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cum t = i = t = i 24
t=
t=1
t = i = ANN t = i PPFt = i
where:
WPFt=i = Well Performance Factor at time i
Qfcst t=i = Daily Production Rate forecasted at time i
Qpotential t=i = Current Well Potential
Qcum t=i = Todays cumulative produced volume until time i
i = number of hours elapsed today
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Q t=i = Estimated Daily Production rate at time i
QANN t=i = Production Rate calculated by the ANN at time i
PPF t =i = Pump Performance Factor at time i
The first step that WPF workflow performs is an instantaneous liquid rate calculation (Q t=i). It is calculated using the
ANN at the pump velocity and differential pressure gathered from down-hole sensors for time i. If for any reason this data
is not available at the time the workflow is run, other complementary workflows are triggered, which estimate down-hole
pressures using other measured field data.
Then a cumulative daily production is calculated from hourly instantaneous rates sum. This cumulative production is in
turn used for forecasting the estimated volume that the well will produce during the complete day, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4. Visualization of Estimated Dail y Rate calculation
Once the full day estimated volume is calculated, it is divided by the well potential to evaluate the well performance.
When an event that affects the well performance happens, an unusual behavior is observed, as shown in Figure 5.
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Figure 5. Visualization of Estimated Dail y Rate calculation for a well witnessing a production drop
Visual integration and collaboration layer.
At this layer, daily monitoring and surveillance activities take place by efficiently displaying all sorts of field information
collected through the existing systems, in addition to well production rates and key performance indicators calculated in the
workflow integration layer. This environment enables engineers to perform efficient analysis of current field, wells and
pumps performance, allowing fast and well supported decision making, with the ultimate goal of reducing pump failures,
well issues in general and deferred production, as well as identifying opportunities for production optimization.
The data is integrated into surveillance-by-exception engineering processes that avoid repetitive manual tasks. Each
engineering process consists of a predefined sequence of tasks that narrow the large amount of existent data, targeting the
efficient identification of potential failures in PCPs and allowing engineers to identify abnormal well behaviors. The
objective is to have an environment where the user has sufficient time and information to make good decisions quickly.
The workflows combine sporadic and continuous data streams from data historians, spreadsheets and corporative
databases. The variety in source data frequency requires a preliminary analysis that confirms a low sensitivity of the results
on the assumption that sporadic properties remain constant between successive samplings.
During the initial phase of the project, a very flexible well and reservoir surveillance software platform was used to
visualize and create all the engineering workflows required. This included the creation of multiple plots, reports, customized
filters, queries, maps and other analysis tools at different levels, which could later be adjusted and improved according to user
needs.
Some of the tools developed that have a high impact on the daily operational surveillance tasks are explained below.
Base Map.
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The Base Map is the initial view for the users. It allows identifying the wells according to different parameters, static or
dynamic, measured or calculated. The user can explore trough the different panes and select the workflows desired.
Figure 6. Field Surveillance Base Map
Scatter Plots.
Macro visualization of all wells in single plots that facilitate detection of underperforming wells was achieved by creating
scatter plots of diverse operational parameters in conjunction with KPIs. Some of them can be observed in Figures 7, 8, 9 and
10.
Figure 7. Pump Intake Pressure vs. Pump Performance Factor Scatter Plot
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Figure 8. Pump Performance Factor vs. Liquid Rate Scatter Plot
Figure 9. Torque Ratio vs. Intake Pressure Scatter Plot
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Figure 10. Pump Vibration vs. Pump Velocity Scatter Plot
Pump Monitor - Well Information & KPIs.
Daily activities of optimization engineers include but are not limited to performing surveillance tasks for early detection
of failures. The Pump Monitor plot assists them in performing that task by showing current and historical PCP operational
conditions. An example of it is included in Figure 11. It is divided in three sections: surface conditions, subsurface conditions
and PCP panel parameters. Additional to the plot, the Well Info pane (left) shows pump key performance indicators and
last well test data.
Figure 11. Pump Monitor Screen
Additional plot templates were created in order to facilitate analyses and diagnostic work performed by reservoir,
production and optimization engineers. These graphs are defined to help visualize pump parameters, key performance
indicators, well test data and general production information.
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Solution extension.
