Technical Paper
Intelligent Well System Strategies; Developing a Business Case Through Engineering Analysis

John A Hother, Proneta ltd; PESGB-SPE PETEX 2002 Conference held in London on 10-12 December 2002.

Abstract

Employing the most suitable and effective well design is a critical aspect of the long-term asset production. Failures during production can have major economic impact on the revenue, and therefore on the business case. You need to be able to evaluate that risk. You also need to be able to identify and assess the best mitigating measures to bring those risks, in Dollar terms, to an acceptable level. This session demonstrates how to -

	Undertake an engineering-based analysis of competing options for a Intelligent Well system and its constituent elements;
	Construct an economic model of the consequences of failure;
	Combine the two to give a quantitative evaluation of the risks, in Dollar terms;
	Compare the risk profiles of different system options, again in Dollar terms;
	Use the results to identify the critical risks;
	Formulate a risk-reduction plan that will reduce those critical risks;
	Check that the risk-reduction plan is correctly targeted.

We use a method originally developed for the aerospace and defence industry, and now being used successfully for evaluating production-critical systems in oil and gas projects.