Upstream Oil Production Process Training

By Ammad Baig

Oil Exploration and Production

Upstream
The upstream sector includes the searching for potential underground or underwater oil and gas fields, drilling of exploratory wells, and subsequently operating the wells that recover and bring the crude oil and/or raw natural gas to the surface [2]

Oil Exploration and Production

Midstream
Midstream operations are usually included in the downstream category. The midstream industry processes, stores, markets and transports commodities such as crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids (LNGs, mainly ethane, propane and butane) and sulphur.

Downstream
The downstream sector includes oil refineries, petrochemical plants, petroleum product distribution, retail outlets and natural gas distribution companies

Upstream Process
Offshore and Onshore Reservoirs
Well Formation Collection of Crude Oil from Wells Separates Gas Oil Processing to remove
Sulfur Water Salts

Shipping oil to storage facilities

GS Process OIL Flow

Receiver Manifold Shipping Pumps Production Separators Surge Tank Charge Pumps Crude Heaters FWNO, DESALTERS

Wells

Metering

Treater

Launcher Manifold

Oil Reservoirs
A petroleum reservoir or an oil and gas reservoir, is a subsurface pool of hydrocarbons contained in porous rock formations. The naturally occurring hydrocarbons are trapped by overlying rock formations with lower permeability [2] These formations occur over a period of millions of years. A young reservoir is said to be 60 million years old. Older reservoirs have better API Oil Grade. [1]

Oil Reservoir
Seismic data and advanced visualization 3D models are used to plan extractions. Normally a well will provide 30 - 60 % extractions. However by using EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery) techniques 70 % can be achieved. [1]

Oil Wells and Reservoir Engg.

The well sits on the actual oil/gas reservoir:
1.)Oil Wells 2.)Gas Wells 3.) Condensate Gas wells

Various types of wells:

1.) Subsea 2.) Onshore

Structure of Oil Well

Well Casing:
Series of metal tubes installed in a freshly drilled hole. It strengthens the sides of the hole, ensures no hydrocarbons leak out or seep into the wall formation. The type of casing depends upon the depth, temp, pressure and formation of the well. Casing is usually cemented in place. [2] Usually the diameter of the well decreases as it is dug deeper leading to a type of colonial shape. [1]

Structure of Oil Well

Casing Structure Conductor Casing
20 50 feet long

Surface Casing
100 400 meters long

Intermediate Casing
Longest casing string

Production Casing
Oil string, connects oil reservoir to surface casings

A packer is used between casing and tubing at the bottom of the well.

Structure of Oil Well

Completion:
Refers to process of finishing the well for production. This principally involves preparing the bottom of the hole to the required specifications, running in the production tubing and its associated jewellery and perforating and stimulating as required. Following are a few types of completion. Open Hole completion Perforated Completion Sand Exclusion Completion Permanent Completion Multiple Zone Completion Drain Hole Completion

Completion After drilling and casing the well, it must be 'completed'. Completion is the process in which the well is enabled to produce oil or gas. In a cased-hole completion, small holes called perforations are made in the portion of the casing which passed through the production zone, to provide a path for the oil to flow from the surrounding rock into the production tubing. In open hole completion, often 'sand screens' or a 'gravel pack' is installed in the last drilled, uncased reservoir section. These maintain structural integrity of the wellbore in the absence of casing, while still allowing flow from the reservoir into the wellbore. Screens also control the migration of formation sands into production tubulars and surface equipment, which can cause washouts and other problems, particularly from unconsolidated sand formations in offshore fields. After a flow path is made, acids and fracturing fluids are pumped into the well to fracture, clean, or otherwise prepare and stimulate the reservoir rock to optimally produce hydrocarbons into the wellbore. Finally, the area above the reservoir section of the well is packed off inside the casing, and connected to the surface via a smaller diameter pipe called tubing. This arrangement provides a redundant barrier to leaks of hydrocarbons as well as allowing damaged sections to be replaced. Also, the smaller diameter of the tubing produces hydrocarbons at an increased velocity in order to overcome the hydrostatic effects of heavy fluids such as water. In many wells, the natural pressure of the subsurface reservoir is high enough for the oil or gas to flow to the surface. However, this is not always the case, especially in depleted fields where the pressures have been lowered by other producing wells, or in low permeability oil reservoirs. Installing a smaller diameter tubing may be enough to help the production, but artificial lift methods may also be needed. Common solutions include down hole pumps, gas lift, or surface pump jacks. Many new systems in the last ten years have been introduced for well completion. Multiple packer systems with frac ports or port collars in an all in one system have cut completion costs and improved production, especially in the case of horizontal wells. These new systems allow casings to run into the lateral zone with proper packer/frac port placement for optimal hydrocarbon recovery.

