Introduction to

Production Engineering
Engr. John Kevin M. de Castro, MSPE
 Learning Outcomes
• At the end of this semester, the students should be able to:

 Describe the relevance of petroleum production system to

production operations.

 Define the different production engineering terminologies

related to production system and equipment.

 Differentiate the types of well.

 Compare and contrast the different offshore production

facilities
Introduction

 Petroleum production engineering is

that part of petroleum engineering
that attempts to maximize oil and gas
production in a cost-effective manner
 To perform the job correctly,
production engineers should have
solid background and sound
knowledge about properties of fluids
they produce and working principles
of all major components of producing
wells and surface facilities.
Petroleum Production
Systems
• Petroleum production involves two
distinct but intimately connected general
systems: the reservoir, which is a
porous medium with unique storage and
flow characteristics; and the artificial
structures.
• In the general sense, the production
system is the system that transports
reservoir fluids from the subsurface
reservoir to the surface, processes and
treats the fluids, and prepares the fluids
for storage and transfer to a purchaser.
Elements of Production
System
• Reservoir
• Well
• Tubular goods and
associated
equipment
• Surface wellhead,
flowlines, and
processing
equipment
• Artificial lift
equipment
Elements of Production
System
Reservoir

When dealing with

reservoir, in-depth
understanding of the
following parameters
should be obtained:
• Porosity
• Reservoir height
• Fluid Saturations
• Areal extent
• Permeability
• Classification of
reservoirs
The Well

 An oil or gas well is a

hole dug into the Earth
that serves the purpose
of bringing oil or
other hydrocarbons -
such as natural gas - to
the surface. Oil wells
almost always produce
some natural gas and
frequently bring water up
with the other petroleum
products.
Types of Well

 Wildcat well – a drilled well that has no

concrete historic production records and
has been unexplored as a site for potential
oil and gas output
 Exploratory well – a well for site
selection based on seismic data or satellite
survey.
 Step-out (Development) well – a well
that delineates the reservoir boundaries;
drilled after the exploratory discoveries,
site selection, usually based on seismic
data
Types of Well

 In-fill well – adding new wells in an

existing field within the original well
patterns to accelerate recovery or to test
recovery methods, this is usually used to
confirm the presence of hydrocarbon
between the step-out drill holes.
 Re-entry well – existing well re-entered
to deepen, side track, rework, or
recomplete; various amount of planning is
required, depending on the purpose of re-
entry.
Surface Equipment
The wellhead, flowlines, and processing
equipment represent the surface mechanical
equipment required to control and process
reservoir fluids at the surface and prepare
them for transfer to a purchaser. Surface
mechanical equipment includes the wellhead
equipment and associated:
• Valving
• Chokes
• Manifolds
• Flowlines
• Separators
• Treatment equipment
• Metering devices
• Storage vessels
Wellhead

 The system of spools, valves and

assorted adapters that
provide pressure control of a production
well.
 The surface termination of a wellbore
that incorporates facilities for installing
casing hangers during the well
construction phase.
 The wellhead also incorporates a means
of hanging the production tubing and
installing the Christmas tree and surface
flow-control facilities in preparation for
the production phase of the well.
Wellhead Assembly
Terminologies

 Conductor casing - casing string that is

usually put into the well first, particularly on land
wells, to prevent the sides of the hole from caving
into the wellbore, sometimes called drive pipe.
 Surface casing - protects fresh-water
aquifers onshore, provides minimal pressure
integrity and provides structural strength so that
the remaining casing strings may be suspended at
the top and inside of the surface casing.
 Intermediate casing - provides protection
against caving of weak or abnormally pressured
formations and enables the use of drilling fluids of
different density necessary for the control of
lower formations.
Terminologies

 Production casing - is set across

the reservoir interval and within which the
primary completion components are installed.
 Liner - a casing string that does not extend to
the top of the wellbore, but instead is anchored or
suspended from inside the bottom of the previous
casing string.
 Perforations - communication tunnel created
from the casing or liner into
the reservoir formation, through which oil or gas
is produced, usually by using jet perforating guns
equipped with shaped explosive charges, bullet
perforating, abrasive jetting or high-pressure fluid
jetting.
Terminologies

 Perforations - communication tunnel created

from the casing or liner into
the reservoir formation, through which oil or gas
is produced, usually by using jet perforating guns
equipped with shaped explosive charges, bullet
perforating, abrasive jetting or high-pressure fluid
jetting.
 Christmas tree - The set of valves, spools,
and fittings connected to the top of a well to
direct and control the flow of formation fluids
from the well.
 Manifold - An arrangement of piping or valves
designed to control, distribute and typically
monitor fluid flow.
Terminologies

