SPE-189260-MS

CO2 Tracer for Gaslift Surveillance and Optimization

Sulaiman Sidek, Khairul Nizam Idris, Kellen Goh Hui Lin, Tan Kok Liang, and Azam Moustafa Abdelaziz Moustafa,
PETRONAS Carigali Sdn. Bhd.; Jason Kok Chin Hwa, Mohd. Zulfadly Zakaria, Mohammad Faris Kamaludin, and
Larry Peacock, AppSmiths; Khong Kheng Ting, Elsa Energy Sdn. Bhd.

Copyright 2017, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Symposium: Production Enhancement and Cost Optimisation held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 7-8 November 2017.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents
of the paper have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect
any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written
consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may
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Abstract
Production Surveillance is a key activity carried out by oil and gas operators in the quest to maximize
production. In Malaysia, specifically the East Malaysia Region, most of the wells in production are operated
with the assistance of gaslift. Gaslift is an artificial lift method which involves injecting high pressure
gas from the casing to enter the tubing via gaslift valves. Gaslift often hides inefficiencies, however by
monitoring the operating conditions at the surface, an engineer will be able to obtain some clues on the
performance of a gaslifted well.
Before the introduction of CO2 tracer technology, the only method available to operators to determine if
a gaslift valve is open or closed downhole is to run a Flowing Gradient Survey (FGS) in order to determine
the pressures and temperatures of the fluids in the tubing. Using a FGS in a well involves certain risk as it
requires well intervention by running electronic memory gauges either on wireline or slickline to acquire
data from a flowing well. There are also times where a FGS survey is inconclusive if the well is surging
and have large changes in the surface pressures.
Since this is the fisrt such application in the field, two gaslift wells were surveyed for pilot application.
The CO2 tracer technology is very effective for quick and reliable determination of lift gas entry points in
the well. The technology allows the operator to detect the operating lift depth, detect multiple points of
injection and even detect tubing leaks. This technology can be used as an alternate to FGS for the following
advantages:
1. Minimum equipment hook-up and no need to shut-in or choke the well, thus minimize production
deferment.
2. No wireline tools introduced into the wellbore, thus eliminate well intervention risk.
3. Suitable for wells where a FGS is not possible due to well slugging, significantly deviated or with
downhole obstruction.
4. Possible to run survey on dual string wells to determine the gaslift split factor of a dual completion
5. Possible to determine exactly how much gas is injected through each injection point of a well
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This paper will describe the project objectives, the well candidate selection criteria, explain the execution
of the survey and interpretation of the results and the value gain from implementing the recommendations
from the survey results.

Introduction
Gaslift is a type of artificial lift method being used to produce oil wells. Typically, a well is installed with
multiple mandrels which are fitted with gaslift valves. The goal of gaslift is to inject as deep as possible in
order to maximize the benefits of the lift gas. Troubleshooting a gaslift well is often quite complex as we
often cannot monitor the depth of injection in realtime. There are also cases whereby a well can be injecting
lift gas from multiple valves causing inefficiency of the gaslift system and also consuming excessive amount
of lift gas.
The CO2 tracer technology, allows us to monitor the number of injection points in the well. The injection
points for the well can be either via the gaslift valves or also tubing leaks. This technology also allows an
accurate measurement of the amount of lift gas which enters the tubing via each injection point.
This paper will explain further the candidate selection criteria, the equipment and survey execution,
interpretation of the results and also the value gained from implementing the results from the survey.

Candidate Selection Criteria

The candidate selection criteria first involves the Production Technologist to screen all the wells in the field
and identify problematic gaslift wells. The CO2 tracer technology can only work on wells which utilize
gaslift. It will not work on ESP wells, rod pumps or natural flowing wells. The production of the well should
also be taken into consideration. Normally by optimizing gaslift, we can see gains between 5% to 30%,
however there are certain scenarios where the production can be doubled if the well have lots of production
problems.

Figure 1—Well tubing head pressure trending

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Figure 2—Well gaslift injection rate trending

CO2 Tracer Equipment

Figure 3—WellTracer® unit

The equipment requires a source of electric supply to power up the unit. It also comes equipped with gauges,
instrumentation, hoses and valves in order to measure the well parameters and collect the well fluids sample.
Inside the unit, there is a separator which separates the liquid from gas. The gas will then pass through a
gas card where the CO2 concentration will be measured.
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Figure 4—Gas supply

A standard black line CO2 diptube with a cylinder rack is used to store and inject CO2 into the wells
gas lift injection stream. Compressed nitrogen is used to charge up the CO2 cylinders for wells with high
injection pressure. Nitrogen is also used to purge the unit in order to remove any residual from the previous
survey. Other supporting equipment used with the CO2 tracer technology is the Echometer to measure the
fluid level of the well and a portable gas meter to measure the lift gas injection rate.

