuator technology has been implemented in one of the anti-surge valve 552FV1583 of the combustion air blower 552B101A, which is critical equipment in Habshan -5 sulphur recovery unit. This new technology actuator was commissioned and in operation since Oct-2021.

Conclusion & Recommendation

Various tests have been carried out to confirm the smooth and fast performance of the ASV and the results are found to be satisfactory.

This has enabled to tune the anti-surge controller settings which caused reduction in surge margin. This has resulted in consistent energy savings due to the less or minimum recycle operation compared to the previous operating scenario with conventional pneumatic actuators. Valve performance parameters are consistently exceeded compared to the KPI /Benchmark for this application.

Reduction of motor power and equivalent Energy savings 2800 MW per year observed, which will result in the direct cost savings of fuel consumption to generate the electricity. This saving of motor power is equivalent to saving a 1139 tons of CO2 emission per year.

Based on the successful outcome of this Pilot, this technology can be considered for similar applications with existing poor performance of anti-surge valves. Also, for new anti-surge valves in the Project, where this is found to provide the required cost benefit.
Turning the Most Abundant Form of Trash Worldwide into Effective Corrosion Inhibitors for Applications in the Oil and Gas Industry
Authors: Almubarak Tariq , Almubarak Majed , Rafie Majid , Almoajil Abdullah
Published: October 2022

There is a big concern regarding waste materials that are generated daily. Cigarette butts are one of the most common forms of trash. Trillions of cigarette butts are thrown from car windows, discarded on sidewalks and beaches every year. They accumulate in landfills with minimal recycling solutions and have been known to cause severe damage to plant and aquatic life environments. Fortunately, the oil and gas industry are continuously trying to find methods to utilize such materials in our well treatments as they are cheap and would contribute to a cleaner world. Corrosion in the oil and gas industry causes well integrity issues totaling billions of dollars annually. Consequently, it is intuitive to include corrosion inhibitors in well treatments which are corrosive in nature to protect our equipment. Corrosion inhibitors are molecules that can stick and create an impermeable film on the surface of metal, thereby reducing contact with corrosive substances. Cellulose acetate filters (CAF) are the main component in cigarette butts, and they retain over 7000 compounds resulting from the combustion of tobacco. Many of these compounds contain chemical functional groups that can provide corrosion inhibition properties.

The goal of this project is to test the chemicals extracted from CAF for potential applications as corrosion inhibitors.

The CAF were soaked for 24 hours in solvents such as ethanol, methanol, water, isopropyl alcohol, n-hexane, dichloromethane, and a methanol/chloroform azeotrope to extract chemical compounds using a continuous Soxhlet extraction method. To determine the inhibition efficacy, T-95 low carbon steel coupons were exposed to 15 wt.% HCl solution for 6 hours with 5-60 gpt of the CAF extract at temperatures between 77-350°F. A control solution containing no corrosion inhibitor was used to establish a corrosion rate for a base case. Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) and gas chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) were utilized to identify molecules in the CAF extracts.

At room temperature, CAF extracts were observed to provide more than 97% corrosion inhibition efficiency. At 150°F, the control solution showed a corrosion rate of 0.0985 lb/ft2, whereas the solutions containing CAF extracts were observed to maintain good corrosion inhibition efficiency at 0.0138 lb/ft2. At 200, 250, 300, and 350°F the corrosion rates observed were as low as 0.0014 lb/ft2, 0.0010 lb/ft2, 0.01 lb/ft2, and 0.0146 lb/ft2, respectively. Chemical compounds such as nicotine, benzenes, and aromatic amines are present in CAF, so it comes with no surprise that the extracts can provide corrosion inhibition properties.

These results show that waste products can be used as corrosion inhibitors. Due to their low inherent value, this form of trash may provide a cheap alternative to commercial corrosion inhibitors while simultaneously protecting the environment by reducing pollution.
Sustainability Driven Produced Water Treatment Technology Solution at Nano-Scale
Authors: Myo Thant Maung Maung , Che Daud M Faizal , Shaffee Siti Nur Amira , Sedaralit M Faizal
Published: October 2022

Treatment and disposal costs of produced water from oil and gas operations remain the primary concern with the ongoing global push toward the transition to cleaner energy and Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD). Gas floatation utilizing micro-size bubbles is commonly used in produced water treatment. However micro-size bubbles are not effective in removing dissolved oil (such as Benzene, Toluene, Ethyl-benzene, and Xylene) and usually require chemical pre-treatment to remove the emulsified oil. This paper aims to present the challenges, and lessons learned from produced water treatment technologies as well as recent technology development in nano-bubble floatation technology with a concept select study of pilot deployment at one of the terminals in Malaysia.

