PEB2063 PRODUCTION ENGINEERING 1

By :
Raja Rajeswary Suppiah
(rajarajeswary@utp.edu.my)
Tel No : 05 368 7052
Room No : Block 12
 Course Learning Outcomes (CLO)
At the end of this course, students should be able to:

❑ CLO-1: Apply the concept of inflow/outflow performance and

nodal analysis to evaluate production scenario

❑ CLO-2: Evaluate artificial lift methods

❑ CLO-3: Analyze formation damage to identify well stimulation

❑ techniques

❑ CLO-4: Analyze Total Production System

 Course Contents
❑ Introduction to Petroleum Production
❑ Reservoir Deliverability
❑ Flow in Pipes and Restrictions
❑ Total System Analysis (NODAL Analysis)
❑ Artificial Lift Methods
❑ Matrix Acidising
❑ Hydraulic Fracturing
❑ Formation Damage & Sand Control
 COURSE PLAN
Topic Week (s)
Introduction to Petroleum Production Engineering 1
Reservoir Deliverability (Well Inflow Performance) 2
Flow in Pipes and Restrictions 3-5
- Tubing Performance
- Surface Pressure Losses
Total System Analysis (NODAL Analysis ) 6
Artificial Lift Methods 7-8
Matrix Acidising 9-10

Hydraulic Fracturing 11

Formation Damage & Sand Control 12

 ASSESSMENT PLAN

Assessment Score (%)

Quizzes (5) TBI
Tutorials (5) TBI
Test (2) TBI
Total 60
 References
❑Main References

1. Economides, M.J.; Hill, A.D.; and Ehlig-Economides, C. (2008):

‘Petroleum Production System’, Prentice-Hall PTR

2. Guo, B.; Lyons, W.C.; and Ghalambor, A. ((2007): ‘Petroleum

Production Engineering: A computer Assisted Approach’,
Elseviers’ Gulf Professional Publishing, Oxford, U.K
 References
❑Secondary References

1. Lake, L.W. (2007): ‘Petroleum Engineering Handbook’, SPE

Richardson

2. Gray, F. (1995): Petroleum Production in Non-Technical

Language’, Second Edition,Pennwell Corporation

3. Cholet, H. (2000): ‘Well Production Practical Handbook’, Technip

4. Allen, T.O. and Roberts, A.P. (2004): ‘Production Operations 1

and 2’, Fourth Edition,OGCI and PetroSkills Publications.

5. Beggs, H.D. (1991): ‘Production Optimization Using Nodal

Analysis’. OGCI Publication.
 CLASS POLICY

❑Attendance/Punctuality
❑Plagiarism
❑Honesty & Commitment
❑Adherence to Datelines (Online Quizzes)
❑Tutorials/Examples/Extra Help (Team spirit)
❑Check updates on U-Learn
 Lecture Times

• Monday 2-4 pm
• Tutorials: Tuesday 3-5 pm
Thursday 12-2pm
 Production Engineering 1
Introduction to Petroleum Production
Engineering
 Learning Outcomes
Towards the end of lecture, you should be able to:

1. Identify the different components that comprises the petroleum

production system.

2. Determine the function of each production system component.

3. Describe the pressure losses occurring in all the components of

the system.
 Introduction
❑ What is the upstream of the petroleum industry ?

❑ What is the role of Production Technologist ?

❑ The petroleum production is the heart of the petroleum industry.

❑ Petroleum production engineering attempts to maximize oil and gas

production in a cost-effective manner.

❑ To achieve this objective, production engineers need to have a thorough

understanding of the petroleum production systems.

❑ To perform their job correctly, production engineers should have solid

background and sound knowledge about the properties of fluids
they produce and working principles of all the major components of
producing wells and surface facilities.
 Petroleum Production System
❑ A complete oil or gas production system consists of a reservoir, well,
flowline, separators, pumps, compressors and transportation pipelines.

Figure 1. A sketch of a petroleum production system.

 Petroleum Production System
❑ The well provides a path for the production fluid to flow from bottom
hole to surface and offers a means to control the fluid production
rate.

❑ The flowline leads the produced fluid to separators.

❑ The separators remove gas and water from the crude oil.

