SPE

Society of Petroleum Engineers

SPE 14288

A CO 2 Injection Measurement and Control System

by J.T. White" and R.L. Benoit, Amoco Production CO.
'SPE Member

Copyright 1985. Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 60th Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition of the Society of Petroleum Engineers held in Las
Vegas, NV September 22-25, 1985.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE Program Committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the
author(s). Contents of the paper, as presented, have not been reviewed by the Society 01 Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the
author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily rellect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Papers
presented at SPE meetings are subject to publication review by Editorial Committees of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Permission to copy is
restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where
and by whom the paper is presented. Write Publications Manager, SPE, P.O. Box 833836, Richardson, TX 75083·3836. Telex, 730989 SPEDAL.

ABSTRACT inject carbon dioxide in approximately 500 water

injection wells that were already automated in the
Advances in microcomputer technology have heralded two fields. A logical goal for Amoco was to also
a new era in oil field automation. A novel mea- automate the new carbon dioxide injection opera-
surement and control system has been implemented on tions based upon the favorable results that had
the carbon dioxide injection wells in the Slaughter been obtained by automating water injection. In
and Wasson Fields operated by Amoco Production Com- the existing automated water injection systems all
pany. The heart of this system is a solar powered monitoring and control equipment is located at
microprocessor based Remote Telemetry Unit which water injection stations and each injection well is
senses the necessary input parameters, performs the served by an individual injection line from the
calculations necessary to measure the rate and station to the well. It was decided that the water
pressure at which carbon dioxide is being injected, injection automation systems were to remain
controls the position of a ball valve to maintain unchanged in order that field operations not be
the desired flow rate and pressure, and sends dis·rupted . To minimize cost of the carbon dioxide
selected information to a central automation com- injection facilities, trunkline injection systems
puter for alarm and reporting purposes. The pur- were designed for the fields.
pose of this paper is to describe the electronic
hardware, the end devices, control element, and The decision to use a trunkline gas injection sys-
software that was used to implement this function. tem dictated that the equipment necessary to imple-
ment carbon dioxide measurement and control had to
be located at the wellsites. It also meant that
INTRODUCTION all the wellsite equipment had to be solar powered
because AC power was not available at most of the
Amoco's philosophy of operating waterfloods injection wellsites . Although the control scheme
includes operating each injection well as close to to be implemented would be operated in pressure
formation parting pressure as possible . This goal control most of the time, it had to also be capable
being to maximize injection without exceeding for- of flow rate control (used primarily to limit flow
mation parting pressure . Automation has provided rate). Because carbon dioxide is highly compress-
an effective tool in achieving this goal since an ible, some form of gas calculation had to be per-
automation system can adjust valve positions many formed in order to implement a flow rate control
more times per day than can human operators. scheme.
Experience indicates that automation of water
injection operations can result in a 4-5 percent In addition to these constraints, it was determined
increase in injection volumes with a corresponding that the impact of adding the carbon dioxide con-
increase in produced fluids. trol system upon the existing automation computers
and communications links had to be minimized. The
In 1983, Amoco made plans to begin tertiary recov- new control systems would be required to operate as
ery operations in the Slaughter and Wasson Fields independent systems so that failure of the central
in West Texas . One part of these projects con- automation computer facilities or communications
sisted of installing the facilities necessary to link would not disable control . In order to
satisfy these requirements it was determined that a
microprocessor based controller/Remote Telemetry
References and illustrations at end of paper. Unit (RTU) was required.
2 A CARBON DIOXIDE INJECTION MEASUREMENT AND CONTROL SYSTEM
HARDWARE
The carbon dioxide measurement and injection con-
trol system implemented to satisfy the above
requirements is shown schematically in Figure 1. A
skid was fabricated for each well which included
all the metering and control equipment. TIl is
approach greatly reduced the amount of field labor
required to install the equipment. The carbon
dioxide flow into each well is metered using a
standard length, schedule 80, two inch meter tube.
The meter tube is equipped with a "Junior" orifice
fitting to facilitate plate changes. The meter
tube is located ahead of the control valve so that
measurement will not be affected by the turbulence
created by the control valve.
The meter fitting is equipped with static pr e ssure,
differential pressure and temperature transmitters
to provide the data necessary for the microproces-
sor to calculate flow rates. A static pressure
transmitter is also provided downstream of the con-
trol valve to allow measurement of injection pres-
sure. All of the transmitters are "low power"
devices in that they operate on nominal 12 volts DC
and provide a voltage output (0.8 - 4 . 0 v) propor-
