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Shell and Gas Lift – A Historical Perspective

ASME Gas Lift Workshop

4 February, 2009

Scheveningen, The Netherlands

John Rusz

Shell Exploration & Production

1950’s

• 1957

– Treaty of Rome signed – Forming the European Economic Community

– Earliest report in the Shell Rijswijk Catalog on the subject of Gas Lift

• “Gas Lifting of Yarigui Wells, Colombia”

– Currently operated by Ecopetrol

– Formerly on gas lift, now on Beam Pump and still producing

• 1959

– Texas Instruments applies for a patent on the integrated circuit

– Shell installs Camco “KCM” wireline retrievable side pocket mandrels in Olomoro field of Nigeria. The SPM, which revolutionised the industry, was patented by Camco in 1954.

Shell Exploration & Production

1960’s

• 1961

– The Beatles played their first gig at Liverpool’s Cavern Club.

– Ros / Ros-Gray / Duns & Ros two phase correlation developed at Shell labs.

• 1964

– The first Ford Mustang car is produced.

– JV Vogel published his landmark paper on Inflow Performance which is still used today.

• 1968

– First Boeing 747 is delivered.

– First Shell reference on calculation of the Equilibrium Curve

Shell Exploration & Production

1980’s• 1984

– Bishop Desmond Tutu wins the Nobel Peace Prize

– Tulsa University Artificial Lift Project – gas lift valve performance

• 1987

– IBM PC-DOS version 3.3 released

– CO2 Tracer Developed at Shell Research in Bellaire

• 1989

– “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” wins a Grammy award

– WinGLUE Development begins

• Personal use of compiled Fortran executables

• Commercial product

Shell Exploration & Production

Shell Exploration & Production

WinGLUE Functionality (partial list)

• Equilibrium Curves

• Well Test Calibration

• Valve Performance Clearinghouse integration

• CO2 Tracer (“WellTracer”) integration

• Fieldwide Lift Gas Allocation

• Electronic gauge data import utility

• File Export to Petroleum Experts’ “GAP”

• PI server connection for SCADA view and import

• Gas Lift Valve Reliability and Tracking database

Shell Exploration & Production

1990’s

• 1991 – first electric Gas Lift Valve installed in Oman for PDO by HES/Otis

• 1993 – Shell lab research into dynamic simulation of gas lift wells

• 1994 – 18M Gas Lift Research Dual-Well Model installed in Rijswijk, now at TU Delft

Shell Exploration & Production

1990’s

• 1995 – SGAS (Unix) fieldwide lift gas SCADA system installed in Oman

• 1995 –12M Gas Lift Training Well Model installed in Noordwijkerhout, now in Rijswijk

Shell Exploration & Production

1990’s

• 1998 – Charter Member of the Valve Performance Clearinghouse joint industry project.

• 1998 – Virtual Gas-Lift Well Training Model

Shell Exploration & Production

1990’s

• 1998 – Cableless electric gas lift valve developed and installed in Brunei and Oman. Commercialised

Shell Exploration & Production

1990’s

• 1999 - Small Bubbles tested in Brunei and Cameroon.

• Bubble Breaker now commercialised.

Shell Exploration & Production

2000’s

• 2000 – Online Gas Lift Training deployed worldwide

• 2000 – FieldWare GasLift deployed in Cameroon. Commercialised

• 2001 – CO2 Tracer redevelopment. Commercialised

• 2002 - High Reliability Gas-Lift Flow Control Device. Commercialised

Shell Exploration & Production

CO2 Tracer

Shell Exploration & Production

HRglO

Shell Exploration & Production

2000’s

• 2007 – Retrofit Gas Lift on a Tension Leg Platform

– 4000 ft. water depth, US$ 1 billion facility, 150 colleagues

• 2008 – Smart Auto-Lift

– Using smart well hardware to lift an oil zone with a gas zone in the same wellbore

• The future

– Shell has had a long relationship with the safe, and profitable production of oil using gas lift. We plan and expect for this relationship to continue for many years to come.

– We strive to improve the integrity of our assets, to train and support our staff and to support the communities where we work and live.