Petroleum Production

Engineering-II

UNIT 1: WELL PROBLEMS; LOW

WELL PRODUCTIVITY.
Prepared by: Mr Ali Abbas
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 2

What is a Well problem?

• Depending on the economics of a particular
situation, a well problem may be related within
specific limits to:
 low oil or gas production,
 high GOR ,
 high water cut ,
 mechanical problems,
 or insufficient profit.
• Problems in injection or disposal wells may be
related to high injection pressure and low
injection rate or mechanical problems.
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 3

What is a problem well?

• Well Problem analysis might be handled on a
reservoir basis , an area basis , or by study of
an individual well .
• The conclusion of such a study will usually
result in one of the following recommendations:
 (I) workover,
 (2) continue to produce well until oil or gas production
declines to a predetermined volume or to the economic
limit,
 (3) pressure maintenance ,
 (4) enhanced recovery operations ,
 (5) abandon .
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 4

WELLS PROBLEM
• Problems may usually be categorized as:

 limited producing rate,

 excessive water production,
 excessive gas production for oil wells,
 and mechanical failures .

• Gas well and oil well problems are similar;

however, high water production is more difficult
to handle in gas wells.
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 5

Limited Producing Rate

• Limited producing rate may be a result of:
(I) low reservoir permeability ,
(2) low reservoir pressure for depth,
(3) formation damage,
(4) wellbore , tubing or flowline plugging,
(5) high viscosity oil ,
(6) excessive back pressure on formation,
(7) inadequate artificial lift,
(8) mechanical problems.
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 6

Low Reservoir Permeability

• Low reservoir permeability may be:
an overall reservoir characteristic,
or it may be limited to only a portion of a reservoir.

• If low permeability has been proved as a cause of

limited production, this problem should be
considered along with other possible causes of low
productivity.

• Characteristically, in a low permeability reservoir,

well productivity declines rapidly if fluids near the
wellbore are produced at a high rate.
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 7

Low Reservoir Permeability

• If the available geologic and reservoir data do not
indicate low reservoir permeability , flow meter surveys
and pressure buildup tests may aid in differentiating
between low permeability and formation damage .

• For a pressure buildup and drawdown test to be valid as

a diagnostic tool, it is usually necessary to determine
whether all layered, porous zones selected for
production are actually in communication with the
wellbore.

• Through-tubing flowmeters , radioactive tracer ' surveys ,

or straddle packers may be used to determine formation-
wellbore communication for each interval .
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 8

Low Reservoir Pressure

• If reservoir pressure measurements have been
carried out on a routine basis in the well in
question, reservoir pressure in the vicinity of that
well should be known.

• However, if reservoir pressure has not been

measured recently in the problem well, reservoir
pressure test should be run.

• The next step is to consider the dominant reservoir

drives in a particular reservoir and how these drive
mechanisms are associated with the real or
apparent well problem being investigated.
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 9

Figure 1.1 Typical pressure- production

history for various drive mechanisms.
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 10

Low Reservoir Pressure

• Figure 1.1 illustrates the typical pressure-
production history for various drive
mechanisms.

• Dissolved gas drive is always present, with

water and/or gas cap drive being effective to
varying degrees in each reservoir.

• If there is no original gas cap, a secondary gas

cap may be formed at a later date as the
reservoir pressure declines.
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 11

Formation Damage
• Formation damage may be defined as: any
impairment of well productivity or injectivity due
to plugging:
 within the wellbore ,
 in perforations ,
 in formation pores adjacent (near) to the wellbore,
 or in fractures communicating with the wellbore .

• The problem is to determine the degree of well

damage, probable causes of well damage, and finally,
approaches to alleviate any serious damage.
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Formation Damage
• Formation damage may be indicated by
 Production tests ,
 pressure buildup and drawdown tests ,
 comparison with offset wells,
 and careful analysis of production history , including prior
completions , workovers, and well servicing operations.
• If multiple zones are open in a single completion,
production logging surveys run in flowing or gas lift
wells will often show some permeable zones to be
contributing little or nothing to production.

• Major zones of permeability, especially natural or

induced fracture permeability, may be plugged.
Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr.
Ali Abbas
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 13

Formation Damage
• A reservoir study may be required to
differentiate between
 ( 1 ) production decline due to gradual formation
plugging
 and (2) decline due to loss of reservoir pressure .

• Comparison of offset wells may not be

sufficient to detect gradual plugging because
all wells may be subject to similar damaging
conditions.
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 14

Figure 1 -2 Formation Damage

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Formation Damage
• Figure 1 -2 illustrates the difference in pressure
drawdown in a normal well as compared with a
well with serious " skin" damage.
• In a relatively high permeability well with
severe skin damage, reservoir pressure
measured in the well may stabilize within a few
hours.
• If permeability is low, days or weeks may be
required for reservoir pressure to stabilize;
under these conditions, it may be difficult to
determine skin damage.
Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr.
Ali Abbas
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 16

Formation Damage
• " Skin" damage calculations plus a through-
tubing flowmeter survey, provide a much more
definitive approach to skin damage.
• This is particularly significant in layered
formation along with probable perforation
plugging.
• These tests are carried out in many areas prior
to planning well stimulation or re-perforation.
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Plugging of Tubing, Wellbore,

and Perforations
• When low productivity is indicated in an artificially-
lifted oil well with a history of high productivity, a
first consideration should be to check for proper
operation of artificial lift equipment.