tional to the measured parameter . Voltage output
devices can be utilized in this application because
the telemetry equipment that reads the signals is
located within five to ten feet of the transmit-
ters . In this application, voltage output end
devices have two advantages over the more common
current output devices. The first of these is a
lower current consumption (1 - 2 milliamperes ver-
sus 4 - 20 milliamperes). The second advantage is
that the voltage output devices will operate from a
simple 12 volt supply, which for typical solar pow-
ered installations eliminates the need for 12 volt
to 24 volt conversion equipment. The net effect of
using "low power" transmitters for the carbon diox-
ide measurement and control systems is that power
consumption is reduced by as much as 3.7 watts .
A slotted-port ball valve with an electric actuator
was selected for the control element of the carbon
dioxide injection measurement and control system.
The slotted-ball provides a more linear flow con-
trol characteristic. Figure 2 provides a compari-
son of the flow characteristics of the slotted-port
ball valve and the more common reduced-port ball
valve. The ball valve, when equipped with appro-
priate seals, requires relatively low operating
torques . A simple 12 volt DC actuator is used to
position the valve. Adjustments to valve position
are accomplished by applying short duration pulses
of the appropriate polarity. Using a simple actua-
tor in this manner further reduces power require-
ments since power is consumed only when the valve
is actually being moved.
The wellsite electronics package utilized inte-
grates both the control and data transmission
facilities in one system. This is accomplished
using a microcomputer which has data gathering and
control capabilities along with a built-in radio
for communications with a host automation computer .
Because the microcomputer uses only CMOS compo-
nents, current requirements are only 100 milliam-
peres at 12 volts DC. The physical configuration
of the microprocessor RTU is depicted in Figure 3.
The microcomputer and radio is packaged in such a
way as to allow it to be installed four to six feet
SPE 14288
underground to provide a constant temperature to
insure a long equipment life.
Connections to the microcomputer are made via a
termination assembly located above-ground. One of
the functions of the termination assembly is to
allow a portable keyboard-terminal device to be
connected to the microcomputer to allow entry of
transmitter calibration and other data and to allow
local display of injection rates and pressures .
Also located in the above ground enclosure is a
"personality module" which provides non-volatile
storage for application programs and data. The
"personality module" allows the microcomputer to
easily be reconfigured without the need to open the
tightly sealed downhole assembly.
In order to minimize the number of wires required
in the cable leading downhole, the microcomputer
makes use of input/output subassemblies that commu-
nicate with it in a serial format. These subassem-
blies are referred to as Micro RTUs because they
provide much the same capabilities as conventional
RTUs but are small. As would be expected their
functions are somewhat limited. In the carbon
dioxide injection measurement and control system
the Micro RTUs are located in a control box on the
injection skid itself . This portion of the system
provides the status and analog inputs and control
outputs to and from the microcomputer that are
necessary to monitor and control the end devices on
the injection skid . The micro RTU package requires
35 milliamperes at 12 volts DC.
Power for the carbon dioxide measurement and con-
trol system is provided by a solar panel which is
capable of delivering 20 watts of power in bright
sunlight. In order to provide power at night and
on very cloudy days, a 12 volt 25 ampere-hour bat-
tery is provided along with a voltage regulator to
control charging of the battery. The battery is
also located underground to provide a constant
temperature and a long battery life. Ground rods
are provided at both the injection measurement and
control skid and at the base of the microcomputer
housing in order to provide adequate protection for
the wellsite electronics equipment. These grounds
provide a current path for the transient suppres-
sion devices that are used at all the field wiring
connections to protect the electronic assemblies.
Experience indicates that total isolation from com-
mercial power and adequate grounding will almost
totally eliminate failures of the microprocessor
RTU due to lightning and static electricity.
SOFTWARE
The software that drives the microprocessor based
RTU is divided into logical parts: 1) the operating
system and 2) the application programs. The oper-
ating system software is stored in Erasable Pro-
grammable Read Only Memories (EPROMS) that are
located inside the tightly sealed microcomputer
canister along with a sufficient amount of read/
write memory (RAM) to hold the application pro-
grams. The application programs are stored in
EPROMS that are located in sockets on the personal-
ity module·. When the microcomputer is powered-up
or reset the contents of the personality module
EPROMS is copied to the microcomputer's read/write
memory where it normally executes.
SPE 14288 J.T. WHITE & R.L. BENOIT
The operating system used in the carbon dioxide
control system is a scaled down version of the
operating system used on the larger automation host
computers. The operating system (RTUaS) provides
the facilities commonly required by application
programs (input, output, host communication, Nicro
RTU communication, and math utilities). RTuas also
provides for multiple applications programs to be
active at one time (multi-tasking) and the capabil-
ity of scheduling programs to begin execution at
either predetermined intervals or at predetermined
times of day. The multi-tasking attribute of RTUaS
allows application programmers to . obtain very high
