Elk director Matthew Wood said production wells 10 and 6 have increased collective production from 2500 barrels of fluid per day to 5200 barrels of fluid per day. Most of this fluid is water, with oil occupying between 1% and 1.5% - or 60 barrels per day.
“We’re using these new high capacity electric submersible pumps to maximise our production, so we can produce economic quantities of oil,” Wood told EnergyReview.net.
Managing director Robert Cook said gas from the SDS Oil Field had decreased from 12 barrels per day to five barrels per day, due to sand flowing into the well and causing a flow restriction.
“The redevelopment of two additional, temporarily abandoned wells, in addition to maintenance on the gas well, will further increase production when the work over rig returns to the SDS oil field in early 2006,” Cook said.
Meanwhile, the workover rig currently at the Grieve oil field, has installed a high capacity electric submersible pump in production well 16, previously on test with a plunger pump.
In addition, a pump in production well 17 was upgraded to handle gas breakouts, while the installation of a high capacity hydraulic pump is being finalised in production well 11, Cook said.
The Grieve oil field experienced recent production delays, after about one-kilometre of corroded buried flow lines was replaced with new coated pipe in the northern part of the field.
Now in service, the upgraded pipes will connect the redeveloped wells to the production system, Cook said.
Also at Grieve, Cook said results from bottom-hole pressure surveys across three wells indicated redevelopment of the Muddy Formation was appropriate, particularly in the northern part of the field, with re-injection of waste water to take place in the southern end.
“This will produce a flow and drainage regime capable of enhancing production rates and recoveries from the Muddy Formation,” he said.
Cook said Elk’s combined oil production from the Grieve and SDS oil fields - about 85 barrels of oil equivalent per day - should increase in the coming weeks as the redeveloped wells come online.