❑ Pumps and compressors are used to transport oil and gas through
pipelines to sales points.
 Reservoir
❑ A ‘‘reservoir’’ is a porous and permeable underground formation
containing an individual bank of hydrocarbons confined by
impermeable rock.

❑ Depending on the initial reservoir condition in the phase diagram,

hydrocarbon accumulations are classified as oil, gas condensate,
and gas reservoirs.

❑ An oil that is at a pressure above its bubble-point pressure is called

an ‘‘undersaturated oil’’ because it can dissolve more gas at the
given temperature.

❑ An oil that is at its bubble-point pressure is called a ‘‘saturated oil’’

because it can dissolve no more gas at the given temperature.
 RESERVOIR

• Vapour Pressure line: is the line defining the

pressures at which the transition from gas to liquid
occurs.
– Above this line, the single-compound
hydrocarbon exists as a liquid, below as
gas.

• Critical Point: is the point at which it is no longer

possible to distinguish whether the fluid is liquid or
gas. The intensive properties of both phases are
identical.

Single compound hydrocarbon

 Reservoir

• crossing the bubble point line

from liquid to the two-phase region,
the first bubbles of gas will appear
while, crossing the dew point line
from the gas, the first drops of liquid
(dew) will appear. The lines within the
two-phase region represent constant
liquid saturations
• The maximum temperature of the
two-phase envelope is called the
cricondentherm.

Multicompound hydrocarbon phase diagram

 Reservoir
❑ Wells in the same reservoir can fall into categories of oil,
condensate, and gas wells depending on the producing gas oil ratio
(GOR).

❑ Oil reservoirs can be classified on the basis of boundary type,

which determines the drive mechanism :

❖Water-drive reservoir

❖Gas-cap drive reservoir

❖Dissolved-gas drive reservoir

 Water-Drive Reservoir
❑ In water-drive reservoirs, the oil zone is connected by a continuous
path to the surface groundwater system (aquifer).

❑ The pressure caused by the ‘‘column’’ of water from the surface

forces the oil (and gas) to the top of the reservoir against the
impermeable barrier that restricts the oil and gas.

❑ This pressure will force the oil and gas toward the wellbore.

❑ With the same oil production, reservoir pressure will be maintained

longer when there is an active water drive.
Water-Drive Reservoir

A sketch of a water-drive reservoir

 Gas-Cap Drive Reservoir
❑ In a gas-cap drive reservoir, gas-cap drive is the drive mechanism
where the gas in the reservoir has come out of solution and rises to
the top of the reservoir to form a gas cap.

❑ Thus, the oil below the gas cap can be produced.

❑ If the gas in the gas cap is taken out of the reservoir early in the
production process, the reservoir pressure will decrease rapidly.
Gas-Cap Drive Reservoir

A sketch of a gas-cap drive reservoir

 Dissolved-Gas Drive Reservoir
❑ A dissolved-gas drive reservoir is also called a ‘‘solution-gas drive
reservoir’’ and ‘‘volumetric reservoir.’’

❑ The oil reservoir has a fixed oil volume surrounded by no flow

boundaries.

❑ Dissolved-gas drive is the drive mechanism where the reservoir gas

is held in solution in the oil (and water).

❑ The reservoir gas is actually in a liquid form in a dissolved solution

with the liquids in reservoir.

❑ Compared to the water- and gas-drive reservoirs, expansion of

solution (dissolved) gas in the oil provides a weak driving
mechanism in a volumetric reservoir.
Dissolved-Gas Drive Reservoir

A sketch of a dissolved-gas drive reservoir.

 Well
❑ Oil and gas wells are drilled like an upside-down telescope. The
large-diameter borehole section is at the top of the well.

❑ Each section is cased to the surface, or a liner is placed in the well

that laps over the last casing in the well.

❑ The last casing in the well is the production

casing. Once the production casing has been
cemented into the well, the production tubing is
run into the well.

❑ Usually a packer is used near the bottom of the

tubing to isolate the annulus between the outside
of the tubing and the inside of the casing.
 Well

Schematic of casing and tubing strings.

 Well
❑ The produced fluids are forced to move out of the perforation into
the bottom of the well and then into the inside of the tubing.