levels of performance from the microcomputer. The
use of an operating system greatly simplifies the .
task of developing application programs and conse-
quently speeds up development.
The application programs for the carbon dioxide
injection control system can be divided into seven
major functions: (1) Data Base Utilities, (2) Data
Gathering, (3) Gas Calculation, (4) Data Statis-
tics, (5) Control, (6) Data Transmission, and (7)
Man/Nachine Interface. Each of these functions
will be discussed in greater detail.
Data Base Utilities
The data base utilities provide a means of access-
ing information in a logical rather than a physical
manner and are used by all the application pro-
grams. For example they allow application programs
to access pressure control limits for the first
control point rather than a specific memory loca-
tion. The data base utilities provide a structure,
known as a file, containing one or more records
which hold all the pertinent information (or refer-
ences to the pertinent information in other files)
about a particular logical entity. As an example,
all of the information necessary for the system to
convert an analog value from a raw binary reading
into a engineering scaled value is stored in the
Transducer Calibration File. Other files define
lists of Micro RTUs that are to be interrogated,
where each particular piece of information is in
the return message, a pointer to the entry in the
Transducer Calibration File that is to be used for
data conversion, and a pointer into the Value File
where the converted value is to be stored.
The real benefits of using a data base in an appli-
cation such as the carbon dioxide measurement and
control system are the ease with which programmers
can access data and increased system flexibility.
When programmers can access data in logical terms,
their job is made easier and application programs
can be written more quickly. In addition, it is
relatively easy to write programs in such a way as
to perform the same operation for all the records
in a file. This results in systems that can easily
be adapted to handle additional input or control
points. Systems written in this way tend to be
very flexible and therefore adaptable to new situa-
tions.
Data Gathering
The data gathering applications exp.cute every six
seconds. These applications obtain the necessary
status and analog data from the Micro RTU(s) for
the other applications. This includes static pres-
sure, differential pressure and temperature at the
3
orifice, control pressure, and maintenance switch
status. Scaling of the analog values read from the
transmitters into engineering units (using calibra-
tion data for the appropriate end device) is also
provided by the data gathering applications.
Gas Calculation
The gas calculation application uses the engineer-
ing scaled values of static pressure, differential
pressure and temperature to calculate an instanta-
neous carbon dioxide flow rate and runs immediately
after the data gathering application. The flow
calculations utilize a mass form of the gas flow
equation rather than the more common gas factor
method used for hydrocarbon gases. 1 This method
of calculating mass flow rates requires gas den-
sity, viscosity, and the ratio of specific heats.
The application programs calculate density using
polynomial equations to predict density at the mea-
sured pressure along adjacent isotherms (5 degree F
spacing) and linear interpolation to predict the
density at the measured temperature. 2 A similar
method is used to predict the gas viscosity and
ratio of specific heats. Coefficients for the
polynomial equations were determined by fitting
polynomial curves to available physical data for
carbon dioxide. Once the mass flow rate is deter-
mined it is divided by the density of carbon diox-
ide at the desired standard conditions to determine
volumetric flow rate. The volumetric flow rate is
saved for use by other applications, multiplied by
the elapsed time since the last calculation, and
added to the accumulated volume of carbon dioxide
injected.
Data Statistics
The data statistics application runs immediately
after gas calculation and was provided as a means
of evaluating system performance and providing
averaged values for the control application. It
maintains the maximum value, minimum value and
average value for specified parameters for a speci-
fied period of time. For the carbon dioxide injec-
tion control systems statistical data is maintained
for the orifice static pressure, orifice differen-
tial pressure, orifice temperature, carbon dioxide
flow rate, and injection pressure on a daily basis.
Flow rate and injection pressure data are also
maintained on a thirty second basis for the control
routines.
Control
The control program runs upon completion of the
data statistics application. High and low pressure
limits and high and low flow rate limits either
entered by operators in the field or transmitted
from the host automation computer define a control
window for the injection well. This is graphically
depicted in Figure 4. As an example of the opera-
tion of this scheme suppose the high pressure limit
is set to 1300 psi, the low pressure limit to 1280
psi, the high flow rate limit to 1.5 MMCFD and the
low flow rate limit to 0 MMCFD. In this case the
microcomputer will attempt to close the valve if
the pressure is above 1300 psi or the flow rate is
above 1.5 MMCFD. The microcomputer will attempt to
open the valve if the pressure is below 1280 psi as
long as the flow rate is below 1.5 MMCFD. When the
control application determines that the well is
4 A CARBON DIOXIDE INJECTION MEASUREMENT AND CONTROL SYSTEM
operating outside the control window a single open
or close pulse is sent to the v-alve actuator by way
of a control Micro RTU in the electronics package
on the metering and control skid.
Several unique control situations are handled by
the control application. The first of these inhib-
