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Well Productivity Index

Challenge

It is critical for oil and gas companies to understand how productive their wells are, and when it is time for decommissioning. The Well Productivity Index is a valuable measure of individual well health, but it is difficult to scale to the number of wells owned, which typically number in the thousands for each operator.

Traditionally, oil and gas companies have performed well health calculations manually offline. This is a cumbersome process requiring significant engineering time, as it is difficult to continually measure the key performance indicators (KPIs) for thousands of wells. The process has the potential to generate many errors, as calculations are performed manually within Excel spreadsheets or on paper. It has been difficult for oil and gas companies to do the necessary analysis to ensure all their wells are properly maintained and productive. Often, ineffective wells are not decommissioned, and they continue to consume valuable resources that would better be spent on productive wells.

A super major U.S. oil and gas firm wanted greater visibility into the productivity of its wells, gaining a better understanding of when it is no longer worthwhile to keep a well in operation. Toward that end, the firm needed to implement a Well Productivity Index calculation to give a standard measure of well performance.

Solution

The Seeq advanced analytics solution eliminates manual data entry and dramatically shortens analysis time, increasing process efficiencies. Using Seeq, the oil and gas firm’s engineers were able to calculate the productivity index for each well based on flows and pressures. Their analysis easily scaled to thousands of wells for performance monitoring, giving granular visibility that was not possible previously.

Results

The oil and gas firm has saved a dramatic 500 hours of engineer time for 1,000 wells­–a major improvement. The team was able to reduce data entry errors and improve the quality of its well productivity calculations.

The Seeq analysis provides engineers with both calculations and visual data to easily monitor and optimize well performance across wells. Leveraging Seeq and Asset Trees, an engineer can save 5 to 30 minutes in calculation time per well per calculation. On top of the time reduction, it has succeeded in reducing manual data entry errors. Being able to identify and decommission wells that are no longer producing helps ensure the optimum allocation of resources.

Data Sources

  • Process Data Historian: OSIsoft PI
  • Asset Structure: OSIsoft Asset Framework

Data Cleansing

  • Enables removal of invalid data points from communications dropouts.

Calculations and Conditions

  • Well productivity is calculated by dividing the well liquid flow rate by the delta between the “reservoir pressure” and the bottom hole pressure.
  • This Index can then be averaged to get a longer term view of how the well is performing.

Reporting and Collaboration

  • Utilizing Seeq provides engineers with a significant reduction in effort and elapsed time, and supplies Delta pressures and Well Productivity for each well, which can be benchmarked and reported over time, providing a holistic and thorough process evaluation.