First, state-of-the-art analysis of existing gas floatation technology to treat produced water is presented. From the analysis, the failures and lesson-learned from the technology implementations are identified. To improve the efficiency of gas floatation technology, the effects of reducing the micro-sized bubble to a nano-sized bubble, bubble concentration, and type of gas have been evaluated. Subsequently, several improvements are developed and tested to overcome existing gas floatation technology. The pilot application of this developed technology at one of the crude oil terminals in Malaysia, which include a feasibility study, concept selection and engineering of this technology is described as a case study.

The typical gas floatation system is much less efficient in produced water where dissolved oil fraction is high and, in the presence of the fines solid. As a result, the required oil in water separation is not met leading to disposal limit compliance issues and the poor recovery of hydrocarbon in produced water. Changing operating envelope over time i.e., reduced production, increased water cut, and fines sand production, affects gas floatation efficiency over time. It is also not cost-effective to produce large volumes of microbubbles that are smaller than oil droplets. From our analysis, a significant improvement in oil-in-water (OIW) removal is achieved by controlling the bubble size, gas type, and bubble concentrations via a nano-bubble floatation unit. This technology successfully maintains the less than 10ppm OIW target removal and a further reduction in the required treatment stages and chemical consumption. The system is a promising technology for brown and green facilities, wet or dry terminals, or even for downhole applications to increase oil recovery.

New design elements are proposed to increase separation efficiency under erratic multiphase-flow conditions, increased water cuts, and the presence of fine particles. Testing results of the compact, low-energy, high reliable nanoscale gas floatation system are presented and are a promising technology for both aging and new facilities.
Leverage Telemetry Scada and Machine Learning on Pumpjack Wellhead Production Facilities
Authors: Susanto Tedy
Published: October 2022

The purpose of the installed Rod Pump Controller system was to demonstrate production optimization and OPEX reduction, with the aid of Machine Learning and AI based application that helped Operators and Petroleum Engineers better manage the wells. Another one was to help customer evaluate the "as-a-Service" payment model to operate the wells. Such payment models are becoming more relevant across the industry, where International or National Oil Companies allows technology vendors to manage the entire Electrical and Automation scope for wellhead monitoring and optimization. Several issues can develop with this application that can create costly repair situations. Traditionally these have been monitored by personnel visiting each unit on a prescribed basis to ensure they are still operating and then making adjustments during the visit. This makes it ideal for monitored control to ensure maximum liquid production and reduced operational costs. Production optimization for rod pumps is best accomplished by regulating the speed of the pumpjack as reservoir levels rise and fall, in order to gain maximum production without over pumping the well and damaging the equipment. Better management of motor speed can also provide power savings for the end user.

Edge computing is the concept of pushing applications, data, and computing power away from centralized points to the logical extremes of a network. In the oil and gas field, this would be the rod pump well sites. Edge analytics is enabled through a combination of Machine Learning and Control Room/Cloud learning for model development. This approach takes advantage of the unlimited processing power and abundance of historical data available in the control/server room. The model is executed in real-time in the Edge minimizing lag and providing real-time feedback and insights to the operations and productions teams.

As part of the project, it was able to demonstrate an end-to-end cyber secure architecture for the rod pump analytics application. The software platform, inclusive of the Edge gateway and the cloud solution, collected all generated dynacards from the RTU and predicted dynacard shape for every stroke. By doing so, the software provided real-time analytics of rod pump performance along with production and energy consumption parameters. Finally, the benefit of the solution are make better production optimization, cost reduction and improve production revenue/uptime, reduce well service down time. Hence all these things will reduce CO2 emission and drive sustainability strategy for customer.
Innovative Online ESD Valve Seat Leak Detection Technique Using AE & AI Embedded Methodology in Optimizing Cost/Time & Maintain Plant Integrity
Authors: AlSulaimani Aysha Mubarak , Majumdar Pradip , AlHammadi Badhria
Published: October 2022

More than 1000 emergency shutdown valves are installed in the gas processing facility in different applications such as battery limit isolation, equipment isolation, unit/train isolation, pressurization/depressurization of section/unit as per different shutdown level.

