Page 308 - Intelligent Digital Oil And Gas Fields

256 Intelligent Digital Oil and Gas Fields

Fig. 7.7 (Left) Application of smart wells using the auto-gas lift injection; the gas in the
upper section is controlled to lift oil through the tubing. (Right) An application of smart
wells for an EOR process.

appropriate design, the ICVs are set up to control the contribution per seg-
ment in the lateral, particularly for those intervals with high permeability.
The ICV orifice can be reduced or shutoff to avoid excessive water/gas pro-
duction, or, using an optimized 3D reservoir model, to predict water break-
through and then control the choke size to prevent the early water
breakthrough without well intervention.
Another important application is using ICVs in well injectors. It has been
demonstrated that smart wells can distribute the total water distribution to
focus the injection in upswept zones. Fig. 7.7 (right) shows how an ICV can
be used to maximize the oil displacement from the bottom to the top by
injecting water to the bottom or gas to top using this technique.
Monitoring production in real time: Smart wells equipped with pressure and
temperature sensors can analyze pressure losses, manage sandface pressure,
and minimize the shut-in period for pressure buildup tests, and instanta-
neously capture data for unplanned well shut-in. As a result, smart wells help
to reduce production downtime and accelerate production. Completion
intervals with high water cut or GOR (unwanted) can be turned off
temporarily or permanently.

7.5 SMART WELL PERFORMANCE
Usually, oil companies use production logging tools (PLTs) to evalu-
ate and calibrate ICV valves. However, the cost of running a PLT in hor-
izontal wells is so expensive that sometimes a virtual alternative is used—one