Job Execution
Prior to performing the job, a site visit will be carried out, the CO2 tracer equipment will be placed on the
wireline deck nearby the wellhead. An Echometer shot will be carried out to determine the fluid level of the
well. The CO2 supply will be hooked up to the lift gas injection line. A hose will be connected to the well
production steam to collect a small fluid sample of the wells fluids. A pressure and temperature sensor will
be hooked up to the well production casing and a pressure sensor will be hooked up to the well tubing head
to measure the pressures. A portable gas flowmeter will be setup at the gas lift injection line to measure
the lift gas injection rate.
The unit will be turned on to first get the baseline CO2 production of the well. After about 30 minutes,
high pressure CO2 will be injected into the gaslift injection line. The CO2 slug will travel through the casing
of the well. Whenever there is annular communication between the casing and the tubing, lift gas along with
CO2 injected will enter the tubing. At the surface, the unit will then detect the changes in CO2 concentration
of the wells fluid. It is also recommended to put the well which is surveyed on test in order to know the
production potential of the well.
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Figure 5—WellTracer® unit setup in the field

Analysis of Results
In this well, we can clearly see that there are two injection points in the well as there are two CO2 spikes
observed on the plot (Figure 6).

Figure 6—Raw data from the CO2 Tracer Survey

By importing the results of the survey into a software, the exact depth of injection can be measured. The
software will calculate the travel time of the CO2 in the casing and also the tubing. This will enable the
depth of gaslift injection to be determined.
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The plot Figure 7, shows the CO2 concentration returns and the depth of mandrels installed in the well.
The black vertical lines represent the expected time of CO2 return at the wells installed mandrel. In the
scenario here, we see that the first return lines up on the first mandrel installed in the well however the
second return does not line up at the mandrel.

Figure 7—CO2 concentration and mandrel depths

The fluid level shot analysis for this well also shows that the fluid level in the casing is above the second
mandrel, which means that no lift gas can be injected below the depth of the fluid level in the casing (Figure
8).

Figure 8—Fluid Level Shot Analysis

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A depth versus pressure plot can also be generated by the software. Based on the plot, we can also see
that it is not possible to inject lift gas through the second mandrel as the pressure inside the tubing is higher
than the pressure inside the casing.

Figure 9—Depth vs pressure plot

Further analysis shows that the second CO2 return was from a tubing leak. This is confirmed by all three
analyses, the fluid level in the tubing, depth vs pressure plot and also the CO2 travel times.

Figure 10—Tubing leak on second return

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Results
After understanding the well performance better, it was determined that the instability of the well was due
to the tubing leak detected. This caused the tubing head pressure and gas lift injection rate to fluctuate. The
tubing leak will need to be rectified by installing a tubing patch.
The well had some sand control issue, hence a sand control tool would first need to be installed downhole.
There is a potential to reduce the back pressure at the surface to lower the tubing head pressure. Further
analysis using modeling shows that it will be possible to inject in the deepest mandrel (Figure 10). This will
enable greater drawdown from this well, and in return an increase in production.

Figure 10—Operating recommendations

Conclusion
CO2 tracer technology has successfully been applied in PETRONAS East Malaysia Field. It can be used as
a valid downhole gaslift surveillance tool with the following advantages;
1. Minimum equipment hook-up and no need to shut-in or choke the well for th operation, thus minimize
production deferment.
2. It is not invasive operation, thus there is no need to run any tools in the well to acquire data and assess
the gaslift efficiency of the well, thus eliminate well intervention risk.
3. By combining the outcome of the CO2 tracer survey, echometer shot together with well modeling
(e.g. nodal analysis tool), the CO2 tracer survey can accurately determine the lift depth and determine
exactly how much gas is injected through each injection point of a well.
4. It also allowed the findings of a small tubing leak in the well.
5. The CO2 tracer technology can be more beneficial for gas lift modeling, analysis and troubleshooting
of dual string gaslifetd wells (e.g. determine the gaslift split factor of a dual completion).
6. Suitable for wells where a FGS is not possible due to well slugging, significantly deviated or with
downhole obstruction.
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Acknowledgement
The authors wish to thank the management of Petroliam National Berhad (PETRONAS), PETRONAS
Carigali Sdn. Bhd., AppSmiths and Elsa Energy Sdn. Bhd. for the permission to publish this paper. Special
thanks are extended to project team members for the full commitment and support on this project.

References
1. Shnaib, F.Y., Sreekumar, M.P., and Ponnuvel, K., Dubai Petroleum Co.; Nadar, M.S., Smart Zone
Solution; Peacock L.M., AppSmiths Inc. 2010. Successful Application of CO2 Tracer Technology
for Surveillance of Gas Lifted Wells. SPE-133268-MS.
2. Ismail, W.R., and Trjangganung, K. 2014. Mature Field Gas Lift Optimisation: Challenges and
Strategy, Case Study of D-Field, Malaysia. SPE-171305-MS.