There are four main categories of ESD valves considered; i. Emergency Service (ESDV & EBDV), ii. Inventory Isolation, iii. Pipeline Sectioning/Isolation and iv. Process Service (Routing, Sequencing, etc.)
Agile Field Development Study Leveraging Fast-Tracked Reservoir Modeling and Data Analytics While Incorporating Reservoir Uncertainties
Authors: Al Lawati Husain Ali , Al Hashmi Salim Musalam , Al Harthy Nabil , Ahmed Ahmed Fadhl Mustafa , Fletcher Kathryn Joanna Clark , Shergill Galvin Singh , Zahid Salman , Ahmad Ammar , Hameed Omair , Shahid Shawwal , Al Bahrani Mundhir , Al Kindi Zainab
Published: October 2022

A small onshore brownfield in south Oman has low oil recovery because of its heavy oil and high water production, which together with reservoir uncertainties poses development challenges. Petrogas implemented an innovative field development planning approach to quantitatively compare multiple field development scenarios and optimize the operational choices within each.

The workflow started with a single history matched model for each of the two geological structures in the field. A set of 14 field development scenarios were defined, on injection rates, well locations, and injection fluids. Identification and quantification of subsurface uncertainties were performed. These uncertainties were included in the geomodel for each scenario, which generated an ensemble of realizations and corresponding production forecasts. Two sets of economic results were produced—a simple, discounted cashflow model and the fiscal terms of the operator's service contract. Each ensemble was run against these models to generate probabilistic performance indicators for each scenario.

Using cloud-computing capability, the field development study was drastically accelerated without losing on the quality. Almost 800 simulations were run over 5 days, covering 32 development scenarios in total (for two structures), automatically integrated with the economics workflow, providing in-depth analyses. The scenarios were compared in a series of dashboards that presented the economic metrics and their corresponding cumulative distribution functions.

The analysis yielded several important insights: longer wells did not provide enough additional production to offset the increased costs. Moreover, peripheral drive with horizontal wells was more effective than irregular vertical wells. The waterflood scenarios improved production, but the polymer-injection option with short horizontal wells and peripheral infill well pattern was the highest-performing scenario. The study also helped identify areas where more detailed optimization studies should be performed, e.g., to optimize polymer-injection scheduling and polymer design.

Traditionally, subsurface uncertainties analysis was restricted to a small number of discrete model realizations. Results were quantified in terms of production ranges only. Here, production forecasts were based on an ensemble of models, capturing the full range of uncertainties. In addition, evaluation criteria included economics.
Avoiding Plant Shutdowns Through Extension of Temporary Clamps Life Time by Engineered Over Enclosures
Authors: Al Khoujah Khaled M Mazen , Frost Liam , Al Qaydi Juma Rashid , Al Blooshi Saeed , Al Mansoori Fatima Hassan , Evgeny Shakirov
Published: October 2022

ADNOC Sour Gas's Plant has been in operation for 6 years and throughout that period, similar to other operating plants, various piping, flanges, and valves leaks were identified; Some of the leaks cannot be attended online and requires a plant shutdown to perform permanent and long term repair activities, and hence, conventional leak sealing clamps were used to restrict the leakage. However, due to short life span and tight expiry period of these clamps, new enclosures were designed so that can extend the expiry up to 5 years. Thus, avoiding Total and/ or partial plant shutdowns to replace the clamps with a permanent solution. This paper will present an implementation of the Leak Sealing Enclosures, so called, clamps over clamps and will discuss its design factors and basis.

This paper will present a breakthrough innovative implementation of Engineered Enclosures over failed and expired leak sealing clamps, to extend the life of the clamps, and hence, ensure extended safe and sustainable production and operations. Leak sealing clamps are common to be used as temporary repairs over leaking pipes, flanges and valves when permanent repair is not possible in operational oil and gas plant on leaking pipe.
Centralized Predictive Analytics & Diagnostics Value Creation
Authors: AlSulaimani Aysha Mubarak , Majumdar Pradip , AlHammadi Reem , AlHammadi Badhria
Published: October 2022

The implemented maintenance strategy for rotating equipment in the field was conventional time-based (6months-1year) maintenance. Due to this maintenance philosophy, many equipment's were serviced every 6-12 months including the stand-by equipment. Thus, material, spare parts and man-hours are consumed very frequently. In 2019, company decided to convert the maintenance philosophy from time-based to running-hours based and based on OEMs recommendations, 4000 running-hours was the optimum running-hours before the equipment maintenance. By implementing this technique, the frequency of equipment maintenance was reduced and thus maintenance cost and service cost were reduced as well. Moving towards the deployment of AI technology and digitalization world, a new requirement to deploy predictive maintenance analytics and tools elevated. The Centralized Predictive Analytics & Diagnostic (CPAD) which is a centralized ret time predictive monitoring solution for critical assets. The asset specific real time data from site historian will be replicated a centralized historian to enable continuous monitoring of these assets and failure predictions. The CPAD modules get these data streams and execute performance calculations for each asset based on first principle models and also monitor for the failure predictions through data driven models using APR methods. CPAD will generate fault notifications that will be transmitted to site experts for follow-up. CPAD project will be implemented in multiple phases. The first phase will be a pilot implementation as prove of concept and will include the deployment, commissioning and monitoring of all core applications. Once pilot prove of concept implementation schussed, it will to be followed by further implementation of remaining critical rotating equipment. The deployment of predictive maintenance and analytic diagnostics solutions will add value in different forms. It will support shutdown deferrals and planning for critical equipment, it will help in reducing maintenance cost of material, consumables, spares & man hour. In addition, it will help in the transition from preventive maintenance to proactive/predictive maintenance. Furthermore, the predication ability will help in early prediction and identification of potential failures and gives advisory recommendations to support rectifications of failures before the actual failure occur.

