Modernizing and Automating a Large Old Oil Field
Authors: Pollard Eugene C. , Cutter Jack D. 
Published: December 2007

This paper was prepared for the 44th Annual Fall Meeting of the of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME, to be held in Denver, Colo., Sept. 28-Oct. 1, 1969. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate journal, provided agreement to give proper credit is made.

Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines.

Production in the 80 year old Salt Creek Field, Natrona County, Wyoming has greatly increased through waterflooding and technological advances. Facilities installed from 1910 to 1930 to handle 40,000 barrels of fluid per day were modernized to handle ten times that amount. To design an effective, yet low cost, system of this magnitude posed many problems. Simplicity of posed many problems. Simplicity of design was a keynote from the beginning. Major field revisions began in 1958. A manifolded flowline system was installed from 1963 through 1968 which connected 1,000 wells to 16 automatic custody transfer stations. An automatic well test and well monitoring system is now being installed at a cost of $671,000. Initial data indicates that the automation project will pay out in 4.7 years. project will pay out in 4.7 years. Guidelines for the modernization and automation of the Salt Creek Field are presented. The equipment design, procedural and organizational changes, procedural and organizational changes, and economics of the automation system are reviewed.

Introduction

The Salt Creek Field, with nine producing formations, is located forty producing formations, is located forty miles north of Casper, Wyoming. The nine by five mile structure is on the southwestern flank of the Powder River Basin. Pan American Petroleum Corporation is contract operator for the Light Oil Unit (LOU), or northern two-thirds of the field.

Consolidation and modernization of battery and flowline installations began in 1958. Most of the field system from the well head to the pipeline sales point was replaced. The pipeline sales point was replaced. The new facilities provide for partially automated operation, have high capacity, operate inexpensively and will handle secondary recovery needs of the present and future. Currently, Pan American is installing automation facilities which provide remote well status monitoring and well testing of 1,000 producing wells. producing wells. A case history review of field modernization and automation is presented. Equipment, method of utilization, operating problems and economics of a field-wide problems and economics of a field-wide monitoring and testing system is discussed.