Evaluate Field Development Option, Production Optimization Scenarios and Analysis of Surface Network Upgrading Phases of Abu-Attifel

Most of the mature field surface networks suffer from the back pressure applied on the wellheads. An extra pressure in front of the influent fluids should be overcome to handle the fluids to the final destination gathering point. This paper presents de-bottlenecking of Abu Attifel surface network and the solution proposed during production optimization phases. To capture the performance of Abu Attifel field wells, sixty wells single branch model were built using nodal analysis technique. All thes wells were connected together to present the total field network. The network model consists of two different pressure systems. Low pressure system, which are 7 wells connected directly to the second stage separator, the remaining 53 wells are connected to the first stage separator operating at higher pressure. The network model was calibrated and matched globally through tuning of pipeline roughness and compared with the pressure measuring points at the gathering manifolds. As a result, reasonable match was obtained with 2% difference between actual and model calculated flow rates. All gathering points and well headers were matched with the available pressure and flow rate measurements. This validated network provided a valuable tool to evaluate, optimize and enable enhancement of the oil production. It defined several solutions to increase oil production such as converting some wells to the lower pressure separator, and the visibility to install two multiphase booster pumps in the flow line.