The pilot implementation started in 2020 with the deployment of 54 critical rotating equipment. The cases reported in phase-1 pilot implementation reported around $3.000.000 savings and proved the CPAD concept. A plan were put in place to capture additional assets in the CPAD system. Additional 108 equipment were deployed in phase-3 implementation of the project.
Production Optimization and Reservoir Monitoring Through Virtual Flow Metering
Authors: Maheshwari Nitin , Lobari Sultan , Saary Ali Awadh
Published: October 2022

Development of marginal oil fields having limited production rate are typically very challenging, especially for the fields where reservoir behavior could be very sensitive to the operating envelop. Also, minimizing the operational expenses is the key for economic development of such marginal fields. Bu Haseer is one of the marginal fields in offshore concession area of Al Yasat Petroleum Operations Company. Al Yasat has implemented hybrid virtual flow meter solution in Bu Haseer field, to enhance the reservoir management plan while minimizing the operational expenses.

Hybrid virtual flowmeter solution adopted by Al Yasat utilizes first principle based high fidelity multi-phase flow assurance simulator, leveraging its machine learning model for fast and robust flow estimation. Dynamic analysis and data driven approach of the virtual flow meter solution ensures the estimation accuracy and would highlight the system failure, if any. Utilizing available real time data from field, the virtual flow meter estimates the real time oil, water and gas flow rates from producers and expected down-hole parameters, within accuracy acceptable for reservoir surveillance and production optimization.

Typically, well performance is being monitored through periodic well tests and downhole monitoring through wireline activities. Frequency of such reservoir surveillance activities could be significant, especially for marginal fields due to reservoir sensitivity. Continuous real time reservoir monitoring through virtual flow meter provides better understanding of reservoir for timely corrective actions and maximizes the oil recovery in the field lifecycle. With the implementation of virtual flow metering technology, physical well testing and downhole monitoring will be limited for periodic validation and calibration of the virtual flow meter. Therefore, operational expenses for reservoir monitoring activities and associated HSE risks are also significantly optimized.

Virtual flow measurement using conventional steady state principles of physics is widely used in oil and gas industry. However, advancing the conventional methodology with a combined machine learning & dynamic simulation approach not only enhances the measurement accuracies, but allows the solution to be a tool for analyzing and identifying potential failures and their root causes. This paper presents Al Yasat experience in hybrid virtual flow measurement technology implemented in one of its marginal fields.
Brownfield Performance Data Driven Analysis and Integration with Urban Planning to Generate Field Development Plan in a North Kuwait Multi-Stacked Giant Reservoir
Authors: AlAbbas Reem , Majhi Somnath , Mishra Rajendra , Jha Manish Kumar , Abu Shiekah Issa , de Bruijn Gerbert , Vann Jeffrey
Published: October 2022

A mature and congested field with multi-stacked sandstone reservoirs has been developed through depletion drive for 50 years and more recently with peripheral water injection. Currently, the field performance shows rising water-cut in some reservoir units and pressure depletion in others, but still has significant remaining development potential. A field development plan has been established to economically produce bypassed oil, driven by the analysis of the historical performance data for the different reservoir units.

Integrated analysis of historical data and development decisions identified the subsurface and operational drivers behind the increased water-cut and differential pressure depletion. This paved way for developing clear recommendations for the major development decisions on well and completion type, well spacing and waterflood strategy. Oil production type curves generated for each reservoir unit using recent infill drilling historical production data helped establish the preferred development phasing and production forecasts. Urban planning is a key enabler to realize value from the future development of the field due to surface congestion; therefore, the new wells have been allocated to multi well pads.