Wellhead
The wellhead consists of pieces of equipment mounted at the opening of well to regulate and monitor the extraction of hydrocarbons from underground formation. A wellhead consists of three components The casing head
At the bottom. Connected to hanger. Gives access to open, close, bled down and in some case produce through casing as well. Used to determine leaks in casing, tubing or packer.

The tubing head and tubing hanger: The Christmas tree

This is the component, which sits on top of the wellhead and serves as the main support for the production tubing

Master gate valve, a pressure gauge, a wing valve, a swab valve and a choke Downhole Safety Valve:

Christmas Tree
The set of valves, spools and fittings connected to the top of a well to direct and control the flow of formation fluids from the well Christmas tree. Christmas trees are found in a wide range of sizes and configurations, depending on the type and production characteristics of the well. In each case, the Christmas tree provides primary and back-up control facilities for normal production and wellbore shut-in. The Christmas tree also incorporates facilities to enable safe access for well intervention operations such as slickline, electric wireline or coiled tubing. The primary function of a tree is to control the flow into or out of the well, usually oil or gas. A tree often provides numerous additional functions including chemical injection points, well intervention means, pressure relief means (eg annulus vent), tree and well monitoring points The CONTROL SYSTEM attached to the tree controls the downhole safety valve, while the tree acts as an attachment and conduit means of the control system to the downhole safety valve. Subsea trees are available in either Vertical or Horizontal configurations with further speciality available such as Dual Bore, Monobore, concentric, Drill-Through, Mudline, Guidlineless or Guideline

Drive Mechanisms
A good reservoir will have sufficient pressure to push hydrocarbons to the surface by itself. However as the pressure is released the production will drop. To maintain that production various methods are employed. 1.) Gas Injection 2.) Water Injection

Water Injection
The water injection method used in oil production is where water is injected back into the reservoir usually to increase pressure and thereby stimulate production Water is injected for two reasons: 1. For pressure support of the reservoir (also known as voidage replacement). 2. To sweep or displace the oil from the reservoir, and push it towards an oil production well. [2] Water Sources: 1.) Sea Water 2.) Produced Water

Water Injection Process

Water is passed through filters to remove impurities. The filtration is up to 2 micrometers in various steps. Sand Filtration Salts Filtration De-oxygenation From the filters water is fed to de-oxygenation tower. Oxygen is removed to minimize corrosion or any bacterial grown. De-oxygenation tower brings the injection water into contact with a dry gas stream. The filtered water drops into the de-oxygenation tower, splashing onto a series of trays, causing dissolved oxygen to be lost to the gas stream. As a backup, an alternate method is to add Sodium Bisulfate to water source. High Pressure, High Flow pumps are used to inject water into the reservoir. They fill the bottom of the reservoir to push the oil towards the well.

Well Test
Rizwan Saeed

Artificial lift
Plunger Lift Downhole pumps
Electrical Submersible pumps

Rod Pumps

Receiver Manifold
Oil from various wells is fed into the production separators by Receiver Manifolds. Usually the wells are further divided into LP and HP manifolds. LP and HP manifold are connected to two separate production trains.

Production Separator
The well stream consists of crude oil, gas, condensates, water and various contaminants. The purpose of the separators is to split the flow into desirable fractions. Gravity type production separator [1] Various Stages of separation can be designed depending upon hydrocarbons and condensate formation in wells

Production Separator
Slug catcher will reduce the effect of large gas bubbles and liquid plugs. Oil Level Control Gas Pressure Control Prevent Blowout in Separator Prevent High Pressure in Vessel
PIT

LIT

Electrostatic Desalter
A desalter is used to remove unacceptable amount of salts in the separated oil. Various stages of desalters can be used depending upon the amount of salts in oil. The electrostatic desalters use electrodes to separate salts of sodium, calcium and magnesium.

