Turn your workover costs into an investment: a case study in an east coast CSG project
Elizeu Boto A , Nicholas Heyes A , Don Merritt B C and Nima Saremi BA Accenture.
B 3esi-Enersight.
C Corresponding author. Email: don.merritt@3esi-enersight.com
The APPEA Journal 57(2) 595-598 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ16145
Accepted: 23 March 2017 Published: 29 May 2017
Abstract
Over the next decades, up to 25% of the operating budget of east coast CSG to LNG companies will be spent on interventions required to maintain or remediate productivity of the thousands of wells already drilled in Queensland. The cost of each intervention can range between 30% and 50% of the drilling cost of an individual well. Identifying which interventions, also known as workovers, do not contribute to the overall project value can help save the operators millions of dollars over the life of the field.
Production of unconventional wells increases initially after workovers and stimulations, but, ultimately, this production declines, often at a rapid rate. Wells are then abandoned after reaching an economical limit. This limit is influenced by multiple factors, some of which can be technical, such as characteristics of the reservoir, or commercial, such as in the price of gas or related to the availability of installed capacity required to process the product.
On the basis of a real case study with a CSG to LNG company in Queensland, the present paper will elaborate how one of the operators is making confident decisions around which wells should be included as part of their workover program. Early findings of the study showed that significant value can be created by applying technology in the identification of which areas of the field are most likely to yield a better return and cases where the production decline can be mitigated only by drilling new wells.
Keywords: completions, PCP pumps, reliability, value optimisation, well failure, well intervention.
Elizeu Boto is a Senior Manager in Accenture Industry Consulting. In this role, he supports business development opportunities and leads delivery of complex programs for energy clients in Australia. In Australia, he has worked with the CSG to LNG operators in the selection, design and implementation of planning and economics solutions. He has previously published papers in both SPE and APPEA in topics such as production forecasting and integrated planning. |
Don Merritt is currently the Vice President of Operations for 3esi-Enersight in Australia. He has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta. He spent several years as a reservoir engineer for Petro Canada, working in the areas of conventional heavy oil and deep gas reservoirs. He specialised in oil and gas economics and production forecasting, having worked with Merak Projects and Schlumberger in Calgary, Australia and Indonesia. Don has most recently worked on the implementation of oil and gas planning systems at Arrow Energy, QGC, and APLNG in Brisbane. |
Nicholas Heyes leads Accenture’s Energy Practice in ANZ. He has 30 years of global consulting experience and has worked with clients in the energy industry on major transformational work in Europe, North America and APAC. He focuses on helping his clients setup and manage efficient and sustainable Upstream Development and Operations capabilities. Nick is currently based in Brisbane, Australia, and is focussed on helping the Coal Seam Gas companies setup and run efficient operations. He has worked on the development of new operating models, processes and technologies to support the capabilities required to efficiently develop reserves and to manage those production operations profitably. Some of his recent selected client engagements include developing a strategy and business case for the technology enablement of the field workforce, the design of an operating model for well delivery based on factory principles, design and implementation of capabilities for integrated planning and production forecasting and running a program to improve production management processes and systems. Nick has a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering and Business Management from Birmingham University in the UK and is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. |
Nima Saremi is a senior consultant with 3esi-enersight. As part of his role, he supports major Coal Seam Gas clients on the eastern coast of Australia. He has a Bachelor of Science in Process Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology and an MBA degree in Strategic Management. He has over 10 years of experience in the oil and gas industry with various roles, including process/production engineer, project engineer, project manager and consultant. Most recently, Nima worked on developing a short-term production forecasting model for QGC and APLNG as well as a North West Shelf field development model. |
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