The detailed analysis focused on each area of the field, complemented with saturation logs and dynamic model, helped in determining the long-term well requirements and their locations targeting bypassed oil. The integrated study generated a rolling development plan covering the field life cycle to accelerate oil production and reserves maturation and improve the reservoir pressure and sweep. Each new well has been assigned a primary reservoir target and a confidence level for the target reservoir to enable phased implementation of structured infill drilling to reduce well spacing starting with high confidence wells. New water injectors were added to the reservoir units that have limited aquifer support. Integration of the well pad allocation and development schedule with the pad construction schedule helped identify and mitigate against any surface related showstoppers to the planned well locations and the development schedule. As a result, more than 130 new development wells were added to accelerate oil production and increase production rates.

This integrated study manifests the power, efficiency and value from brownfield data driven analysis to capture lessons learned from evolving wells and development concepts applied in a complex field over six decades. The workflow enabled the delivery of an updated field development plan and production forecasts within a year through utilizing data analytics to compensate for the recognized limitations of subsurface models. Urban planning and multi-well pad drilling concepts alleviate the impact of drilling constraints.
WRFM Excellence in Fahud, Sultanate of Oman
Authors: Al Waheibi Hamed , Habib Ahmed , Al Shibli Abdullah , Al Saadi Hamoud , Al Mabsali Salima , Awlad Wadair Aamir , Yahmad’I Salim
Published: October 2022

The paper describes the best practices and the excellence of Well-Reservoir-Facility Management (WRFM) of one of the Oil Assets located in the North Salt Basin in Sultanate of Oman. The asset consists of 3 main oil fields. These fields have highly multi layered fractured carbonate reservoirs and have been mainly producing under Gas-Oil-Gravity-Drainage (GOGD) recovery process over the last 5 decades. The surface facilities consist of 6 gathering & processing stations, 23 High pressure gas compressors and 12 low pressure gas blowers. Besides the complex reservoirs, there are other two main challenges; first is the aging wells and facilities and the second one is the facilities gas and water handling constraints.

An integrated Well-Reservoir-Facility Management (WRFM) Framework was developed to maximize Lifecyle value and meet or exceed production, reserves, and cost targets despite the pertaining challenges. The framework outlines WRFM strategy, operational philosophy, Gap-to-Potential (GtP) plan, key uncertainties coupled with surveillance plan, key risks coupled with new technologies plan, budget planning and control, resources & capabilities, workflows & decisions. All of these were managed using the Continuous Improvement Fundamentals (CIF).

The WRFM practices and approach followed in the Asset under study has resulted in remarkable achievements in different fronts. Well integrity compliance is maintained above target. Well production optimization gain reached 4% of base production and plan in place to reach of 12% in the next few years which is above industry TQ of 10%. The optimisation jobs are very attractive at average UTC of 3$/bbl. The operating cost per well is the cheapest across the North Assets. The unscheduled oil deferment reached less than TQ of 2% of IPSC. The gas compressors availability reached 95% exceeding target of 92%. The flare has been reduced by more than 30%. The case study describes a novel approach on how to manage a complex brown field with ageing wells and constrained facilities.
Driving Operations Excellence During Covid-19 Pandemic by Capitalizing on Digitalization
Authors: Arif Muhammad , Al Jneibi Abdulla Mohammed
Published: October 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disturbances to the ways businesses operate, and has driven the entire industry to re-evaluate its operations. Although the full impact of the disruption will not be understood for some time, however, many companies are now beginning to re-examine and use lessons learned to become more resilient moving forward.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4.0) in Oil & Gas Industry creates a dynamic landscape where Operational Excellence (OE) strives for stability, quality, and efficiency while continuing to serve an increasingly demanding customer. Operational excellence is a journey, not a sole destination. Operational Excellence is a key strategic enabler to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on shape the business of tomorrow.

In line with the company vision of digitalization, a number of initiatives were considered for studies and further evaluations to facilitate remote operations through digitization. Below is list of initiatives those were successfully implemented to promote remote field operations.

Critical equipment like compressors and pumps startup sequences development. Establish communication of wells subsurface (downhole) sensors with the control room for real time data monitoring. Development of wells start up sequences to facilities wells startup from control room. Real time monitoring of wells annulus pressure from control room compared to traditional field monitoring. Reset of Emergency Shutdown Valves (ESD) from control room instead of field.

All of the above proposals have already been implemented. In-house field operations implementation resulted in huge Capital as well as Operating Expenditure saving. By enhancing remote operations, essential benefits are achieved including capability to faster and more effective decision-making and improved HSE measures.

Enhance production and reservoir optimization by real time data monitoring and troubleshooting. Enhanced well integrity by real time annulus pressure monitoring. Enhanced HSE by eliminating Confined Space Entries (CSEs) and exposure to toxic H2S. Reduction and operating expenditure (OPEX) Reduced dependency on human leading to less human error. Reduction in capital expenditure (CAPEX) Enhanced life of critical equipment

Operational Excellence played its role with a value improvement objective. Rather than replacing successful practices and programs, Operational Excellence knitted them into a larger, fully integrated tapestry woven to increase value produced within the overall business strategy which is very evident in this scenario.

