Petroleum Production

Engineering
Course prepared for
Offshore Oil and Gas Engineering program
ENG 8691
by
M. A. Abdi, Ph.D., P.Eng.
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN)
Spring/Summer 2005

Schedule and Evaluation Breakdown

Instructional hours per week: 3 lecture hours
Evaluation:
Midterm: 20%
Friday June 17th, 2005

Assignments/Projects (term projects/reports): 25%

Project topics selection: 1st of June
Presentations: Early-mid July
Reports due date: End of term July 29th

Final: 55%
Office hours: Fridays 2:30 to 4:30 pm

Course Outline

Introduction

Oilfield development and production of crude oil and natural

gas
Components of petroleum production systems
Well productivity and production engineer
Properties and behaviour of petroleum reservoir fluids

Principles of petroleum production system

analysis

Introduction to well flow capacity calculations

Production from undersaturated oil reservoir

Production from Two phase reservoirs
Production from natural gas reservoirs

Single-phase flow of compressible vs. incompressible flow

Introduction to multiphase flow in wells

Course Outline cont.

Wellhead and surface gathering systems

Principles of facilities engineering

Types of facilities
Basic system configuration
Flow in horizontal pipes single vs. two phase
Flow through chokes
Two and three phase oil and gas separation

Introduction to well completion techniques and

equipment

Factors affecting the completion design

Main phases in completion
Perforating oil and gas wells
Safety devices
Well servicing and workover operations
Well fracturing and acidizing
Well testing
Artificial production techniques: gas lift vs. pumping

References
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Economides M. J., Hill A. D, Ehlig-Economides C., Petroleum Production

Systems, 1994, Prentice Hall, NJ, ISBN: 0-13-658683-X
Nind T. E. W., Principles of Oil Well Production, 2nd Edition, 1981, McGraw Hill,
ISBN: 0-88415-821-7
Manning F. and Thompson R., Oil Field Processing of Petroleum, Volume 2:
Crude, 1995, PennWell Publishing, ISBN: 0-87814-354-8
Perrin D., Oil and Gas Field Development Techniques - Well Completion and
Servicing, 1999, dition TECHNIP, IFP Press, Paris, France, ISBN:2-7108-0682-7
Arnold K. and Stewart M., Surface Production Operations; Volume 1; Design of
Oil Handling Facilities, 2nd Edition, 1999, Butterworth-Heinemann, ISBN: 088415-821-7
Jahn F., Cook M., and Graham M., Hydrocarbon Exploration and Production,
2003, Elsevier, Amsterdam, ISBN:0-444-82883-4
Lyons W. C., Standard Handbook of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering,
Volumes 1 and 2, 1996, Gulf Publishing Co., Houston, ISBN: 0-88415-642-7
Skinner D.R., Introduction to Petroleum Production; Volume 1: Reservoir
Engineering, Drilling, Well Completion, 1981, Gulf Publishing co., ISBN: 0-87201767-2
Gray F., Petroleum Production For the Non-Technical Person, 2nd edition,
1995, PennWell Publishing, ISBN: 0-87814-450-1
Manning F. and Thompson R., Oil Field Processing of Petroleum, Volume 1:
Natural Gas, 1995, PennWell Publishing, ISBN: 0-87814-343-2

Introduction

Oilfield development
Elements of petroleum production
Role of petroleum production engineer
Stages of production

Introduction- continued
Occurrence and origin of oil and gas
Liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons
Petroleum products vs. by-products
Crude oil
Natural gas (associated gas)
Water (produced water)

Characterization of Crude Oils

Sales specification (oAPI, sulfur content, BS&W,
vapour pressure or RVP, etc.)
Spectrum of Produced hydrocarbons
Shrinkage
Solution or associated gas
Crude Oil Constituents
Hydrocarbons
Alkanes
Aromatics
Other ring and naphthenic compounds

Characterization of Crude Oils

Crude Oil Constituents (cont.)
Sulfur
Nitrogen
Oxygen
Metals
Particles
asphaltene and wax
NORM
Arsenic and mercury

