Guidelines of Artificial Lift Selection for Mature Field

By

 Mohamed Ali Naguib¹

(1) Suez Oil Company, Cairo, Egypt

 Ras Fanar is located in the western part of the Gulf of Suez about 3 km east of the city of Ras Gharib, Egypt (Fig. 1). Production commened in January 1984 and a peak production rate of 20 MSTB/D was achieved in January 1988. Due to the relatively low reservoir pressure for Ras Fanar field, some of the wells experienced lifting problems at water cuts above 20% requiring nitrogen lift to restore intermittent production. Clearly, some sort of artificial lift was needed in order to restore the production rate to the normal levels and to maximize the ultimate recovery.

The decision of which artificial lift method to use is very important to the long-term profitability of the field. An improper selection of artificial lift can reduce production and increase the operating cost substantially. Once a decision has been made on the type to install on a well, it can be rarely altered whether or not the method selected was and still is the optimal for the existing conditions.

This paper presents the screening criteria on the different artificial lift techniques and discusses why the choices were confined to ESP’s and gas lift as the most suitable techniques to be applied in the field. The paper explains the two different alternatives, and studies the technical consideration behind each.

Reservoir simulation model was used to predict the performance and the ultimate recovery either naturally or using ESP and Gas Lift. An economical evaluation for both cases was then conducted taking into considerations both capital and operating costs of each opinion.