4-D seismic 'illuminates' completions

摘要

Deepwater production is challenged by well underperformance issues that are hard to diagnose early on and expensive to deal with later. Problems are amplified by reliance on few complex wells with sophisticated sand control media. A new non-intrusive surveillance method uses acoustic signals sent via the fluid column to identify impairment in sand-screened completions in real time. The concept of completion monitoring with acoustic waves is a natural extension of 4-D seismic ideas into the smaller-scale near-wellbore environment. In 4-D seismic, time-lapse images of the subsurface can be built so fluid flow and production scenario changes can be interpreted. In completion monitoring, tube waves repeatedly "illuminate" the completion and near-wellbore space so changes can be interpreted in terms of important reservoir and completion parameters. In both instances, monitoring consists of measuring those parameters of me reservoir or producing equipment (i.e., wells) that are needed to make the most critical reservoir management decisions.