Optimizing the newest frontier
Asset management maximizes long-term value of investments
Almost 150 years ago, the world was treated to a novel by French author Jules Verne
that set the stage for today’s reality. 20,000
Leagues Under the Sea told the story of the
submarine Nautilus and its intrepid Captain
Nemo whose underwater adventures captivated readers who could not conceive of such
possibilities.
If Verne had been able to attend the 2013
Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in
Houston, he would have been thrilled to see
the manifestation of his vivid imagination – or
perhaps he would have simply nodded and
said, “It’s about time.”
With its massive size and complexity, sub-
sea equipment has wowed OTC attendees for
several years. To their credit, the manufactur-
ers of such equipment have treated audienc-
es to spectacular exhibits of the real thing,
rather than scale models or photographs.
Like the parable of the blind men and the elephant, one could see people walking up and
laying their hands on the huge exhibits as if
to convince themselves that they were real.
Huge subsea wellheads have been joined
by equally huge subsea processing modules
from booster pumps and compressors to
separators, all linked by fowlines and jumpers, that terminate at complex manifolds
feeding risers that lead to surface production facilities.
The entire network of subsea modules is
part of a system intended to enable and sustain production from wells drilled in deep-and ultra-deepwaters, but until now, there has
been a missing element—asset management.
A fexible asset management system
must be in place to enable production to be
optimized over time as reservoir conditions
change. Massive seabed systems must be
able to adapt to deal with pressure decline,
hydrocarbon depletion, fow assurance issues, and the changes in reservoir dynamics
brought about by in-fll drilling. But without
measurements, they are like the blind men
trying to describe the elephant.
An integrated solution
OneSubsea, a Cameron & Schlumberger
company, made its debut at the 2013 OTC to
offer a solution to subsea lifetime reservoir
management. Cameron veteran Ed Will,
vice president Marketing & Strategy, said:
“By engineering subsea modules to include
and be compatible with downhole and sea-
bed measurements, OneSubsea aims to pro-
vide a single comprehensive resource for
integrated subsea solutions. With accurate,
real-time measurements of critical reservoir
and production parameters, coupled with ef-
fcient two-way data transmission to produc-
tion management facilities, operators taking
advantage of the OneSubsea solution have
everything they need to anticipate changes
in reservoir dynamics in time to react with
cost-effective remedies that keep production
fowing. The entire production spectrum,
from pore to pipeline, can be placed under
continuous surveillance to optimize fow
and maximize ultimate recovery. All data are
captured in an historical database that repre-
sents the entire life of the reservoir.”
The result of this broad integration ben-
efts petro-technical services, allowing con-
tinuous collaboration between geoscientists
and engineers from both operator staff and
technical services consultants who develop
reservoir characterization and production
solutions over the life of the feld. The result
is expected to deliver signifcant improve-
ments in the performance of subsea devel-
opment assets.
What’s new?
“The fundamental technology and service capability underlying OneSubsea is not
new,” Will noted. “It is pooled from feld-proven, technical expertise from two of the
world’s leading global oilfeld companies.
The only new part is that henceforth these
companies will collaborate to integrate their
expertise for the beneft of the subsea asset.
Every piece of subsea equipment will be de-
livered with the capability to do its intended
job plus the measurement accessibility
needed to optimize and sustain production
at top performance.”
It is the hope of the new company that
a lifetime beneft will be realized when it
is time to initiate secondary or tertiary re-
covery. All the measurements needed to
plan and implement reservoir optimization
and enhanced life of feld programs will be
at hand. Such techniques can be simulated
and validated before the frst investment is
made. The dramatic reduction of uncertain-
ty from advanced measurements populating
a high-quality database will make a tangible
reduction in risk so that companies will be
able to launch optimized projects in spite of
tight margins, confdent that their decisions
are valid.
According to the company, the ability to
control subsea wells, as well as perform subsea processing, boosting, and intervention,
combined with the capability to accurately
measure dynamic reservoir parameters, will
give operators the tools they need to manage
their assets over their economic lifetime. •
