New Oil & Gas Facility Offsets Delays by Ramping-up in Half the Time
The Situation
With completion coming in months behind target, a new oil & gas development was looking to accelerate ramp-up so they could still meet the committed full production milestone. While leadership began challenging what seemed like a long 18-month ramp-up period, the production team pushed back that this was actually optimistic given that similar projects had only achieved half of their design rates in this timeframe.
“The last three fields averaged 48% of design production 18 months in. We’re lucky if we ever get to 100%, let alone tying to do it quicker than 18 months.”
The production team had already been working for over a year optimize the ramp up-plan, knowing that improper subsurface circulation and warming could damage a well’s ability to ever reach full rates and reserves. Plus, they regularly reminded leadership that with reservoirs some elements are always unpredictable, and that it’s best in the long run to monitor and proceed diligently even if sometimes things take longer.
The Solution
The business engaged Stroud to explore whether there were any remaining options to safely and reliably accelerate the ramp-up to full production.
Together the team used Zero-Based Analysis to understand every factor driving the ramp-up time, both in the current plan as well as what data showed drove the ramp-up of past projects. This specifically focused on what the team could control, not what they couldn’t, and systematically challenged every assumption and constraint.
After two weeks, the ZBA uncovered one key culprit that was affecting two-thirds of the ramp-up time.
The sub-surface team knew that the plant was susceptible to upsets, especially early in its operation. To mitigate the risk of a plant upset permanently affecting the circulation of wells, each of five pads was planned to complete its three-month circulation phase sequentially. That way any outage could only affect circulation on a single pad.
In the HAZOP, the team had considered a balanced profile of risks that could cause the plant to go down. And it was known that past operations were prone to upsets especially early in life. However, rigorous review of the data during the ZBA showed that one cause dominated nearly all early-life upsets: rapid fouling of water heat exchangers at the front of the plant.
Armed with this insight, even the sub-surface team agreed that in a “perfect world” without this fouling issue and a reliable plant steam supply, it would be acceptable to circulate all pads at the same time.
By solving the fouling issue, they could get to full rates as much as 12 months sooner.
Over the next eight weeks, an integrated team applied Variable Analysis, Stroud’s most rigorous problem-solving tool, to understand and resolve the root cause of the heat exchanger fouling. At the time there were many competing theories as to what could be driving the fouling: from clays to bacteria all the way to the heat exchangers being designed incorrectly. In the end, the process determined with certainty that oil-water emulsions were passing through a separation area and causing the fouling.
Using production from the first pad and knowing the exact root cause, the team completed focused trials with several demulsifiers until a new formulation was found to be completely effective in preventing downstream oil fouling.
By the end of the ten weeks and with proven confidence in the solution and the reliability of the plant, the team could make the decision to begin circulation on the remaining four pads simultaneously.
Not only did this remove nine months from the ramp-up timeline without affecting the needed time for circulation and warm up on each pad, but with the fouling issue gone the development hit no further limitations in going all the way to full rates.
The Results
Reliable full production achieved in half the time, ahead of the committed milestone and without additional capital.
“We had been spending our energy defending what we can’t change and what we can’t control. These tools and mindsets made us focus on what we can control, and unlocked a huge improvement that’s applicable across the industry!”
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