Abandonment

Lamp Method the sample is burned in a closed system in an atmosphere of 70% CO2 and 30% oxygen in order to avoid formation of nitrogen oxides. This method was to have been abandoned as it takes three hours to carry out, but remains officially required for jet fuel sulfur analysis. 

Keywords exploration, appraisal, feasibility, development planning, production profile, production, abandonment, project economics, cash flow... 

Plug back cementations, i.e. cement placement inside the casing and across the perforations may be required prior to sidetracking a well or in the course-of abandonment. 

Reservoirs containing low compressibility oil, having small amounts of dissolved gas, will suffer from large pressure drops after only limited production. If the expansion of oil is the only method of supporting the reservoir pressure then abandonment conditions (when the reservoir pressure is no longer sufficient to produce economic quantities of oil to the surface) will be reached after production of probably less than 5% of the oil initially in place. Oil compressibility can be read from correlations. 

The aquifer response (or impact of the water injection wells) may maintain the reservoir pressure close to the initial pressure, providing a long plateau period and slow decline of oil production. The producing GOR may remain approximately at the solution GOR if the reservoir pressure is maintained above the bubble point. The outstanding feature of the production profile is the large increase in water cut over the life of the field, which is usually the main reason for abandonment. Water cut may exceed 90% in the final part of the field life. As water cut increases, so oil production typically declines a constant gross liquids (oil plus water) production may be maintained. 

Gas reservoirs are produced by expansion of the gas contained in the reservoir. The high compressibility of the gas relative to the water in the reservoir (either connate water or underlying aquifer) make the gas expansion the dominant drive mechanism. Relative to oil reservoirs, the material balance calculation for gas reservoirs is rather simple. A major challenge in gas field development is to ensure a long sustainable plateau (typically 10 years) to attain a good sales price for the gas the customer usually requires a reliable supply of gas at an agreed rate over many years. The recovery factor for gas reservoirs depends upon how low the abandonment pressure can be reduced, which is why compression facilities are often provided on surface. Typical recovery factors are In the range 50 to 80 percent. 

The subscript i refers to the initial pressure, and the subscript ab refers to the abandonment pressure the pressure at which the reservoir can no longer produce gas to the surface. If the abandonment conditions can be predicted, then an estimate of the recovery factor can be made from the plot. Gp is the cumulative gas produced, and G is the gas initially In place (GIIP). This is an example of the use of PVT properties and reservoir pressure data being used in a material balance calculation as a predictive tool. 

From the above plot, it can be seen that the recovery factor for gas reservoirs depends upon how low an abandonment pressure can be achieved. To produce at a specified delivery pressure, the reservoir pressure has to overcome a series of pressure drops the drawdown pressure (refer to Figure 9.2), and the pressure drops in the tubing, processing facility and export pipeline (refer to Figure 9.12). To improve recovery of gas, compression facilities are often provided on surface to boost the pressure to overcome the pressure drops in the export line and meet the delivery pressure specified. 

Typical recovery factors for gas field development are in the range 50 to 80 percent, depending on the continuity and quality of the reservoir, and the amount of compression installed (i.e. how low an abandonment pressure can be achieved). 

The recovery factors for oil reservoirs mentioned in the previous section varied from 5 to 70 percent, depending on the drive meohanism. The explanation as to why the other 95 to 30 percent remains in the reservoir is not only due to the abandonment necessitated by lack of reservoir pressure or high water cuts, but also to the displacement of oil in the reservoir. 

Unstable displacement is clearly less preferable, since a mixture of oil and water is produced much earlier than in the stable displacement situation, and some oil may be left unrecovered at the abandonment condition which may be dictated by a maximum water cut. 

The production profile for oil or gas is the only source ofrevenueior most projects, and making a production forecast is of key importance for the economic analysis of a proposal (e.g. field development plan, incremental project). Typical shapes of production profile for the main drive mechanisms were discussed in Section 8.2, but this section will provide some guidelines on how to derive the rate of build-up, the magnitude and duration of the plateau, the rate of decline, and the abandonment rate. 

The end of field life is often determined by the lowest reservoir pressure which can still overcome all the pressure drops described and provide production to the stock tank. As the reservoir pressure approaches this level, the abandonment conditions may be postponed by reducing some of the pressure drops, either by changing the choke and separator pressure drops as mentioned, or by introducing some form of artificial lift mechanism, as discussed in Section 9.7. 

In gas field development, the recovery factor is largely determined by how low a reservoir pressure can be achieved before finally reaching the abandonment pressure. As the reservoir pressure declines, it is therefore common to install compression facilities at the surface to pump the gas from the wellhead through the surface facilities to the delivery point. This compression may be installed in stages through the field lifetime. 

The most negative point on the cumulative cashflow indicates the maximum cash exposure of the project. If the project were to be abandoned at this point, this is the greatest amount of money the investor stands to lose, before taking account of specific contractual circumstances (such as penalties from customers, partner claims, contractors claims). 

Original Reservoir Pressure Profile ( Po ) Average Abandonment Pressure... 

As solution gas drive reservoirs lose pressure, produced GORs increase and larger volumes of gas require processing. Oil production can become constrained by gas handling capacity, for example by the limited compression facilities. It may be possible to install additional equipment, but the added operating cost towards the end of field life is often unattractive, and may ultimately contribute to increased abandonment costs. 

Initially, if operating costs can be divided based on production throughput, the satellite development project may look attractive. However, the unit costs of the declining host field will eventually exceed income and the satellite development may not be able to support the cost of maintaining the old facilities. If the old facilities can be partly decommissioned, and provision made for part of the abandonment cost, then the satellite development may still look attractive. The satellite development option should always be compared to options for independent development. 

Decommissioning may be achieved in different ways, depending on the facilities type and the location. This section will also briefly look at the ways in which decommissioning can be deferred by extending the field life, and then at the main methods of well abandonment and facilities decommissioning. 

Of course the operator will strive to use both of these means of deferring abandonment. 

Whether offshore or on land an effective well abandonment programme should address the following concerns ... 

A traditional abandonment process begins with a well killing operation in which produced fluids are circulated out of the well, or pushed ( bull headed ) into the formation, and replaced by drilling fluids heavy enough to contain any open formation pressures. Once... 

Onshore processing facilities, and modules brought onshore, have to be cleaned of all hazardous compounds and scrapped. Cellars of single wells, drilling pads, access roads and buildings will have to be removed. If reservoir compaction affects the surface area above the abandoned field future land use may be prevented, in particular in coastal or low land environments. 

The assumption that the free energy is analytic at the critical point leads to classical exponents. Deviations from this require tiiat this assumption be abandoned. In mean-field theory. 

None of the above methods is sufiBcient for neutrons, however. Neutrons penetrate mader so easily that the only effective approach is to use materials with a very high surface-to-vohuue ratio. This can be accomplished with small particles and exfoliated graphite, for instance, but the teclmique has essentially been abandoned in surface sdidies [7, 8]. 

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