This case study is blend of Digitalization, Operations Excellence and innovation representing Management support to employee to solve current issues during COVID-19 pandemic. Such support is always beneficial for the company and employees.
Repairing Seawater Intake Basin With 100 MM$ Saving by Avoiding Production Cut and Optimizing Capex
Authors: Venkatachalam Saravanan , Ray Tapas , Shayea Mohamed Abdulla
Published: October 2022

There was an immediate requirement for a low-cost fast-track solution to tackle the integrity threats of a Sea Water Intake Pumping Basin at an Offshore Island location. The intake basin, which is more than 40 years old and has gone through minor skin repairs 25 years back, houses all the fire water and cooling water pumps to meet the demand of 1 million barrel per day Oil Processing Plant with 7 nos 1-Million Barrel Crude Oil Storage Tanks.

Sea Water Intake Basin is a box-type concrete structure divided into 7 Bays (compartments) separated by concrete walls or slabs wherein fire water and cooling water pumps are mounted. However, integrity condition of the basin was very alarming with half of the 300mm concrete thickness lost in most of the places of pump mounting slabs. As the intake basin is linked to two main systems of supplying cooling and fire water, failure of the intake structure would render the plant un-operational and lead to adverse impacts including plant shutdown.

The conventional way of repairing the basin would call for the outage of 2 of 3 cooling water pumps for 4 days causing around 500000 barrels of daily oil production cut. As 2 fire water pumps are required to be available always, the repair work would also cause outage of 2 of 3 fire water pumps for 4 days, necessitating a temporary fire water arrangement at a cost of around US$10 million. The challenge was how to repair the intake basin by minimizing and/or avoiding production cut and, at the same time, ensuring uninterrupted supply of fire water during repair, and reducing project execution cost from US$17 million to the extent possible.

A scheme was developed to avoid shutdown of critical pumps through use of buoyancy-assisted Temporary Support Structure and quick-setting concrete in dynamic condition as well as by optimizing plant parameters to reduce the cooling water demand. The scheme, executed at a cost of US$ 4.6 million, resulted in an overall savings of US$100 million.

This paper presents the optimized scheme and execution methodology for the basin repair duly avoiding total shutdown of essential fire and cooling water pumps. Also, this paper highlights how in-house Technical Support can contribute towards "More Profitable Upstream" by providing a fit-for-purpose and cost-effective solution to Company's business needs.
Well Integrity Surveillance with High Sensitivity Temperature Distributed Sensing
Authors: Chavarria J. Andres , Grubert Marcel , Minto Chris , Adams Euan
Published: October 2022

Increasingly well integrity monitoring is being done with fiber optic temperature and acoustic measurements. Historically temperature and acoustics have required two separate types of systems. Advances in fiber optic sensing have resulted in temperature measurements that can be conducted using an Interrogator Unit (IU) that is traditionally used for distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) acoustics analysis. The Rayleigh based Distributed Temperature (RDTS) measurements are sensitive to a 1/1000th of a degree and can be used to assess subtle integrity issues like leaks or problems in the various annuli of wells. It is this great sensitivity to small temperature fluctuations that is the focus of this paper. These DAS measurements have higher sensitivity than conventional DTS measurements and can illuminate previously unexplored wellbore dynamics.

Various measurements with fiber optic cables were conducted with DAS IU's in different engineering and downhole settings. The DAS measurements in wellbore conditions were processed for temperature focusing in the low frequency content of the signals. The measurements were initially validated against other sensing tools like DTS (Raman) and PT gauges to ensure that the temperature changes measured by the DAS unit are representative of real thermal regimes. Measurements were taken from a well setting that included permanent fiber optic cable cemented behind casing. However, these same tools are deployed in wells where the fiber is installed attached to the production tubing hence reducing deployment costs.

The DAS data processing was processed for temperature fluctuations by focusing on low frequency components where fluid regimes reside. Fluid movement within the wellbore was identified by small temperature changes recorded by the IU. These fluid dynamic processes were subtle and quiet enough that a traditional acoustic analysis was not able to identify anomalous zones. The resulting measurements were able to determine fluid velocities illuminated by temperature changes. We show how high sensitivity RDTS signals capture small temperature features and various fluid dynamic responses within the well not possible with other tools. The responses from the system clearly showcase quiet zones above which clear entry points of fluids can be identified as the origin of leaks.
Subsurface to Surface Congestion Management with Holistic Sustainable Development of Super Giant Multi Stacked Brown Field
Authors: Al Shehhi Mohamed Ali , Al Naqbi Hajer Khamis , Alhemeiri Sultan Sameer , Chellappan Sanjeev Kumar , Soares Sofia Machado , Idicula Anoop Pappy , Khan Sara Hasrat
Published: October 2022

Continual development of multi stacked super giant brown field in Abu Dhabi, over 60 years, has induced high congestion at surface resulting in challenging wellhead placement, rig movement and overall field connectivity. The conventional surface to subsurface approach has led to an increased number of undrillable wells, which impairs future developments and consequently, the ability to meet production targets and manage the field proactively.

