Contained Courses:
1. Nodal Analysis - Well Inflow
2. Nodal Analysis - Well Outflow
3. Introduction to Artificial Lift
4. Gas Lift Forms
5. Gas Lift Equipment
6. Gas Lift unloading sequence and mandrel spacing design
7. Gas Lift optimization and design with existing mandrels
8. Gas Lift Troubleshooting

Artificial lift is a method used to obtain a higher production rate from the well. It aims at lowering the bottom hole flowing pressure in a well, to increase the drawdown applied on the reservoir. Due to reservoir pressure depletion and water cut increase, the need for artificial lift is almost inevitable. This statement is proved by the fact that, according to World Oil Magazine, 94% of all oil producing wells in the world use some form of artificial lift. So that is more than 900 000 oil producing wells that use artificial lift.

This class will introduce you to the most common artificial lift types.

Objectives:

Participants will acquire a general knowledge of most common artificial lift types and will acquire an ability to  choose the most suited artificial lift method for their well.

Curriculum:

• Artificial lift repartition
• Introduction to ESP (Schematic, basic principles, advantages and limitations, application range)
• Introduction to PCP (Schematic, basic principles, advantages and limitations, application range)
• Introduction to SRP (Schematic, basic principles, advantages and limitations, application range)
• Introduction to Jet & Hydraulic Pumping (Schematic, basic principles, advantages and limitations, application range)
• Introduction to GL (Schematic, basic principles, advantages and limitations, application range)
• Recap

Designed for:

• Production, Petroleum or Well Performance Engineers to maximize their well production
• Field Production Personnel to understand the criticity of data
• Completion or Surface Facilities Engineers to understand what they can do to help maximizing well production

• Basic knowledge on well architecture
• Awareness on the oilfield terms

Well production mechanisms are one of the most important things to understand when working at optimizing your wells. Whatever if your well is in natural flow or if it uses artificial lift, mastering the concepts of inflow and outflow will allow you to understand any well behavior and optimize it.

This course focuses on the outflow mechanism. You will be guided to many key concepts like VLP curves, pressure losses, flow regimes, multiphase flow pressure correlations, nodal analysis…
Well performance, reservoir and petroleum engineering will be all linked. You will be shown how PVT parameters impact the production of your well.
Gas production will also be discussed through the concepts of critical velocity and liquid loading.
By following this course you will learn how to increase the production of your oil and gas wells.

Objectives:
This course connects reservoir engineering to well performance and petroleum engineering. Participants will acquire a good understanding of well outlfow mechanism.
Taken together with the Inflow Mechanism, it will teach what a senior petroleum engineer should know about nodal analysis and well production.

Curriculum:

• Fluid path from bottom to surface
• Hydrostatic pressure and pressure losses
• Vertical flow pressure curves and sensitivities to GLR & WHP variations
• Vertical lift performance (VLP) curve
• Hold up and slip velocity
• Horizontal & vertical flow regimes
• Flow pattern maps
• Impact of PVT on the outflow in oil wells (viscosity, bubble point and solution GOR)
• Gas well:
  • Impact of PVT on the outflow (dew point and CGR)
  • Liquid loading and how to avoid it
  • Turner’s critical velocity
  • Gas well deliquification
• Multiphase flow pressure correlation
  • Main correlations available and main features
  • How to select the best correlation using a nodal analysis software (Prosper)
• Effect of emulsion on viscosity
• Why you need artificial lift
• How to increase production
• Exercises: Impact of 6 different parameters variation on inflow and outflow

 Designed for:

• Production, Petroleum or Well Performance Engineers to maximize their well production
• Reservoir engineers to link reservoir engineering with well production
• Field Production Personnel to understand the criticality of data
• Completion or Surface Facilities Engineers to understand what they can do to help maximizing well production

Pre-requisites:

• Basic knowledge on well architecture
• Awareness on the oilfield terms
• Understanding of the inflow mechanism

Well production mechanisms are one of the most important things to understand when working at optimizing your wells. Whatever if your well is in natural flow or if it uses artificial lift, mastering the concepts of inflow and outflow will allow you to understand any well behavior and optimize it.

