Maximizing Oil Recovery in a Marginal Oilfield: Niger Delta Case Study

Abstract

Marginal field development and production are often abandoned by operators because of finding reliable and available equipment and services to enable the field to be developed. These challenges make it difficult to economically produce such fields. This research demonstrates the use of industry-based simulators (PIPESIM, ECLIPSE and PETREL) to design well completion model, Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP). model, simulate, and evaluate the performance of ESP on a typical marginal oilfield. The main objective of this study is to effectively optimize oil production from marginal fields in the Niger Delta using Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP). ECLIPSE software was used for the reservoir description. PIPESIM was used to design the artificial lift system (ESP) for five oil wells and PETREL was used to integrate the whole system for effective production optimization. The performance of ESP wells was simulated and compared with the naturally flowing wells. The results obtained from the production forecast showed that the ESP wells gave superior oil production when compared to natural flowing wells. From the simulation results, it was observed that the cumulative oil recovery without ESP was 33,684,736 stb while that recovered with ESP was 87,751,136 stb (about 261% oil increment). The findings of this study will enable petroleum engineers to design ESP systems and well completion that would effectively optimize oil production from marginal fields in the Niger Delta. Furthermore, the findings of the study will offer new and exciting ways to process and transform abandon oilfields into productive marginal oilfields.