its control pulses if the control disabled flag is
set. This flag is set (or reset) based upon the
position of the maintenance switch on the control
skid or special commands sent to the microcomputer
by the host automation computer. The maintenance
switch (in combination with a manual open/close
switch) allows field personnel to disable control
and manually position the control valve without
affecting flow calculations. A second special
situation arises when over or under range condi-
tions are detected on the orifice differential
pressure or the injection pressure transmitters.
If either the orifice differential pressure or the
injection pressure is found to be over range a
close pulse is issued. If the injection pressure
is found to be under range control is disabled and
the valve closed.
Early testing of the simple control scheme
described above indicated some tendency to over
control because of the slow response of an 1n]eC-
tion well. To improve the performance of the con-
troller without sacrificing the controller's abil-
ity to respond to drastic changes in injection rate
or pressure the control algorithm was modified to
make it adaptive. Under normal conditions (rate
and pressure within control window) the control
application issues a control pulse when the thirty
second average value of a parameter is below the
low limit or above the high limit for that parame-
ter. After the first control pulse is issued the
control routine uses instantaneous readings in the
decision process until the rate and pressure are
once again in the control window. At this point
the control application once again uses the thirty
second averages of the rate and pressure.
In order to give the well time to stabilize between
control pulses the control application will wait an
adjustable period of time before the instantaneous
reading is even tested. The time varies in six
second increments between six and sixty seconds.
The time adjustment is based upon how many "dead-
bands" (high limit minus low limit) the parameter
is over or under the control parameter. The delay
time is reduced by six seconds from the maximum
time of sixty seconds for each "dead-band" the par-
ameter is away from the limit that has been
exceeded.
The following example demonstrates the operation of
this adaptive control scheme. Using the rate and
pressure limits from the previous example suppose
the injection pressure suddenly jumps to 1400 psi.
When the thirty second average of the pressure is
found to exceed 1300 psi, a close pulse will be
sent. The control application will then wait 30
seconds before testing the instantaneous rate and
pressure values to decide if additional control
pulses are required. As the pressure approaches
1300 psi the interval between control pulses will
lengthen to a maximum of sixty seconds. Finally,
when the injection pressure is found to be within
the control window the decision to control will
again be based on the thirty second averages of
SPE 14288
injection rate and pressure.
Data Transmission
The data transmission application runs immediately
after the data statistics application and copies
data from the operational data base to buffers for
transmission to the automation host computer. This
preloading of the buffers allows the microcomputer
to respond immediately to a data enquiry from the
host computer.
Man/~lachine Interface
The man/machine interface applications run as a
result of an operator command. These applications
allow field personnel to query and update control
parameters, query current flow rate and pressure,
query and update orifice data (plate size and line
size), query and update transmitter calibration
data and display the data statistics report. These
applications utilize a keyboard/terminal device
that is portable and can be plugged into the termi-
nation board in the microcomputer's top housing.
OPERATIONAL EXPERIENCE
The carbon dioxide injection measurement control
automation system has been operational since Decem-
ber of 1984. The wellsite microcomputer systems
have demonstrated their ability to effectively con-
trol the injection pressure of the carbon dioxide
to within ten psi of the desired control pressure.
The control systems can react to a major change in
injection pressure in a matter of minutes with no
tendency to over control. The control systems
adjust the wellsite control valves to maintain
constant gas injection pressures in response to
minor supply system pressure changes. In the cases
where a major disruption of carbon dioxide supply
has occurred, the control systems have been
instructed to disable control and close, thus pre-
venting further loss of supply pressure.
The solar power systems had some initial problems
caused by a failure of the regulator to charge the
batteries effectively on very overcast days. This
problem was traced to the tolerances of components
in the voltage regulator which resulted in the ter-
minal voltage of the regulator being too low.
These regulators have since been replaced by a more
sophisticated charging system that allows the ter-
minal voltage to be adjusted to compensate for com-
ponent tolerances. The carbon dioxide measurement
and control systems have demonstrated that one of
the major advantages of having a software con-
trolled device is the relative ease with which
changes can be made in order to adjust to changing
field operations constraints. The basic carbon
dioxide control system, which was designed to con-
trol only gas flow, has been easily adapted to also
control water injection during alternate gas/water
injection cycles. The basic system has also been
adapted to control simultaneous gas and water
injection. The modified carbon dioxide and water
injection control system has been further modified
to control multiple water injection wells by simply
defining mUltiple water injection control points
and not defining any carbon dioxide control points
in the system's tables and files.
SPE 14288 J.T. WHITE & R.L. BENOIT 5