In this class, reservoir engineering, petroleum engineering and well performance will be put together to give you strong and global understanding of the inflow mechanism. You will learn all the key concepts to master how hydrocarbons flow from the reservoir to the bottom of the well.

All parameters of the productivity index formula will be discussed. Their evolution with reservoir production and their impact on the well productivity will be explained.

Objectives:

This course connects reservoir engineering to well performance and petroleum engineering. Participants will learn about reservoir and fluid properties and get a deep understanding of the inflow mechanism.

Curriculum:

• Productivity index formula, its units and different expressions
• Productivity index in biphasic production
• Gas productivity index and well inflow formula
• Characteristics of reservoir rock:
  • Porosity
  • Saturation
  • Permeability (absolute, effective and relative)
  • Oil-water relative permeability
  • Oil wet vs. water wet rock – Effect on relative permeability
  • Oil-gas relative permeability
  • 3 phase relative permeability
  • Anisotropy
  • All you need to know about coning. When is it a risk?
• PVT and fluid properties:
  • Hydrocarbon phase diagram
  • Fluid models (black oil, volatile oil, wet gas, dry gas, retrograde condensate)
  • PVT experiments (flash and differential liberation) and fluid sampling
  • Bubble point pressure
  • Solution GOR (Rs)
  • Viscosity and its evolution vs. pressure and temperature
  • Formation volume factor
• Drainage & well radius, reservoir thickness
• The difference between drainage and investigation radius
• Skin (geometrical, completion, damage…)
• Deliverability curve (linear, Vogel and composite)
• Free petroleum toolbox
  

Designed for:

• Production, Petroleum or Well Performance Engineers to maximize their well production
• Reservoir engineers to link reservoir engineering with well production
• Field Production Personnel to understand the criticality of data
• Completion or Surface Facilities Engineers to understand what they can do to help maximizing well production

Pre-requisites:

• Basic knowledge on well architecture
• Awareness on the oilfield terms

According to many industry experts Gas Lift (GL) is the least understood artificial lift method, but the reason behind that is not its complexity. While when you do things wrong on other artificial lift methods (e.g. ESP) your well will stop producing, a GL well will often keep on producing even with a bad design. Hence many operators often do not realize that their GL well is not producing at its full potential and don’t pay attention to it.
There is therefore a very significant potential for production increase by understanding the principles of GL and this is a huge opportunity for any engineer willing to master this activation method.

This class will present you the different forms of GL that you can find in the oil industry.

Objectives:

Participants will acquire a good knowledge of the existing forms of gas lift activation. Pros & cons of each configuration will be discussed giving the participants the ability judge if a better form of GL is available for their well.

Curriculum:

• GL system
• GL principle & continuous GL
• Intermittent GL
• Plunger lift
• Chamber lift
• Dual GL completion
• Concentric GL
• Self GL
• Annular flow
• Side string injection
• Pig lift
• Packerless GL
• GL as a backup for ESP
• GL & jet or hydraulic piston pump

Designed for:

• Production, Petroleum or Well Performance Engineers to explore the possible GL configurations available for their wells
• Field Production Personnel to understand the principle of activation of their GL wells and what parameters they should pay attention to
• Completion or Surface Facilities Engineers to understand what they can do to help designing and optimizing the right GL configuration for each well.

Pre-requisites:

• Understanding of the well production mechanisms (inflow & outlfow) is preferred
• Basic knowledge on well architecture
• Awareness on the oilfield terms

According to many industry experts Gas Lift (GL) is the least understood artificial lift method, but the reason behind that is not its complexity. While when you do things wrong on other artificial lift methods (e.g. ESP) your well will stop producing, a GL well will often keep on producing even with a bad design. Hence many operators often do not realize that their GL well is not producing at its full potential and don’t pay attention to it.
There is therefore a very significant potential for production increase by understanding the principles of GL and this is a huge opportunity for any engineer willing to master this activation method.