Following the pilot described, and encouraged by the positive results, Petrocedeo decided to extend the surveillance
system to the whole San Diego field, which currently has about 500 active wells. In addition to this, the functionalities of the
system were expanded, to include additional surveillance and diagnostic workflows, visualization and collaboration tools, as
well as incorporating some key surface production process equipment. This improved surveillance and diagnostics system
reaches the third level of the pyramidal scheme presented in Figure 1: Analysis and Diagnostics.
One of the main features of it is the web visualization developed during the second phase of the production optimization
project, which is now allowing Petrocedeo to monitor the current field situation from anywhere at all times, presenting
highly customized views of measured and calculated operational parameters, performance indicators and a vast amount of
historical and real time information for all wells, PCPs, key process equipment and the field in general. A comprehensive set
of well, pump and cluster status KPIs was also developed, which allow engineers to quickly spot the areas that require
attention at a given time and prioritize their work and actions accordingly, saving a huge amount of surveillance, analysis,
diagnostic and decision making man hours, and more importantly, reducing issues detection time with the consequent
reduction of well, pump and equipment failures and their corresponding production losses.
This solution extension implemented in the second phase of the project will be explained in much more detail in a
separate paper. Some of the web accessed screens developed are presented in Figures 12, 13, 14 and 15.
Figure 12. Main Field Level Web Surveillance Screen
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Figure 13. Main Cluster Level Web Surveillance Screen
Figure 14. Main Well Level Web Surveillance Screen
Figure 15. Main Management Web Surveillance Screen
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Results
A completed implementation on 50 wells of structured surveillance workflows and system based monitoring with KPIs
defined for Petrocedeo was delivered during the initial phase of the long term production optimization project.
Petrocedeo engineers were able to reduce the time to identify underperforming wells in 20%. This was achieved by a
simple drilldown troubleshooting that started using scatters plots to limit the number of wells to the group of wells with
unusual operational parameters. This quick surveillance screening performed using the developed plots and reports in the
single visualization platform, enabled engineers to easily detect underperforming and potential issue wells, as well as the
likely cause of underperformance or issue.
This pilot implementation established the foundation for a complete optimization structure and enabled the establishment of
standardized procedures for well monitoring, surveillance, analysis and diagnostics based on Key Performance Indicators.
The second phase of the project is being completed at the time that this paper is being written, so the results of it will be
presented in a future paper. A significant amount of positive results are expected from it, most of them related to engineering
time savings, production issue detection time decrease, pump failure prevention and failure rate reduction, and deferred
production decrease.
Conclusions
The capability of Artificial Neural Networks using operational parameters measured in real time for estimating daily
production rates of wells producing with Progressive Cavity Pumps was proved during the pilot project performed.
Beyond that, the inclusion of that ANN estimated well rate in articulated-automatic-surveillance and analysis workflows,
allowed Petrocedeo to have a more comprehensive understanding of how the wells, pumps and the field in general are
performing at a given time.
Furthermore, the integration of this estimated rates with a vast amount of other KPIs and production information coming
from multiple sources and of different nature, like frequent and sporadic, down-hole and surface, measured and calculated,
has facilitated the surveillance and analysis work enormously.
Finally, the standardization of field monitoring, surveillance and analysis work, as well as the centralization of production
optimization most relevant information in a single platform, are additional benefits that have been possible through this
system-based monitoring project.
All these benefits have already helped reduce wells failure detection time and saved man hours, and will eventually impact
pump failure rates and deferred production, contributing to achieving corporate production objectives.
The success of this pilot phase led Petrocedeo management to approve project continuation to the second phase, which
involved the extension of the system from 50 to the whole 500 active wells of San Diego field, as well as an expansion of the
functionalities to include additional surveillance and diagnostic workflows, visualization and collaboration tools, as well as
incorporating some key surface production process equipment.
Additional benefits will be realized once the second phase of the long term production optimization project is fully
operational.
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Nomenclature
ANN = Artificial Neural Network
KPI = Key Performance Indicator
PCP = Progressive Cavity Pump
PPF = Pump Performance Factor
RPM = Revolutions Per Minute (Pump Velocity)
SCADA = Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition system
WPF = Well Performance Factor.