Intelligent wells

WONDER WELLS FOR SMARTER PRODUCTION

Integrating smart technology into wells is nothing new, but it has brought with it major benefits to performance, economics and dependability. Martin Clark reports.

THE INTEGRATION OF technology into almost every aspect of the energy industry has not stopped with the oil wells in the ground.

Far from it: intelligent wells, featuring some degree of direct monitoring or remote control equipment can now collect, transmit and analyse well data in real-time.

This means operators gain 24/7 insight into well and reservoir performance and integrity. Potentially, it’s transformative for a business — in terms of reduced downtime, optimum performance and higher profitability.

Innovators in this field include world-beating drilling and services giants such as Weatherford and Halliburton, both active right across Africa.

Schlumberger – which recently launched the Egypt Upstream Gateway initiative to showcase the North African county’s oil and gas potential and subsurface information via a digital platform – is another drill technology pioneer.

The company has worked on numerous projects in all of Africa’s key oil territories.

In Nigeria, that included work on an onshore project to collect data from a remote intelligent well where output is transmitted straight from the field to the operator in Lagos.

To retrieve data from the system, the operator had initially planned to send a technician to the site every two months for manual data retrieval.

Employing a conventional automated collection system, with a large presence at the well site, was considered too risky due to theft and vandalism concerns, and too difficult to power –which led to the Schlumberger remote intelligent well system.

Instead, a compact, selfpowered WellWatcher Connect system collects data and transmits it directly to the operator’s main office, reducing site visits and improving reservoir management.

But technology continues to evolve, with Schlumberger’s latest drilling upgrade its MagniSphere high-definition NMR loggingwhile-drilling service.

This delivers accurate, realtime producibility analysis for optimum well placement, resulting in improved production and recovery in complex reservoirs.

“MagniSphere service provides operators with a full understanding of reservoir producibility while concurrently enabling enhanced drilling performance,” said Jesus Lamas, president of well construction.

“The service provides operators with automated, highdefinition NMR data while drilling, which is used to maximise reservoir exposure and ultimately optimise production.”

The technology has already been successfully used in the field in the Middle East and the Black Sea and looks set to be tested in Africa soon.

It reflects how digitalisation is increasingly transforming how energy companies operate. Engineers, both in the field and potentially in an office overseas, are increasingly using big data and digital technology to improve efficiency and boost production.

The advent of the intelligent well, an integral part of the overall smart oil field, has become a key enabler, and an area which seems set to expand rapidly as the sector evolves. 

MagniSphere service delivers real-time reservoir evaluation data to improve drilling performance and optimise well placement for maximised production.