Plateau production

In contrast to an oil production profile, which typically has a plateau period of 2-5 years, a gas field production profile will typically have a much longer plateau period, producing around 2/3 of the reserves on plateau production in order to satisfy the needs of the distribution company to forecast their supplies. The Figure 8.9 compares typical oil and gas field production profiles. 

This is why an offtake limit on the plateau production rate is often imposed, to limit the amount of by-passed oil, and increase the macroscopic sweep efficiency. 

The plateau production rates for cases A and B differ significantly from that in case C, which has a lower but longer plateau. The advantage of profile C is that it requires smaller facilities and probably less wells to produce the same UR. This advantage in reduced costs must be considered using economic criteria against the delayed production of oil (which is bad for the cashflow). One additional advantage of profile C is that the... 

De-bottlenecking is particularly important when the producing field is on plateau production, because it provides a means of earlier recovery (acceleration) of hydrocarbons, which improves the project cashflow and NPV. 

Keywords compressibility, primary-, secondary- and enhanced oil-recovery, drive mechanisms (solution gas-, gas cap-, water-drive), secondary gas cap, first production date, build-up period, plateau period, production decline, water cut, Darcy s law, recovery factor, sweep efficiency, by-passing of oil, residual oil, relative permeability, production forecasts, offtake rate, coning, cusping, horizontal wells, reservoir simulation, material balance, rate dependent processes, pre-drilling. 

In the solution gas drive case, once production starts the reservoir pressure drops very quickly, especially above the bubble point, since the compressibility of the system is low. Consequently, the producing wells rapidly lose the potential to flow to surface, and not only is the plateau period short, but the decline is rapid. 

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. 

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. 

Once the production potential of the producing wells is insufficient to maintain the plateau rate, the decline periodbegins. For an individual well in depletion drive, this commences as soon as production starts, and a plateau for the field can only be maintained by drilling more wells. Well performance during the decline period can be estimated by decline curve analysis which assumes that the decline can be described by a mathematical formula. Examples of this would be to assume an exponential decline with 10% decline per annum, or a straight line relationship between the cumulative oil production and the logarithm of the water cut. These assumptions become more robust when based on a fit to measured production data. 

Introduction and Commercial Application The production decline period for a field is usually defined as starting once the field production rate falls from its plateau rate. Individual well rates may however drop long before field output falls. This section introduces some of the options that may be available, initially to arrest production decline, and subsequently to manage decline in the most cost effective manner. 

Considerable laboratory work has also been done to develop pre- and post-digestion treatments that improve biodegradabiUty. A plateau of about 50—60% volatile soHds destmction efficiencies and energy recoveries in the product gas seems to exist for most methane fermentation systems. 

Sa.Ia.rs and Lakes. Brines having high lithium concentration are found in salars of northern Chile, southwestern Bohvia, and northwestern Argentina. Brines of lower lithium concentration are found in salars in the western United States and the Tibetan Plateau. Brines pumped from beneath the surface of the Salar de Atacama (Chile) and Silver Peak (Clayton Valley, Nevada) are used for commercial production of lithium uti1i2ing solar evaporation (see Chemicals frombrines). The concentration of selected ions in brines from salars and lakes of potential commercial interest worldwide are shown in Table 1. 

The noise is expressed as noise density in units of V/(Hz), or integrated over a frequency range and given as volts rms. Typically, photoconductors are characterized by a g-r noise plateau from 10 to 10 Hz. Photovoltaic detectors exhibit similar behavior, but the 1/f knee may be less than 100 Hz and the high frequency noise roU off is deterrnined by the p—n junction impedance—capacitance product or the amplifier (AMP) circuit when operated in a transimpedance mode. Bolometers exhibit an additional noise, associated with thermal conductance. 

Polychloroprene consumption woddwide, except for eastern European countries and China, has plateaued at about 250,000 metric tons per year with some continued slow growth expected. Annual production averaged 307,000 metric tons during the 1980s with at least part of the difference being exported to formerly SociaUst countries. Production in Armenia has been limited to a fraction of its capacity of 60 metric tons by environmental problems and, in fact, is currendy shut down. The People s RepubHc of China has three plants with a combined capacity of 20 metric tons (2). 

World coal usage, inclusive ot the three major types of coal—anthracite, bituminous (by far the most prevalent form) and lignite—reached a plateau in the first decade of the twentieth centuiy and climbed only very slowly in the half century that followed. By 1880, coal use had equaled wood use on a worldwide basis. The usage around the turn of the centuiy was on the order of 2.2 gigatons per year (around 55 quads), of which about 600 million tons were in the United States. World oil production progressively supplemented the use of coal between 1900 and 1950, increasing by more than an order of magnitude in that period of time, from a little over a quad to some 20 quads. Coal s increase over those years was fractionally much less. 

FIGURE 5.15 Different modes of response measurement, (a) Real time shows the time course of the production of response such as the agonist-stimulated formation of a second messenger in the cytosol, (b) The stop-time mode measures the area under the curve shown in panel A. The reaction is stopped at a designated time (indicated by the dotted lines joining the panels) and the amount of reaction product is measured. It can be seen that in the early stages of the reaction, before a steady state has been attained (i.e., a plateau has not yet been reached in panel A), the area under the curve is curvilinear. Once the rate of product formation has attained a steady state, the stop-time mode takes on a linear character. 

There is a small fall in plasma glucose upon starvation, then little change as starvation progresses (Table 27-2 Figure 27-2). Plasma free fatty acids increase with onset of starvation but then plateau. There is an initial delay in ketone body production, but as starvation progresses the plasma concentration of ketone bodies increases markedly. 

Even the most superficial evaluation of bioequivalency requirements for controlled-release products will indicate that for some of these products, at least, the conventional AUC, Tmax, and Cmax measures of bioequivalency may well be insufficient. Thus, for a non-pulsatile sustained-release product with a dosing interval of 24 hours (as compared to 4 hours for the noncontrolled product), the time period during which plasma concentrations are maintained at essentially a plateau level might well be regarded as of critical... 

A second test for buildup of a free inactivator is to measure product formation in the presence of an excess of compound until the progress curve reaches a plateau, and to then add a second aliquot of enzyme. As described earlier in this section, the addition of a second aliquot of enzyme should result in renewed product formation, which will wane with time as the new molecules of enzyme are inactivated. The rate of inactivation of the second aliquot of enzyme (measured as kobs) should be the same as that of the first aliquot of enzyme in the experiment, if the compound is functioning as a true mechanism-based inactivator. If, instead, inactivation is due to buildup of an inhibitory species, then the second value of lcohs should be greater than the first value. This experiment can also be performed by preincubating the enzyme with compound and initiating the reaction with cognate substrate, as... 

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