Avoiding Interventions in a Marginal Field

Background and Subsurface Setting

The South Furious field is located offshore Sabah, Malaysia, and is operated by Shell as a joint venture with Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd. The development of the field was fast-tracked, with planned first oil production in fourth quarter, 2001, from an unmanned minimal facility platform. The field features one of the world's first remotely-controlled and integrated SmartWell^® intelligent field applications.

The subsurface setting is a stratigraphically rapped turbidite reservoir with very poorly sorted sands. Permeability ranges from 10 to 2000 md, with an average of 250 md. The average porosity is 25%.

Challenge

The South Furious field is a limited oilfield with marginal economics. To mitigate the risk of reservoir performance uncertainty, innovative completion technology and digital solutions were required to allow data acquisition from and remote production management of an unmanned platform.

SmartWell^® Solution

SmartWell^® technology was deployed to eliminate cost-prohibitive well interventions and to allow real-time downhole reservoir data acquisition.

The data acquired by the SmartWell^® system is crucial for economically-viable production from this complex reservoir. Downhole electrical submersible pumps (ESPs) are integrated with the SmartWell^® intelligent completion system to enable optimization of the artificial lift.

Customer Value

Well tests were performed on each individual zone with the valves opened and closed numerous times. The SmartWell^® intelligent completion system exceeded client expectations. It is estimated that wells SF30-3 and SF30-5 are both producing approximately 4000 BOPD. It is predicted that SmartWell^® technology deployed in South Furious Field will improve field life cycle value by 30%.

The SmartWell^® technology deployed in South Furious has demonstrated the capability of accelerating production, reducing capital expenditure, reducing operating costs and maximizing hydrocarbon recovery

Details