Case study
Field-wide gas lift optimisation offshore
On an offshore field with a gas lift stock of 10 wells, a field-wide optimisation was carried out: reallocating injection gas between wells increased oil production without increasing total lift gas consumption.
Optimisation target
- Location
- Asia-Pacific
- Field type
- Offshore field
- Lift method
- Gas lift wells
- Well stock
- 10 wells
The problem
Starting point
Total lift gas injection could not be increased. Gas lift wells raised oil using injected gas, which lightened the fluid column in the tubing. Gas for all wells came from the compressors on the central platform, and their capacity capped the total injection volume.
Wells responded to gas differently. On some, additional gas gave a noticeable oil gain; on others, the gain levelled off quickly, and additional gas barely increased production. In addition, all wells flowed into a shared gathering network, so higher production at one well raised network pressure and reduced the rate of its neighbours. Any well could get more gas only at the expense of the others.
Solution
Field-wide optimisation programme
Under the initial allocation, part of the gas went to wells where it barely increased production, while other wells could have produced more oil with additional injection.
The field-wide optimisation algorithm treated the field as a single system. For each well, it calculated the gas return: how much oil the whole field gains from an additional unit of gas, taking into account the well's effect on its neighbours through the gathering network. Gas was then moved from wells with a low return to wells with a high one. The injection gas rate for each well served as the control input.
The reallocation continued until the return evened out across all producing wells. Total injection stayed within the compressor capacity throughout. As a result, the field produced more oil with the same total gas consumption.
Result
+23.7%
daily oil production
±0
change in lift gas injection, thousand m³/d
+$ 5,700
free cash flow (FCF)
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