The Petroleum Production System - Wellbore
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The wellbore is a hole drilled to a subsurface formation; in the case of oil and gas production, an assumed reservoir.
Contributions
The wellbore’s contribution in the petroleum production system are:
- It provides a means of fluid flow from the reservoir to the surface
- The wellbore radius determines the maximum size of casing, and other subsurface equipments
- The wellbore radius affects the flow/production rate
- The wellbore radius through the sandface area affects the flowing wellbore pressure 1
Problem Areas and Solutions
- Wellbore instability i.e. wellbore closure, enlargement, fracturing, and collapse. Common approaches to mitigate this are 2
- Use of established field standards and practices
- Conducting wellbore-stability analysis
Up next, we will examine the casing.