Desalter Operation
Fresh water addition provides dilution Coalescence to promote droplet growth Phase separation to remove contaminants Combined AC/DC fields provide better coalescence and electrolytic nature for desalting.

Free Water Knockout

A vertical or horizontal separator used mainly to remove any free water that can cause problems such as corrosion and formation of hydrates or tight emulsions, which are difficult to break A free-water knockout is commonly called a three-phase separator because it can separate gas, oil and free water. The liquids that are discharged from the free-water knockout are further treated in vessels called treaters. Free-water knockout is abbreviated as FWKO.

Surge Tank
Surge tank is a vessel placed in a flowline through which liquids or gases are flowed to neutralize sudden pressure surges. A surge tank is usually a large vessel. It is located downstream of the Production Separators, Treaters, FWKO and desalters. It is located upstream of Shipping pumps.

Charge Pumps and Shipping Pumps

Charge pumps are located in downstream of Production separators. Charge pumps are usually upstream of Crude oil heaters Shipping pumps pump oil from one platform to another platform. Shipping pumps pump oil from surge tanks through long distance or short distance pipe lines from offshore/on shore platforms to oil storage facilities. Back pressure control is required on shipping pumps for maximum efficiency.

Metering Skids
Orifice plate Meters Rotary Meters Ultrasonic meters A metering skid is divided into several lines in parallel to provide accurate and redundant metering

GS Process GAS Flow

Over Pressure Protection (Desalters, FWNO, Surge Tank, e.t.c.)

Wells

Receiver Manifold

Production Separators

Flare Scrubber Gas Comp LP Gas Lift

Metering

Flare/Vent Scrubber
A scrubber is designed to remove small fractions of liquid from gas A vent scrubber is a two phase separator designed to remove liquid from the relieving fluids before the gas is flared or vented. The liquid is returned to the process. Incase of GSN the liquid from flare scrubber is fed back to Surge tank for shipping. A pipe that releases gas to atmosphere is called vent. If the gas is burned at the tip of vent it is called a flare. Applicable air pollution control regulations must be met when venting. Flaring should be done when releasing H2S to atmosphere.

Gas supply to Utilities

Production Separator Gas Comp Stage 1 Gas Comp Stage 2 Gas Comp Stage 3 Filter Separator

MP FUEL GAS SCRUB

HP FUEL GAS SCRUB

GAS LIFT FUEL GAS

Glycol Contactor

MP GAS CONDITIONING

Gas Compression
Gas passes through following equipment for compression: Cyclotube Separator Separator Filters Heat Exchanger Turbine Compressor

Temp Control and Dehydration

Methanol is injected in flow lines to prevent Hydrate formation and prevent corrosion. Hydrates form and freeze to hydrate ice that may upset process and damage equipment and pipes. For normal risers, hydrates form only when production stops and the temp starts to drop.

Glycol Dehydration System

Pumps Heat Exchanger Glycol Reboiler

Heat Exchanger Heat Exchanger Condensate separator

Glycol Gas outlet Contactor Tower

Gas Inlet

Associated Processes
Gas Injection
Gas Compressors Glycol Unit Reboiler Heat Exchanger Methanol Injection

Water Injection

Misc Operations
Oil sampling unit Refined oil/water separation (Wemco) Fuel gas supply for generators Water treatment Air compressors for platform air supply

Oil Sampling
An Oil Sampler is used to check the quality of Oil. Usually an Oil Sampler is installed upstream of shipping pumps. A common oil sampler consist of an sampling tank, injector and a pump. The sampling time depends upon Rate of Flow in the shipping line.

Welker Sampler

WEMCO

Water Treatment

References
1. Oil and gas Production Handbook 2. www.Wikipedia.org 3. Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering Handbook 4. Design of Oil Handling System and Facilities 5. Surface production operations 6. http://www.natcogroup.com/Content.asp 7. http://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/