The ease of making operational changes was further

demonstrated when it was found that the error
checking normally used was somewhat inadequate for
the longer messages that were transmitted by the
microcomputers. This problem was easily rectified
by imbedding additional error checking inside the
existing checksum. This change was implemented by
simply modifying the software for both the micro-
computer and the host automation computer so that
they generate and validate the additional error
check words . The need for adding enhanced error
checking capabilities is a result of more and more
telemetry systems using radio channels for communi-
cations. The increased use of radio telemetry has
made it more difficult to obtain frequency alloca-
tions that are not already in use for radio teleme-
try. The net effect of this frequency congestion
is an increase in the probability of transmission
errors because of the increased interference.

CONCLUSIONS

Amoco has successfully implemented a carbon dioxide

measurement and injection control system using
state-of-the-art microcomputer technology. The use
of solar power eliminated the need to install AC
power at at the injection wellsites and increased
system reliability. Low power end devices have
proven to be attractive alternatives to the more
common current output devices, especially for
installations that are solar powered . A slotted-
port ball valve with a simple 12 volt DC actuator,
when combined with an adaptive control algorithm
implemented in software, has demonstrated the abil-
ity to control injection pressures to within 10 psi
of the desired value. The measurement and control
system has the advantages of a local controller in
that it functions independently of the central
automation computer while at the same time allowing
changes of control parameters to be implemented
from and abnormal conditions to be reported to a
central location. A multi-tasking operating system
and data-driven application programs reduced the
time required to implement the microcomputer based
carbon dioxide injection measurement and control
system. This also provided the flexibility neces-
sary to allow the system to be easily adapted to
changing field conditions.

REFERENCES

1. Miller, R. W., Flow Measurement Engineering

Handbook, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York,
NY (1983) 9 . 1-9.23 .

2. Oakes, F . G. and White, J . T., "Electronic Mea-

surement of Carbon DiOXide," paper SPE 14289
presented at 1985 SPE Annual Technical Confer-
ence, Las Vegas, September 22-25.
 SPE 1 4 288
Antenna and
Solar Panel

I
I
I
I
I
Battery""\ I
V )
Micro- 1------.....
I
computer r-------/

H2 0
Control
at Station

Injection CO 2 Metering and Injection Control Skid

Wellhead

Fig. 1-CO z injection metering and contr~ system.

100

80

> 60 Slotted -
(J
)( Port Ball
lIS
:IE
?P. 40
Standard
Ball
20

O-+-.....:~--r----r-----r---,.---....,

o 20 40 60 80 100
% Valve Travel

Fig. 2-8all valve flow characteristics.

 SPE 14 28 8
___ Directional Antenna
.J=l;;;=I=FFl=I

Personality
Module
Termination Board
_Top Housing

Coax Cable
Ribbon Cable
Ground Rod.---"
Microcomputer

Power Cables

12V 25AH Battery

Fig. 3-C0 2 metering and control microcomputer installation.

Flow
Rate

High
Rate
Limit

Low
Rate
Limit

Low High Pressure

Pressure Pressure
Limit Limit
~ Close Pulse

~ Open Pulse

c=J No Pulse
Fig. 4-C0 2 injection control scheme.