Phase Behavior - Fundamentals

Concept of equilibrium
Single component fluid
Two component fluid
Multi-component fluid
Phase diagrams (envelopes)
Pressure-Temperature-Volume (PVT)
Pressure-Temperature (PT)
Pressure composition
Composition-composition
Phase rule
N = C P +2

PVT Phase Diagrams

Phase Behavior Single Component Systems

g

Phase
Equilibrium
gas-liquid
gas-solid
Liquid-solid
Triple point
Critical point

b c

Dense Fluid
regionsupercritical
fluid

Phase Behavior: Two-Component Systems

Two component phase envelop

Cricondenbar
C
l
g

Pressure
Va
of po
pu ur
re pre
A ss
ur
e
Bu
bb
le
-P
oi
nt
Li
ne

PC

k
j

Cricondentherm

Concept of phase
envelope
Equilibrium lines
Bubble point
Dew point
Critical point
Cricondentherm
Cricondenbar
Rertrograde phase
change

d
ne
i
p
va nt L
i
re
%
u
o
s
es
90
-P
r
p
w
ur
e
o
p
D
Va ure B
f
of p

Temperature

TC

Phase Behavior: Multi-Component Systems

Dry gas
Wet gas
Gas Condensate
Volatile oil
Black oil
Dead oil

Two-Phase Region
(Gas+Liquid)

E
Cricondentherm

Oil reservoir

Pressure

Full wellstream
Source of phase
diagrams
Classification of
reservoir fluids

Gas
reservoir

Condensate
reservoir

Temperature

Characterization of Reservoir fluids

SPECTRUM OF PRODUCED
HYDROCARBONS
FLUID TYPE

TYPICAL GOR

STOCK-TANK LIQUID

BSTO/BRF

SCF/BSTO

OAPI

COLOR

>0.5

<2,000

<45

Very dark
black oil

<0.5

2,000-3,300

>40

Colored
dark brown

>0.35

3,300-50,000

50-60

Water white

Wet gas

>50,000

>50

colorless

Dry gas

colorless

Associated gas from:

Low Shrinkage crude (Low GOR)
Ordinary crude
High Shrinkage Oil (high GOR)
volatile oil
Retrograde gas gas condensate

Components of Production Systems Basic

concepts and definitions

Reservoir
Reservoir porosity: =Vp/Vb
Reservoir height (thickness) Pay thickness
Reservoir saturation hydrocarbon vs. water

Components of Production Systems Basic

concepts and definitions, cont.
Classification of reservoirs

Undersaturated
Saturated/Two-phase
Lean gas
Retrograde condensate

Original hydrocarbon-in-place
VHC = Ah(1-Sw)
Oil formation volume factor (Bo)
Gas formation volume factor (Bg)

Ah (1 S w )
N=
Bo

Ah (1 S w )
G=
Bg

Components of Production Systems Basic

concepts and definitions, cont.
Permeability and Darcy equation: q = k P
A
l
Well Completion and near wellbore conditions:
Open hole: Simple, Slotted Liner or Gravel Packed
Cemented, cased, and perforated

Option for Well completion

Components of Production Systems Well and

Surface Facilities

The petroleum production system including the reservoir, underground

well completion, the well, wellhead assembly and surface facilities

Well Productivity and Production Engineering

Productivity index:

q
kh
J=
=
p p wf r B ( p D + s )
Role of production engineer

System of Units SI vs. Field

Useful units and their conversion factors to SI system
Variable
Filed units
SI
Conversion
(multiply field unit by)
Area

acre

m2

4.04 x 103

Compressibility

psi-1

Pa-1

1.45 x 10-4

ft

3.05 x 10-1

md (millidarcy)

m2

9.9 X 10-16 or ~ 1 x 10-15

psi

Pa

6.9 x 103

STB/d
(Std barrel/day)
MSCF/d
(1000 std ft3/day)
cp (centipoise)

m3/s

1.84 x 10-6

m3/s

3.28 x 10-4

Pa.s

1 x 10-3

Length
Permeability
Pressure
Flow rate (oil)
Flow Rate (gas)
Viscosity