Tracerco landed a contract to provide smart tracer technology for flow measurement of six new wells in Statoil’s Maureen reservoir of the Mariner field in the UK North Sea.
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Ilustration from Statoil. |
Heavy oil was discovered at the field in 1981, but has remained inaccessible until now. Alternative technology implemented by Statoil has made producing from the discovery viable. As part of field development Tracerco’s smart tracers will enable fluid inflow measurement of both oil and water in various zones within the long horizontal wells that would not easily be accomplished using traditional production logging technologies (PLT).
Tracerco’s technology, known as a Tracer Production Log (TPL), can be deployed without interruption to well production and allows operators to gain a better understanding of their production inflow by monitoring both the oil and water phases at a fraction of the cost of a traditional PLT, the company said.
The contract was awarded to Tracerco based on several factors including: the flexibility of tracer integration into the specified screen design; the proven excellence of its service; and the tracer lifetime performance, which can extend to several years.
“Statoil Aberdeen is focused on ensuring an efficient ramp-up of the Mariner field to production plateau and we see the use of chemical tracers as a key technology for the verification of well clean-up as well as improved well productivity understanding, Nils Gunnar Sætherø, Mariner Petroleum Technology manager said.“We believe the use of chemical tracers gives the optimum cost benefit to the Mariner project in the current economic climate and look forward to working with Tracerco to achieve this goal.”
The project is due to commence in Q2 2016 and Tracerco’s technology will be deployed to measure clean out efficiency initially, with further measurements being provided into the life of the wells.
“Our innovative TPL technology can allow operators to gain effective production data without running a PLT or any well intervention for that matter. In this case, it has helped to bridge the data gap where a PLT is not possible, however we are seeing more and more operators considering it as an alternative to PLTs due to the significant cost savings it delivers on rig time and in the reduction of risk. Plus, it has the clear advantage of giving repeatable measurement over several years without any wires or intervention. All that is required is regular sampling and analysis,” Stuart Brown, head of business development for Tracerco said.
In October, Statoil announced that its US$7 billion heavy oil Mariner Project will be set back one year due to engineering and construction delays. Costs on the development, comprising a 38,000-tonne topside on the largest jacket Statoil has ever built, will increase 10%.
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