❑ Most flowing wells are produced through a string of tubing run

inside the production casing string.

❑ The equipment at the top of the producing wellhead is called a

‘‘Christmas tree’’ and it is used to control flow.

❑ A Christmas tree consists of a main valve, wing valves, and a

needle valve.

❑ ‘‘Surface choke’’ is an equipment used to control the flow rate.

 Well

A sketch of a wellhead
 Separator
❑ The fluids produced from oil wells are normally complex mixtures of
hundreds of different compounds.

❑ The well stream should be processed as soon as possible after

bringing them to the surface. How to separate them?

❑ Three types of separators are generally available:

❖Horizontal
❖Vertical
❖Spherical separators.

❑ Selection criteria for separators?

 Separator
Type of Advantage Disadvantage Application
separator
Horizontal •Low cost Require larger •High GOR
•Easy to skid-mount and space than vertical •Liquid-from-liquid
service separators
•Need less piping for field
connections
Vertical •Occupy less space High fabrication Low to intermediate
•Limiting re-evaporation of and assembly costs GOR
liquid phase into gas phase

Spherical Expensive and compact •Low surge and High pressure

liquid-settling streams
space
•Difficult to
control liquid level
 Pump
❑ After separation, oil is transported through pipelines to the sales
points.
 Compressor
❑ Compressors are used for providing gas pressure required to
transport gas with pipelines and to lift oil in gas-lift operations.
 Pipelines
❑ Pipelines are by far the most economical means of large-scale
overland transportation for crude oil, natural gas, and their
products.

❑ Transporting petroleum fluids with pipelines is a continuous and

reliable operation.

❑ Pipelines have demonstrated an ability to adapt to a wide variety of

environments including remote areas and hostile environments.

❑ Pipelines are sized to handle the expected pressure and fluid flow.

❑ To contain the pressures, wall thicknesses of the pipelines range

from 3/8 inch to 11/2 inch.
Pipelines
 Production Systems Analysis
❑ Production wells are drilled and completed to move the oil and gas
from its original location in the reservoir to the stock tank.

❑ Movement or transport of these fluids requires energy to overcome

friction losses in the system and to lift the products to the surface.

❑ The fluids must travel through the reservoir and the piping system
and ultimately flow into a separator for gas-liquid separation.

❑ The production system can be relatively simple or can include

many components in which energy or pressure losses occur.

❑ Figure 9 shows a diagram of a complex production system, which

illustrates a number of components in which pressure losses occur.
Production Systems Analysis

Simplified hydrocarbon production system.

Production Systems Analysis

Pressure losses during production.

 Production Systems Analysis
❑ The pressure drop in the total system at any time will be:

𝑝෤𝑟 − 𝑝𝑠𝑒𝑝
❑ This pressure drop is the sum of the pressure drops occurring in all
of the components of the system.

❑ Since the pressure drop through any component varies with the
producing rate, the producing rate will be controlled by the
components selected.

❑ The selection and sizing of the individual components is very

important, whereby changes in the pressure drop in one may
change the pressure drop and behavior in others.
 Production Systems Analysis
❑ The hydrocarbon fluid flows from the reservoir into the well, up the
tubing, along the horizontal flow line and into the oil storage tank.

❑ During this process the fluid’s pressure is reduced from the

reservoir pressure to atmosphere pressure in a series of pressure
loss processes.

o ΔP1 Across the reservoir

o ΔP2 Across the completion (perforation/gravel pack etc.)
o ΔP3 Across the tubing and any restrictions
o ΔP4 Across the sub surface safety valve
o ΔP5 Across the surface choke
o ΔP6 Across flowline
 Production Systems Analysis
❑ These pressure losses can be grouped into three main components:

o ΔP7 Summarizes the total pressure losses in the reservoir and

completion
o ΔP8 Summarizes the total pressure losses in the tubing
o ΔP9 Summarizes the total pressure losses at the surface

❑ A pump or compressor are often used to aid evacuation of fluids

(gas/water/oil) from the separator.

❑ The separator is operated under gas pressure control and liquid (oil
and water) level control and acts as the end point of the flowing
system.
Production Systems Analysis

Pressure across production system.

 THANK YOU
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