American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2015 - 97

SpecialReport: Production Automation

Wireless Sensors Help Optimize Pads
By Jim Gardner

FOOTHILL RANCH, CA.-Oil and
natural gas producers are learning to deal
with new operational paradigms in which
optimizing producing assets to maintain
production is the mantra of the day. However, that is a challenging undertaking in
tight oil and gas shale plays, given the
scope of field developments as well as
first-year productivity decline curves as
high as 80 percent.
In plays such as the Bakken, Permian
and Eagle Ford, a typical pad can have 10
or more horizontal wells with significant
production equipment on site. These pads
typically have nearby centralized facilities
sized to handle the high initial production
volumes, along with all of the associated
equipment and gathering systems. Producers
operating multiple pads at various stages
on the decline curve (and perhaps using
various forms of artificial lift technologies)
are relying on technology to better manage
this highly dynamic production environment
and improve bottom-line performance and
reserves recovery.
It does not take a doctorate in economics to understand why optimizing
existing wells has become a critical factor
in successfully managing unconventional
assets. With the new production dynamics,
the age of "big data" has come to the
forefront. Optimization requires a constant
stream of data on pressure, temperature
and flow levels. The data must be accurate,
timely and economically attainable. The
formula for business success for shale
operators can be expressed as "data =
analytics = better decision making."
Data impact business decisions and
build business intelligence to allow operating companies to better manage asset
performance. The key objectives for data
analytics and automation solutions are to
enhance production, streamline operations,
eliminate downtime, and boost recoveries.
Critical information for this new cycle
includes data to assess what happened in
the event of well stoppage or production
loss. This can be as simple as having a
stock tank filled to capacity, or as problematic as having tubing pressure drop
dramatically in seconds.
From that point, the issue becomes
understanding exactly why a problem
happened. By having near-real-time data
and applying that data to trend charts

and other analytical tools, engineers can
investigate the time leading to a change
in operating conditions to understand the
"why" behind a production issue or equipment failure.
The next, and arguably most critical,
step is the ability to learn, predict and
forecast what is likely to happen in the
future to institute changes designed to
prevent unscheduled production interruptions and allow wells/pads to produce
at their optimum capacities.
Optimizing Performance
Given all the production variables and
equipment involved, it is easy to understand how producers with multiple pads
can become overwhelmed with trying to
manage all the pads, let alone figuring
out how to optimize each individual
well's performance. Many of the decisions
fundamental to optimizing well performance must be made on location by intelligent automation devices such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs) or
remote terminal units. To accomplish
this, the remote sensors must be placed
wherever critical operational data are required, such as tank levels, flowmeters,
casing and tubing pressures, chemical
injection, sand filtration, pumps and separators, compressors, flare stack monitors,
etc.
The equipment on a production site

in conventional fields may have included
one wellhead, three storage tanks, and
separator. In unconventional resource
plays with multiple wellheads on each
site, production facilities have become
much larger as well as much more elaborate. In fact, 40 or more sensors may be
required to acquire all the data necessary
to optimize production.
The expanded scope of operations and
equipment on pad sites has grown exponentially the cost of equipping and installing locations with sensors, automation
controls and communications devices.
The cost of conduit, trenching and labor
for oil and water storage tanks alone can
exceed $2,000 a tank. Extrapolating that
to a 24-tank battery equates to $48,000
for installation, not counting the equipment
that will be required to acquire and communicate data for monitoring the tank
battery. In a fully wired, fully instrumented
production facility, the required automation
can cost $250,000 a site.
As multiwell pads have become the
norm in shale production, the industry
has shifted increasingly from conventional
wired communications to wireless solutions for remote sensor and automation
components. In some cases, operators
may find it advantageous to combine
technologies to complete hybrid solutions
that combine layers of communications,
such as Ethernet, serial and wireless. But

Low-cost wireless sensors acquire accurate, real-time data on critical processes and
equipment to enable better decision making for optimizing the performance of multiwell
pads, improving personnel safety, and ensuring regulatory compliance in unconventional resource plays.

AUGUST 2015 97

American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2015

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