The modular StimFORCE solution will enable offshore stimulation from a vessel to support new wells and enhance recovery from mature UKCS fields.
BP has contracted Baker Hughes to support the development of new wells and production optimization across its UK North Sea assets, incorporating an offshore stimulation solution based on modular equipment installed on a vessel.
The agreement will enable Baker Hughes to provide stimulation services in the UK sector of the North Sea for two different but related objectives: completing new wells and recovering additional production from fields already in mature stages of exploitation. The economic value and duration of the contract were not disclosed.
The selected technology is StimFORCE, a modular stimulation system designed for offshore operations. Its deployment from a vessel provides flexibility for scheduling campaigns and prevents each intervention from depending exclusively on a platform’s permanent infrastructure.
A vessel brings stimulation to the well
Baker Hughes will deploy a stimulation solution based on a vessel equipped with the StimFORCE modular package. The company explains that these systems combine the capabilities of a specialized vessel with pumping modules that can be configured for different offshore treatment programs.
The system can incorporate high-pressure mixing and pumping equipment, automated fluid control, programmable relief valves, data acquisition, and treatment monitoring. Baker Hughes also highlights equipment redundancy and the ability to perform certain operations with remote monitoring.
From an operational standpoint, this allows stimulation capacity to be separated from the field’s permanent infrastructure.
The vessel thus becomes a mobile intervention unit, capable of moving to different assets and executing treatments during a planned campaign.
“Injecting pressure” into a well means modifying its productivity
Its objective is to modify flow conditions between the reservoir and the well to facilitate hydrocarbon movement to the surface. Depending on reservoir characteristics and the completion or intervention program, treatments may include acidizing operations, fracturing, or other techniques designed to improve hydraulic connectivity.
Baker Hughes maintains a portfolio of production technologies that includes matrix acidizing systems, fracturing, sand control, well remediation, and production optimization solutions.
The importance of this stage increases in mature fields because a well’s production does not remain constant throughout its life.
Over time, flow restrictions, formation damage, deposits, changes in pressure conditions, or loss of productivity may appear. A proper intervention can recover part of that capacity without the need to develop a new reservoir from scratch.
The North Sea enters an optimization stage
BP’s UKCS portfolio includes assets such as Clair and Clair Ridge, west of Shetland, the Glen Lyon area and Greater Schiehallion, as well as the Eastern Trough Area Project, which includes fields such as Seagull and Mungo. These are assets with different characteristics and at different stages of development.
A new well may require stimulation as part of its completion and production startup, while a mature well may need an intervention designed to recover productivity.
Here a fundamental concept for production engineering emerges:
the value of a field does not depend solely on how much oil it contains, but on how much can be recovered in a technically and economically viable manner. Stimulation constitutes precisely one of the tools to increase that recovery factor.
BP: a strategy to extend productive life
The contract between BP and Baker Hughes comes at a time when UK North Sea production increasingly depends on combining new developments with optimization of existing assets.
In this scenario, each additional barrel recovered from already-installed infrastructure may have a different value than a barrel from an entirely new project. Stimulation can then act as a tool to increase utilization of that infrastructure over a longer period.
This does not mean that all mature fields can recover large additional volumes. The response depends on geological characteristics, pressure, permeability, well condition, surface constraints, and intervention economics.
SOURCE and PHOTO: https://www.offshore-energy.biz/