This paper proposes an alternative to the surface-subsurface usual development solution that can unlock existing reservoirs potential, while being cost conscious and flexible to cope with business uncertainties and dynamics.

Working towards ensuring future sustainability of a brown field has proven its own complexity in developing additional value with minimal cost. Intensive focus is required on the critical factors that play a key role on brown field investment such as subsurface and surface congestion, HSE (Health, Safety, Environment), aging of facilities and it's replacement plan, and environmental issues. One such key factor is the subsurface and surface congestion, which is especially complicated due to different development schemes for each of the stacked reservoirs based on their API gravity and varying reservoir quality. The Shared Earth Model was established due to the absence of a holistic approach to strategically sustain the expansion in the brown field growth till the end of last oil/gas production drop. It is essential to allow all stakeholders to be exposed and visualize the subsurface data openly to collectively decide on the best way forward for each project investment, focusing in sector-by-sector growth. Another objective is locating surface facilities that are of lesser interest to subsurface development and plan their opportunistic removal (when conflicting with the subsurface interests), which will result in a dramatic decrease in undrillable wells by creating space at surface for the drilling location resulting in higher gain by giving priority to oil/gas reservoirs proposed development pattern. There are also challenges to proof quantitively the subsurface congestion and report the long-term risk collectively, which were addressed while developing this system. Allowing each system to talk to each other and work towards digitalization of the entire system for the full field development could not be achieved without this subsurface data platform.
Improvement of Artificial Lift Pumps Run Life with Aid of Novel New Technologies Addressing Sand Production
Authors: Riyami Said , Saadi Faisal , Ghadani Adnan , Palmer Steve , Joy Jerin
Published: October 2022

The effects of uncontrolled sand production can be significant. Many fields are struggling with sand production, which can lead to reduction or complete blockage of well inflow and frequent failures of artificial lift systems such as electric submersible pumps (ESPs) and progressive cavity pumps (PCPs) and thus can have a major impact on cost and production. The currently used mechanical solutions, such as gravel packs or standalone wire wrap screens, are suboptimal because they reduce inflow area and create challenges for any optimization activities. Resins can be effective against sand production but noticeably reduce a well's productivity due to negative effect on reservoir permeability in the critical near-wellbore zone.

The main objective of the work is to improve the run life of artificial lift pumps either ESP or PCP within our cluster which contains multiple fields with different production environments. As percentage during the last 5 years, the statistics of failures showed that about 50% of our failures are related to solids production which are either sand or scale which is about 70-90 wells a year. And based on the chemistry team analysis, sand is the main cause because it can act as accelerating agent for the scale formation.

This paper focuses mainly on the technologies that we used beside the conventional ways and the selection criteria for each of these technologies to mitigate sand production through the pumps. In parallel, we are trialing other technologies to tackle scale.

Initially we started with the actual wells performance in term of failures history and multiple backflush or pump stuck cases within one-year time spam. We took sand sample analysis in form of surface samples to measure the amount of sand produced in g/m3 of liquid and from intervention during the circulation of the fluid.

We will go through the technologies details and the selection criteria that we developed for each of the technologies we used. We used so far 4 technologies which are:

Sand Aid PM filter Sand Guard Cyclone

The details of the technologies and the methodologies that they work by will be illustrated in the paper. There is some specific analysis done for the way to design the technology in such a way to suite the candidate of the well.
A Sustainable Drive in Well Intervention Operations with Case Studies
Authors: Muhammad Salman Saeed , Raza Mustansar , Elmoneim Hossam , Yousuf Arif , Anwar Rameez , Khokhar Saad Yousuf , Temuri Saqib Jah , Ahmed Afnan Dar , Shehzad Kamil
Published: October 2022

Clean out using coiled tubing is the second largest application of coiled tubing after nitrogen kick-off. The advancements in coiled tubing metallurgies to intervene in complex wellbore geometries and precision of downhole simulators to predict on-site scenarios require more efficiencies from end tools that evolved from simple jetting tools to rotating jetting heads. The objective intended in the case studies performed in the Middle East and South Asia was to perform cleanout in scenarios where incumbent tools had failed in the past.

