Offshore staff
CALGARY, Canada – Ithaca Energy has issued an update on continuing technical problems impacting production from the Athena field in the UK North Sea.
Athena came onstream earlier this year. Three of the four production wells are flowing, but output from the P1 well remains restricted.
Testing reveals no issues with well integrity or performance of the reservoir in the area of the field drained by the well. The changeable flow rates during initial testing of P1 indicate a likely production tubing blockage.
Hydraulic intervention operations continue, and these have so far doubled flow from P1 to 600 b/d. However, outside of the testing periods, the well remains shut-in as its downhole electrical submersible pump would be operating outside its design limits at the reduced flow rate.
Athena has decided to injecte larger volumes of water than would be needed for simple voidage replacement in the aim of establishing stronger pressure support. The field continues to produce “dry” oil, and positive pressure results are emerging following the increased water injection rates.
If the hydraulic intervention does not produce further gains, Athena will look to pump fluid directly into the P1 well flowline from the ROV support vessel to achieve higher injection rates than are feasible using the FPSO.
This also would avoid the need to shut in production from the other three producing wells during the completion of intervention operations. A vessel has been secured for the intervention and should be available to start the program in September, pending completion of tasks on other fields.
If this approach fails to eliminate the restriction, a costlier rig- based workover is likely.
8/13/2012