This class is the 3^rd of the series of courses related to gas lift activation. It follows the courses “Forms of GL”  and “GL equipment”. It details the GL unloading sequence (evolution of tubing and casing pressure profile, CHP, WHP and valves status during the GL well start up) with IPO and PPO valves. Student will be guided to make the mandrel spacing design of a well (selection of gas lift mandrels depth) so that they can understand the principles behind that choice and how to select their parameters properly (e.g. kick off pressure). The last part of the training explains how to make such a mandrel spacing design using the software Prosper. Student will be guided within the “GL design new” form in Prosper (meaning of each parameter to be filled and recommendation on best option to select).

Objectives:

Participants will acquire a deep understanding on how the GL unloading sequence works. They will be able to connect all well parameters during that production phase. This is a key knowledge to be able to troubleshoot any GL well. They will be explained the concept of a mandrel spacing design through an exercise and will be coached so that they can perform such a design themselves using a software to assist them (Prosper).

Curriculum:

• Unloading the well basic principle
• Integrity in gas lift well
  
• Initial unloading following a drilling or a WO (how to empty your casing of the mud/brine without damaging your valves)
• Unloading sequence with IPO valves
• Unloading sequence with PPO valves
• Gas lift unloading principle explained by counting bubbles of gas
• Gas gradient formula and rule of thumb to quickly calculate your casing pressure at any depth
• Put it all together with an exercise (inflow/outflow/mandrel spacing design)
• Unloading sequence videos from suppliers
• Why installing a gas lift mandrel in a well portion where deviation is higher than 60°
• Gas lift system (fundamental principles, maximum rate estimation, equilibrium curve)
  
• Mandrel spacing design principles (where should you install your gas lift mandrels and how to do such design manually)
• Temperature models
  
• How to choose your kick of pressure
• Guidelines to make a mandrel spacing design with Prosper (how to fill the “GL design new” form in Prosper).

This course is designed for:

• Production, Petroleum or Well Performance Engineers to understand how the GL unloading sequence works and how to make a mandrel spacing design
• Field Production Personnel to understand how their GL well work and respond better to the questions of their support teams in town
• Completion Engineers to understand fully the needs for mandrels in a GL well.
  

• Understanding of the well production mechanisms (inflow & outlfow)
• Knowledge of the existing forms of GL and GL equipment (especially GL valves)
• Basic knowledge on well architecture
• Awareness on the oilfield terms.

According to many industry experts Gas Lift (GL) is the least understood artificial lift method, but the reason behind that is not its complexity. While when you do things wrong on other artificial lift methods (e.g. ESP) your well will stop producing, a GL well will often keep on producing even with a bad design. Hence many operators often do not realize that their GL well is not producing at its full potential and don’t pay attention to it.
There is therefore a very significant potential for production increase by understanding the principles of GL and this is a huge opportunity for any engineer willing to master this activation method.

This class is the 2^nd of the series of courses related to gas lift activation. It follows the 1^st course “Forms of GL” and will present you the different equipment used for GL activation. While it is not possible to be exhaustive in describing existing GL equipment, this course does contain more information that you will find in most of the GL trainings available in the industry.

Objectives:

Participants will acquire a deep knowledge of the available GL equipment. Subject will be discussed from a well intervention, completion as well as from a production point of view. This will allow engineers to select the right equipment for their design, to increase their production by performing more reasoned troubleshooting and to unlock complex well intervention situations.

 Curriculum:

• Conventional and side pocket mandrels
• Gas lift mandrels with check valve
• Latches
• Running/pulling /kick over tools
• Side Pocket Mandrel and Kick Over Tools
• 1^st generation of kick over tools
• Special kick over tools for high well deviation
  
• Well unloading
• Gas lift valve types
• Dummy valves
• Gas lift pack off
• Orifice valves
• Venturi orifices
• Unloading valves
• Casing and tubing pressure operated valves
• Gas lift valve calibration procedure
• Gas lift valve test block and AVT
  
• Valve throttling effect
• Flag valve
• Special gas lift valves
• Gas lift valves and mandrels configurations to achieve annular or tubing flow, production or injection pressure operated system.
  