• For all types of wells , the probability of flowline,

tubing , wellbore , or perforation plugging should be
evaluated .

• Plugging may be caused by gravel pack or frac

sand, fines, mud, formation rock, paraffin ,
asphaltenes, scale, pipe drope , gun debris or other
junk, and collapsed tubing or casing.
Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr.
Ali Abbas
 18

Plugging of Tubing, Wellbore,

and Perforations
• For flowing oil or gas wells , gas-lift wells, or
injection wells , tubing should always be left
open-ended so that wireline tools and
production logging tools can be run to check for
plugging in tubing , wellbore , or perforations .

• If tubing is not open-ended, it may be

necessary to lower tubing to check for fill in the
bottom of the hole .

• Analysis of bottom-hole samples is helpful in

determining the cause of plugging.
Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr.
Ali Abbas
 19

High Viscosity Oil

• High viscosity oil may be normal for a particular
reservoir.
• If the reservoir is being produced by dissolved
gas drive, oil viscosity will increase somewhat
as gas is released from the oil.
• If well producing problems are due to high
viscosity water-in-oil emulsions in or near the
wellbore , it may be economical to either break
or invert the emulsion with surfactants to lower
viscosity .

Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr.

Ali Abbas
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 20

High Viscosity Oil/Emulsions

• Emulsions can also form in or around the
wellbore and may create a block that restricts
or completely cuts off production from the
reservoir.

• An emulsion is simply a mixture of one liquid

(the discontinuous phase) that is dispersed
within another liquid (the continuous phase)
and is likely to be formed when oil and water
are mixed.
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High Viscosity Oil/Emulsions

• Stable emulsions are the most likely to block
production and are also the most difficult to
remove. For an emulsion to become stable, an
emulsifying agent (fine particles and/or
surfactants) must be present.

• Although surfactants can cause emulsions,

other surfactants at the proper concentrations
can break emulsions. Also, special de-
emulsifier agents are available to remove
emulsion blocks.
Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr.
Ali Abbas
 22

Excessive Back Pressure on

Formation
• Excessive back pressure can appreciably lower
producing rates in wells producing from reservoirs
nearing pressure depletion.

• Excessive formation back pressure may be due to:

• limited or plugged perforations;

• plugging of wellbore , tubing , or flowline;
• subsurface or surface chokes;
• undersized gas-oil separator, flowline , tubing, or casing;
• excessive back-pressure on the casing connected to the
oil flowline or directly to a gas gathering system,
• or high pressure on the gas oil separator .

Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr.

Ali Abbas
 23

Excessive Back Pressure on

Formation
• Remedies include:

• -For high capacity wells, the usual approach is to

increase the size of tubing, flowline or separator.

• -In oil reservoirs having appreciable loss of reservoir

pressure, efficient artificial lift plus reduction of
separator, tubing, or casing pressures will increase
production.

• -If tubing, wellbore, or perforations are partially

plugged, removal of restrictions by cleaning out will
increase production. Re-perforating is frequently the
best approach.
Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr.
Ali Abbas
 24

Mechanical failures
• Mechanical failures can occur in a well for a
variety of reasons. They are usually related to
one of the following:
 (1) the corrosion of downhole equipment,
 (2) the collection of debris or scale in the wellbore,
 (3) the production of formation sand or collapse of the
formation,
 (4) insufficient cement protection,
 (5) the use of equipment that is not designed to
withstand the depth, temperature, or pressure of a
well.

Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr.

Ali Abbas
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Examples of Mechanical Failures

Figure 3
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Mechanical failures
• The type of equipment normally prone to such
failure is the tubing, casing, rod string, down-hole
pumps, packers, gas lift valves, and plugs in the
well bore (Figure 3).

• After long-term exposure to down-hole conditions,

breakage or wear can occur in any of this
equipment.

• Extensive workovers (specifically, fishing

operations) can be prevented by regular
maintenance of the downhole equipment.
Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr.
Ali Abbas
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 27

Mechanical failures
• A proper maintenance schedule can be established
for any field once one has properly analyzed the
produced fluids and conditions of the reservoir.

• Specific diagnostic techniques can be applied in an

effort to determine where a failure has occurred.

• For example, a casing leak can be detected by

running a packer in the well and pressure testing
the casing at various intervals in the hole.
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Mechanical failures
• Problems with rod pumping equipment can be
diagnosed through the use of an instrument
called a dynamometer. This instrument
analyzes the strain on the polish rod at the
surface as the pump goes through an upstroke
and downstroke cycle.

• Other diagnostic methods are available, and in

some instances, it may be necessary to
perform several tests before mechanical
problems can be pinpointed.
Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr.
Ali Abbas
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Home work

• What is the productivity index?

• What are the main factors affecting productivity index?
• What is the most commonly used measure of formation
damage in a well?
 Petroleum Production Engineering-2 Mr. Ali Abbas 30

References

• Petroleum Production Engineering, A Computer-Assisted

Approach.
• petroleum production systems -michael j. economides