The impact of jetting action in cleanout operations decreases with an increase in stand-off distance. It was confirmed from laboratory tests that a standoff of eight times the orifice diameter and fluid velocity of 200 ft/sec is required to remove moderate to hard deposits from wellbores. Conventional jetting tools have a standoff distance of more than 40 times and fluid velocities are below 200 ft/sec thus objectives are often compromised. A new type of fluidic oscillator was utilized in the case studies discussed in the paper. Unlike pulsating effects created by 1st generation of the fluidic oscillators, the SFO type oscillator had triple jetting action namely, Helix jetting, Pulses Jetting, and Cavitational jetting.

The result of the clean-out with SFO technology was beyond expectations. It saved cost in all the case studies by an average of 35% if had been performed with incumbent technologies and increased production/injection from 30% - to 250% of the original value. Moreover, it reduced the operating times to two-thirds of conventional operations and increased the efficiency of treatment fluids which resulted in the reduction of waste of additives and extra additives to dispose of excess materials at wellsite.

This is the first technology that used cavitational jetting in oilfield services and the first to use aforesaid jetting actions altogether in one tool. The technology adopted in the case studies doesn't have moving or rotating parts, thus eliminating the requirement to pull CT out of the hole for redressing and can perform long operations in one go. It doesn't depend on the centralization of the tool as the jetting effect is passed via kinetic energy through submersed fluids, thus can target deeper depth without limitations of the standoff. It allows a higher flow rate of liquid and gas, thus offering higher fluid velocities to perform an effective cleanout.
Smart Implementation of Asset Integrity Management System (AIMS) at Saudi Armco Khurais Producing Department Facilities
Authors: Al-Boti Abdullah
Published: October 2022

Maintaining assets integrity in oil and gas facility can be quite challenging with conventional ways, therefore a need has arisen for an inclusive efficient way to continuously monitor the critical assets within the plant. Khurais Producing Department (KhPD) in its journey to achieve Operational Excellence has adopted and implemented Asset Integrity Management System (AIMS) for all of its safety critical assets.

The development of KhPD AIMS system has gone through different phases. Starting from identifying the safety critical assets based on approved risk studies and analysis, defining critical functions and performance requirements which the asset shall comply throughout its life cycle as well as linking the system with other inspection and maintenance programs i.e. Preventive Maintenance (PM), Risk Based Inspection (RBI). In addition, a program to continuously assess AIMS was also established to ensure identifying any gaps and highlight areas of improvements.

In this paper, Author will shed light on KhPD experience and share challenges encountered during AIMS implementation by adapting several best practices that helped accelerating the implementation and further enhancing the system. Morover, this paper will share the systematic approach and best practices adopted to overcome the obstacles and challenges in implementing AIMS including the innovative solution of real time, online monitoring and integrated automated alert system as well as the best practice of handling Management of Change (MOC) requirements for critical assets.
Holistic Risk Based Approach to Manage and Control Plant Piping Vibration Through Digital Online Database
Authors: Al Khoujah Khaled , Al Qaydi Juma , Al Mansoori Fatima , Al Blooshi Saeed , McIlwraith Colin , Kaleem Daniyal
Published: October 2022

Processing sour gas requires high care and precautions; it requires elevated levels of steam and other lethal process fluids, which can sometime be present in multi-phase and at high pressure and temperature, resulting in vibrations of different severity, and in such ultra-sour gas plant similar to Shah Plant, developing a robust piping vibration management system is a must to ensure safe operations.

ADNOC Sour Gas has implemented a vibration risk-based approach in-line with Energy Institute Guidelines [1] via a web-based application, so called, Veridian, where the assessment is initiated through a desktop study that targets a review of Piping specifications, Process Fluids characteristics, and mechanical excitation sources within the piping network. Accordingly, a likelihood of failure (LOF) is established which identifies piping systems with a likelihood to vibrate in service, such are nominated for further detailed field measurements and assessment, hence forward, piping systems with actual high vibrations and stresses are shortlisted and reviewed further for solutions and mitigations.

The assessment results in a list of action plans and engineering packages assigned to various responsible, all in a third-party digital database, along with all required drawings, isometrics, PIDs and action details. The system provides users with a facility to look at the details of assessment results and a holistic view of the plant piping network characteristics and vibrations. This paper will present the system developed by ADNOC Sour Gas through utilizing a digital data base designed by Wood Vibrations, Dynamics, and Noise Group. It is worth highlighting that the system has been used previously in multiple other companies and has proven its efficiency in piping vibrations management, specially that it adopts Energy Institute Guidelines.