Optimizing Multi-well Gas Lift Operations

As oil prices have remained lower for many months, many oil & gas producers have shifted their priorities from new production to optimizing existing production and reducing operating costs with the assets currently in place.

Emerson's Lou Heavner

In the quick, 2-minute video, Optimizing Oil & Gas Production, Emerson’s Lou Heavner describes how model predictive control (MPC) optimizer technology is being applied to optimize gas lift operations on producing oil wells.

Lou explains that optimized gas lift operations begin with reliable and accurate flow measurement on the injected gas being supplied to the wells. For offshore platforms and well pads with multiple wells undergoing gas lifting, it is important to optimize the allocation of the gas, particularly where supply gas is limited.

The MPC controller optimizer uses models created from the well test data to maximize production for the amount of gas injected. The platform or well pad may have constraints such as the volume of produced water, which can be handled by the water treatment process. The constraints are added to the model to reduce the injected gas to the wells with the highest water cuts to address these constraints while maximizing the oil produced.

You can connect and interact with other oil and gas and advanced control experts in the Oil & Gas and Improve & Modernize groups in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.

Update: I incorrectly inferred Lou’s points made in the video as a model predictive controller when in fact it was optimizer technology. I’ve corrected it in the post above.

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