Brownfields Infrastructure Management

Brownfields Infrastructure Management

Proceeding with the second day’s presentations, attendees were provided with another workshop, discussing infrastructure management in brownfields. The workshop was chaired by Ismail El Kholy, Oil and Gas Consultant, and Dalia Tawfeek, Egypt Country Manager at Wild Well.

Water Flood Optimization

Mahmoud Elwan, Senior Production Technology Engineer at Qarun Petroleum Company (QPC), delivered a presentation on Waterflood Surface Facility Optimizations Yield Improved Water Injection Quality and OPEX Cost Reductions at Qarun Petroleum Company.

Elwan explained that “in brownfields, you are close to reach and gain each barrel inside the reservoir. So, in order for this [to happen], we are targeting the most efficient way for water flood optimization.” He clarified that this can be hindered because of several waterflood (WF) deficiencies, including extremely high oil-in-water content (OIW) and suspended solid (SS) in the injection water, out-of-service equipment or poor operating conditions, a decline in water injection rate as a result of well integrity issues, and downhole plugging because of poor water injection quality.

Accordingly, he stated that the main objective of QPC’s WF optimization plan is to improve the injected water’s quality and remove facility constraints. He added that “we need to increase the maximum recovery by looking at the conformance.” During the conformance, injection targets to sweep bypassed oil and divert water to the sweet spots to enhance efficiency and maximize the recovery factor.

Upgrading Gabal El Zeit Brownfields

Mohamed Gaber, Process Piping and Pipeline Design Engineer at Petrojet, made a presentation on Gabal El Zeit Brownfields Upgrading Bi-Directional Pipeline Project.

Gaber remarked that the redevelopment plan of Gabal El Zeit area began after the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El Molla, visited it, and accordingly, he proposed the bi-directional pipeline as a solution for the area’s production sustainability.

Gaber noted that Ganoub El Wadi Petroleum Company (Ganope) is directing Suez Oil Company (SUCO), Petrogulf, and East Zeit Petroleum Company (Zeitco) in operating Gabal El Zeit area. For redevelopment, a meeting was held and attended by SUCO, Petrogulf, Zeitco, and Petrojet, under the supervision of Ganope. The meeting resulted in assigning the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) work to Petrojet. Meanwhile, the operations and maintenance activities will be done either for SUCO or Zeitco.

Gaber stated that “this project is a fast-track project” as the engineering activities were done in two months, while the construction work was completed in around seven months. Concluding his presentation, Gaber stressed that “brownfields upgrading projects are truly worthy for maximizing and maintaining production assets.”

Digitalization Integrity Management

A third presentation on Successful Digitalization of Integrity Management in the UK Continental Shelf was introduced by Euan Fowler, Subsea Integrity Engineer at Xodus Group.

Fowler stated that “Xodus entered the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) integrity management market in 2015. As a sign of success since we have captured integrity management (IM) contracts, we are responsible for significant infrastructure list.”

Fowler illustrated that before handling the UKCS, the area witnessed many failing systems. Thus, “the problem was that a lot of IM systems were standalone for different parts of the pipeline system,” he said.

Afterwards, Fowler mentioned the software Xodus created, saying; “it is a software to examine the asset management integrity network, creating links between isolated activities into one place.” He added that this system is the single source for all subsea risks.

Fowler stressed that the system managed to achieve many successes despite being the company’s first developed solution. Moreover, he emphasized that one of the main lessons learnt from implementing that system is that linking and tracking activities in a single system can be effective and saves exorbitant amount of time.

The Power of Big Data Analytics

Haidy Eissa made a presentation entitled Towards Digitalizing the Energy Sector: The Power of Predictive Big Data Analytics in the O&G Industry. Eissa clarified that “the energy industry is coming for a strategic transformation of operations and business models through digital technologies and integrated data flows in a process known as digitalization,” adding that “digitalization is one the main drivers in reshaping the global energy.”

She explained that “big data is simply a term that defines massive datasets streaming in real-time at enormous speeds,” Eissa said, explaining that “big data analytics uses machine learning, artificial intelligence, statistics and database systems to build a model that analyzes these massive streams of datasets and then reveals the underlying trends, patterns, and associations, within these massive datasets.”

For the oil and gas sector’s digital transformation, Eissa indicated that “recently, the oil and gas has become a data intensive industry,” stating that “big data analytics is a relatively new technology in the energy industry.” Afterwards, Eissa explained that big data analytics have a transformational impact in our industry, as “it can help in optimizing production, maximizing uptime, reducing costs, improving HSE, and having smarter business decision making.”

Among the applications of big data analytics in the oil and gas industry is production forecasting. Big data analytics help in providing deeper insights of future production under current and simulated conditions, which can be implemented in brownfields to help in making reliable investment decisions. Another application is predictive maintenance, which helps in predicting equipment’s potential failure and its remaining lifespan, in addition to optimizing equipment settings to maximize its performance.

Furthermore, Eissa provided some recommendations for a successful implementation of big data analytics, saying that “transition cannot happen overnight, it should happen slowly to allow top management and engineers to perceive the total scope of the change.”

Well Integrity Management

Mahmoud Radwan, Subsurface Operations Section Head at Amal Petroleum Company (AMAPETCO) delivered the workshop’s final presentation on Managing the Operational Challenges in Corroded Wells through Well Integrity Management System.

Radwan began clarifying that “well integrity is the application of operational and organizational solutions to reduce the uncontrolled release of hydrocarbons throughout the well life-cycle. We have one goal which is to keep the hydrocarbons in the pipe.” Since AMAPETCO has a history in dealing with downhole corrosion problem, the company nominated a taskforce team in 2013 to create and implement the Well Integrity Management System (WIMS). The WIMS aims to cover all the information of the system’s components, starting from downhole components to wellhead components.

Furthermore, Radwan illustrated that “corrosion rate increases with these terms: pressure, temperature, flowrate, angle of deviation, water cut, diameter, water chemistry, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide.” Accordingly, a six-pillar framework was created to improve the WIMS. These pillars are policy, organizing, planning and implementation, measuring performance, reviewing performance, and auditing.

Concluding his presentation, Radwan noted that “corrosion occurs as a consequence of poor design and changes in the process or in the fluid composition,” stressing that “WIMS should have the highest priority and attention in any exploration and production (E&P) company.”

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