American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2015 - 104

SpecialReport: Gas Compression Technology

Shale Plays Drive Compression Trends
MIDLAND, TX.-Production streams
in unconventional plays are predominately
multiphase, as evidenced by the fact that
the vast majority of wells drilled in the
United States over the past few years
produce some combination of liquids and
natural gas. Specific production characteristics vary widely, but even "oil" resource plays such the Bakken, Eagle
Ford, Niobrara and Wolfcamp tend to
require compression to handle the associated gas. In addition, the availability of
a ready natural gas supply often makes
gas lift a preferred form of artificial lift,
heightening the need for compressor
horsepower on pad production sites.
Selecting the right compression strategy
and equipment design can mitigate production challenges associated with the nature and scope of multiwell pad developments in horizontal resource plays, while
helping operators cope with prototypically
steep decline rates to keep production
flowing to the sales line, says Tim Knox,

president of CSI Compressco LP.
"Multiwell pad sites lend themselves
to multiwell compression applications,"
he points out. "Instead of having a compressor at each well, you can have a
common compressor to produce the gas
associated with multiple wells. In a sense,
the gathering system is 'built in' by the
multiple wells on a given pad location.
This approach can be leveraged to optimize
compression at each pad site and across
multiple pads."
As an example, Knox says a single
compressor can accommodate the gas
produced from a number of wells while
also distributing a percentage of the produced volume to gas lift valves to assist
with oil production.
"Operators are seeing a lot of success
using this common compressor concept
as a best practice," Knox relates. "The
process for selecting the right compressor
package for applications involving both
producing gas and injecting lift gas is no

104 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

different than it is for an individual well.
It comes down to knowing how much
total gas is being produced from the pad,
and how much gas is needed to operate
the gas lift system."
In both tight oil and shale gas plays,
decline curves that can average 65 percent
or higher in the first 12-24 months can
complicate production operations over
the life cycles of pads with up to a dozen
or more wells. However, in oil plays, as
liquids volumes taper off, gas yields can
increase, Knox points out.
"Reduced drilling activity certainly
impacts the need for additional compression to support new production, but the
decline curve can increase the need for
compression because reduced reservoir
pressures often enhance the need for
compression to maintain production rates,"
he states.
Operators are managing the production
variability effectively through both compressor packaging design as well as equip-



American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2015

Contents
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American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2015 - Contents
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