 Tubing – a wellbore tubular used to

produce reservoir fluid and is assembled with
other completion components to make up the
production string.
 Packer - a sealing device that isolates and
contains produced fluids and pressures within the
tubing string.
• Choke - a device incorporating an orifice that is
used to control fluid flow rate
or downstream system pressure.
• Flowline - A surface pipeline carrying oil, gas
or water that connects the wellhead to
a manifold or to production facilities, such as
heater-treaters and separators.
Terminologies

 Tubing head– a wellhead component that

supports the tubing hanger and provides a means
of attaching the Christmas tree to the wellhead.
 Wing valve – a valve located on the side of
a Christmas tree or temporary surface flow
equipment, such as may be used for a drillstem
test.
 Swab valve - the topmost valve on a
Christmas tree that provides vertical access to the
wellbore.
 Casing head - the adapter between the
first casing string and either the BOP stack
(during drilling) or the wellhead (after
completion).
Offshore Production Site
Offshore Production
Facilities
A whole range of different structures is
used offshore, depending on size and water
depth. Some of the common structures
are:
• Shallow water complex: Characterized
by several independent platforms with
different parts of the process and utilities
linked with gangway bridges. Individual
platforms include wellhead riser,
processing, accommodations, and power
generation platforms. Typically in water
depths up to 100 meters.
Offshore Production
Facilities
Shallow water complex
Offshore Production
Facilities
• Gravity base: It is consists of
enormous concrete fixed structures
placed on the bottom, typically with oil
storage cells in a “skirt” that rests on the
sea bottom. The large deck receives all
parts of the process and utilities in large
modules. The concrete was poured at an
onshore location, with enough air in the
storage cells to the structure floating
until tow-out and lowering onto the
seabed.
Offshore Production
Facilities
Gravity base

Troll A platform has

an overall height of
472 meters and
weighs 638,600 tons
and has the
distinction of being
the tallest and
heaviest structure
ever moved by
mankind.
Offshore Production
Facilities
• Compliant towers: Also known as
fixed platforms. They consist of a narrow
tower, attached to a foundation on the
seafloor and extending up to the
platform. This tower is flexible, as
opposed to the relatively rigid legs of a
fixed platform. Flexibility allows it to
operate in much deeper water, as it can
absorb much of the pressure exerted by
the wind and sea. Compliant towers are
used between 500 and 1,000 meters of
water depth.
Offshore Production
Facilities
Compliant towers
Offshore Production
Facilities
• Floating Production, Storage, and
Offloading (FPSO): Typically a tanker
type hull or barge, often converted from
an existing crude oil tanker (VLCC or
ULCC). Their main advantage is that they
are standalone structure that does not
need external infrastructure such as
pipelines or storage. Crude oil is
offloaded to a shuttle tanker at regular
intervals, from days to weeks, depending
on production and storage capacity.
FPSOs produce from around 10,000 to
200,000 barrels per day.
Offshore Production
Facilities
Floating Production, Storage, and
Offloading (FPSO)
Offshore Production
Facilities
• Tension Leg Platform (TLP): It is
consists of a structure held in place by
vertical tendons connected to the
seafloor by pile-secured templates. The
structure is held in a fixed position by
tensioned tendons, which provide for use
of the TLP in a broad water depth range
up to about 2,000 m. The tendons are
constructed as hollow high tensile
strength steel pipes that carry the spare
buoyancy of the structure and ensure
limited vertical motion.
Offshore Production
Facilities
Tension Leg Platform (TLP)
Offshore Production
Facilities
• Semi-submersible platform: It has
similar design with TLP but without taut
mooring. This permits more lateral and
vertical motion and is generally used
with flexible risers and subsea wells.
Offshore Production
Facilities
Semi-submersible platform
Offshore Production
Facilities
• SPAR: It is consists of a single tall
floating cylindrical hull, supporting a
fixed deck. The cylinder does not,
however, extend all the way to the
seabed. Rather, it is tethered to the
bottom by series of cables and lines. The
large cylinder serves to stabilize the
platform in the water, and allows for
movement to absorb the force of
potential hurricanes. SPAR can be quite
large and are used for water depths from
300 m to 3,000 m. SPARs can support
dry completion wells, but are more often
used with subsea wells.
Offshore Production
Facilities
SPAR
End of Module Exercises

1. What are the components of production

system? Describe each.
2. Differentiate the types of well.
3. Compare and contrast the different
offshore production facilities.
4. Compare and contrast wellhead and
Christmas tree
5. Identify the parts of wellhead.