CoViz 4D provides a collaborative platform for multi-disciplined asset teams to key aspects of production in order to mitigate risk and costly downtime.
While there’s no way to completely eliminate mishaps and failures that can create potential risks in oil and gas production, operators can implement key monitoring measures that help them find precarious aberrations sooner rather than later.
In order to properly monitor changing reservoir conditions, engineers need a software system that fosters a wider understanding of context into subsurface conditions, allowing operators to course-correct before events spiral out of control. A comprehensive visualization scheme can allow teams to assess dips in production as a result of mechanical problems and issues within adjacent/offset wells.
Flexible co-visualization software is one of the best techniques that can help industry professionals mitigate risks during the production phase.
Assessing Drops in Production
If a drop in production is discovered during well reviews in oilfield surveillance, engineers and geologists must investigate the cause. In doing so, they must compare geologic data, well log data, and all other relevant data to pinpoint the root cause of the decrease in production, confirming if the issue is mechanical- or reservoir-related.
Mechanical Issues
Mechanical issues are often first noticed in the daily production records and notes that the pumpers provide. Pumpers report to engineers in the office and will often provide their opinion as to the nature of a potential mechanical issue. The engineer then reviews the production data and makes recommendations to his team and management. This can be a complex and time-consuming process that can be simplified with the use of data integration and visualization software such as CoViz 4D.
In large fields with automated production monitoring, the data can be directly imported into CoViz 4D for visualization and analysis. Significant deviations in production can then be identified in CoViz 4D and visualized in conjunction with surrounding, normal-producing wells. This information is then relayed to field personnel who check the problem well for mechanical issues. If the well is operating normally in a mechanical sense, then the drop in production is likely related to an issue within the reservoir.
Reservoir Issues
Reservoir issues are more complex and often require a review of all well and reservoir data to identify the nature of the problem. Team members need to be able to quickly visualize all data, technical interpretations, and models (engineering, geoscience, and petrophysical) and cross-correlate to help understand the problematic well in relation to other surrounding wells and the reservoir. Once a potential reservoir issue is identified, remediation is undertaken if it is economically viable.
Because remediation can be costly, it is important that asset teams are able to quickly and accurately identify the issue and a solution that will most likely fix the problem. CoViz 4D makes it possible for users to simultaneously view and interrogate multiple time-variant data and displays.
Possible inputs include:
- 4D seismic,
- reservoir simulation,
- fluid production,
- well events,
- production tests,
- microseismic data, and
- other time-relevant data that are critical to the team.
CoViz 4D’s ability to include and visualize all the data, interpretations, and models into a single geospatial framework can greatly shorten the time necessary for the reevaluation of reservoir behavior. Once the revaluation is completed, the process of problem mitigation (re-fracking, chemical treatments, etc.) can then be recorded in CoViz 4D and further analyzed for effectiveness. This can be an iterative process in complex problems and CoViz 4D can be an essential tool in the evaluation of the problem and analysis of the remedies.
CoViz 4D can be an essential tool in the evaluation of the problem and analysis of the remedies.
Mitigating Risks in Oil and Gas Production With the Help of CoViz 4D
While there’s no way to eliminate risks in the oil and gas industry, the use of an integrated software solution like CoViz 4D can greatly enhance mitigation efforts. CoViz 4D can help users contend with pressure deviations that disrupt production operations and deviate from predicted simulation models. It can also be leveraged to spot issues in a single well and compare it to adjacent wells, determining if the issue is mechanical or reservoir-related.
The overall risks in oil and gas production can vary, but Coviz 4D can assist users in seeing a problem at an early stage, giving them more time to adjust accordingly and avoid production mishaps. The uniqueness that CoViz 4D brings to the process of understanding a problem or risk is the totality of data (3D and 4D) that can be quickly and easily visualized and analyzed via cross-correlation and/or geospatial juxtaposition.
CoViz 4D allows geoscientists, engineers, and all members of their teams to visualize and analyze multidisciplinary data in a comprehensive viewing environment to accurately pinpoint and mitigate risks in oil and gas production.