• VPC
• Electric gas lift valves
• Gas lift injection below packer
• Surface equipment
• Plunger lift equipment

Designed for:

• Production, Petroleum or Well Performance Engineers to explore the possible GL equipment available for them to use in their wells
• Field Production Personnel to understand how their day to day GL equipment work
• Completion or Well Intervention Engineers to understand fully the operations related to GL equipment installation.

Pre-requisites:

• Understanding of the well production mechanisms (inflow & outlfow) is preferred
• Knowledge of the existing forms of GL
• Basic knowledge on well architecture
• Awareness on the oilfield terms

According to many industry experts Gas Lift is the least understood artificial lift method, but the reason behind that is not its complexity. While when you do things wrong on other artificial lift methods (e.g. ESP) your well will stop producing, a Gas Lift well will often keep on producing even with a bad design. Hence many operators often do not realize that their Gas Lift well is not producing at its full potential and don’t pay attention to it.

There is therefore a very significant potential for production increase by understanding the principles of Gas Lift and this is a huge opportunity for any engineer willing to master this artificial lift method.

This class is the 5^th of the series of courses related to Gas Lift artificial lift. It follows the courses “Understanding the Forms of Gas Lift”, “Gas Lift Equipment”, “Gas Lift Unloading Sequence and Mandrel Spacing Design” and “Gas Lift Optimization and Design with Existing Mandrels”. It explains how to find wells that require troubleshooting. It then describes a method to properly identify the issue that the well suffers from, list the different diagnostics that can be performed to confirm the issue and proposes solutions to be implemented to solve the problem. Course then guide you across must know troubleshooting tools, methods and operations. Student will learn how nodal analysis (Quicklook function in Prosper) can help them in their diagnostic, the different methods that can be used to start a Gas Lift well, the effect of temperature on Gas Lift valve opening pressure... A large section of the training is dedicated to leaks, how to detect them (tubing casing communication tests), what survey can be done to precisely identify their depth (flowing pressure and temperature surveys, spinner, spectral noise logging tool…) and how to fix them . Several troubleshooting exercises will then be shown in order to get some practice using the presented Gas Lift Troubleshooting Method.

Objectives:

Participants will acquire a deep understanding on how to troubleshoot a Gas Lift well. The Gas Lift Troubleshooting Method explained in this training has been developed by the author of the course himself and is therefore not available anywhere else in the industry.

• The troubleshooting challenge – how to identify wells that need troubleshooting
• Troubleshooting methodology
  
• Problem & symptoms table
• Troubleshooting flowcharts presentations
• Review of all possible issues one by one, their symptoms, the available diagnostics, the possible causes and the solutions
• Troubleshooting summary – The most useful solutions that should always be tried

• Nodal analysis – The Quicklook ad Multipoint Quicklook in Prosper
• The effect of temperature on Gas Lift Valve opening & closing pressure
• The different method to start a Gas Lift well and when to use each of them
• Generalities on tubing casing leaks
• Tubing casing communication tests - Procedure and depth estimation
• Leak depth methods of identification review – description, advantages and limitations

• Description of available solutions to fix a leak
• Use of an Echometer to confirm a leak

• Troubleshooting exercises
• Barton Charts analysis

Designed for:

• Production, Petroleum or Well Performance Engineers to learn how to troubleshoot a Gas Lift well and review all the tools available to help them to do so
• Field Production Personnel to understand how to identify wells that need troubleshooting and what can be done at their level to solve the issue

Pre-requisites:

• Understanding of the well production mechanisms (inflow & outlfow) is preferred
• Knowledge of the existing forms of Gas Lift and Gas Lift equipment (especially Gas Lift valves and orifice)
• Understanding of the Gas Lift unloading sequence and Gas Lift optimization
• Basic knowledge on well architecture
• Awareness on the oilfield terms.