Abstract
Producing wells in tight formations and matured fields with high gas to oil ratio is proven to be challenging approach. Although, these wells have good production initially but they experience a sharp production decline resulted in low oil recovery, well instability and pump performance deterioration. That could end up with higher deferment and frequent beam pump failures. Fully automated solutions using different control options could maximize the well productivity and enhance the run life of the beam pumping surface and subsurface equipment.
This approach of fully automated solutions is integrating the real-time data from downhole sensor and the pump fillage data to continuously monitor and optimize the beam pumping system. The automated solution can be easily configured and controlled on well basis. Basically, this solution is based on two options which are the intake pressure mode and pump fillage mode which could be alternatively used and can be simply configured with present limits to control the well automatically.
This study examines the use of fully automated control solutions in beam pump operations in Block-5, Oman. Implementing Pump Fillage (PF) and Pump Intake Pressure (PIP) modes has optimized well performance, reducing beam pump failures by 9% and extending operational life by 23% from 2015 to 2023. These automated modes also decreased stuffing box leaks by over 85%, reduced environmental leaks by 70%, and cut power consumption by more than 60%. Additionally, surface motor run life increased by 55%, and reduced human intervention allowed for better resource allocation. These results highlight the effectiveness of applying these solutions across all wells in Block-5, particularly under challenging conditions.
This paper offers practical and applied solutions of fully automated methods to monitor and control the beam pumping system depending on data drawn from over 400 wells in block-5 in north of Oman. These solutions meant to maximize the well productivity while enhancing the run life of beam pump system in very challenging reservoirs that are depleted, tight or have high GOR.
