Minimizing Production Deferrals Due to Emergency Shutdowns of Pipelines & Gas Lift Modules Using Integrated Network Modelling, Gulf of Suez Example

The Gulf of Suez is one of the prolific Oil & gas areas in the world. Oil Production in this area started as early as the 1960s when the Giant Morgan Field was discovered, followed by discoveries of Small to Moderate Fields in the same basin. As time goes on, Fields get brown, and so do the production pipelines, Production facilities and gas lift modules. Because of aging, production interruption is a fact more than a choice. However, the Area of choice and decision is to decide the mode of action to deal with interrupts. The field is located offshore the Gulf of Suez and started production mid-1970s. Field Produces through a pipeline network connecting 10 satellite platforms to a central production facility for primary offshore separation. All wells utilize gas lift, and similarly, high-pressure gas lines connect wells on satellite platforms to Central compression Facilities offshore and onshore. Some of these Pipelines and gas lift modules exceeded the age of 40 years, making them susceptible to failure, a situation of long-term production deferrals. In 2021 the Field had an emergency shutdown for two main pipelines impacting the production of more than 6000 BOPD from Four platforms. A calibrated Network model coupled with well models was built to study different options for production rerouting and lift gas optimization to keep the line pressure of the new route as low as possible and maintain the highest possible production. Several simulation iterations could optimize production and minimize production deferrals using the alternative route to 1000 BOPD instead of a Complete Shut Down. The optimization plan was conveyed to the Field, and the production deferral did not exceed 1300 BOPD. Following the optimization runs, the mindset for managing operation interrupts was proactive instead of reactive. This philosophy has been extended to minimize planned and unplanned deferrals during gas lift modules downtime during overhauls or emergency repairs. Applying a contingency optimization plan allowed for decreasing deferrals by 80%. To sum up, integrated asset modelling greatly optimizes production and minimizes planned and unplanned production deferrals.