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Petroleum, reservoir, production and facilities engineers, as well as asset managers

interested in managing and maximizing profitability from gas field assets should attend

this course.

Since this topic is of tremendous interest to the SPE members around the world,

presentation of this course is expected to attract large attendance; therefore, those who are

This course will discuss practical state-of-the-art techniques for optimizing gas field

assets; techniques that are based on the concept of integrated asset modeling, and

working together through an asset team. Integration of reservoir, well inflow, wellbore,

pipeline, and compressor models bring together all of the interested parties and allows for

an integrated optimal solution, rather than different parties working in a vacuum and

arriving at solutions for the separate components that do not fit well. This course goes

beyond standard nodal analysis courses available in the industry, as in this course the

reservoir and facilities components are also incorporated. The instructors have extensive

industry experience in optimizing gas field assets and using integrated asset modeling

approach for achieving that objective. In teaching this course, the instructors plan to: (1)

discuss how the concept of integrated asset modeling works, (2) present examples of

various applications of optimization used to modify existing facilities and increase gas

rates and reserves, (3) give the course attendees some practical and useful problems to

work on, and (4) provide each course attendee a workbook containing copies of the

instructors’ PowerPoint presentations, and solutions to the problems.

Integrated asset modeling is currently a very important skill set in many major and

independent oil & gas companies, as well as in national oil & gas companies around the

world. Integrated asset modeling combines skill sets of all the technical personnel on gas

production asset teams. Many companies utilize this technology over reservoir simulation

approach because answers can be obtained quickly. This speed aspect is extremely

important to those oil & gas industry managers who have to make business investment

decisions rather quickly for presentation to the upper managements, and be responsible

for those decisions, and don’t have the luxury of waiting for results from more time

consuming methods. Integrated asset models can be readily updated to manage gas field

performance throughout the life of the field. Integrated asset modeling is now being

combined with real-time automation data to monitor daily performance. In the future, we

as the effect of fuel consumption on facilities can easily be incorporated.

The big advantage of optimizing gas fields through integrated asset modeling is that the

optimal results are consistent with facilities, well, and reservoir constraints, and are thus

more realistic. Conventional optimization involves isolated studies of facilities and wells,

and reservoirs and wells; the results of these studies are often inconsistent, and are not in

agreement with the actual performance. For example, in one large tight gas field on

which one of the instructors recently worked on, the reservoir engineers generally over

predicted the increase in net gas rate from new wells by 20%. The integrated asset

modeling approach correctly showed that the new wells caused bottle-necks in the

surface facilities, thus yielding a lower net increase in gas rate from new wells, and this

was precisely what operation and facility engineers had experienced in the field.

This course is ideally suited for presentation prior to the SPE conferences, in the United

States, Canada, Latin America, Russia, Asia, Australia, the Middle East, North and West

Africa, and the North Sea regions, where presently there is tremendous interest in

developing and optimizing gas fields.

The instructors, seasoned petroleum reservoir engineers and long-time members of the

SPE, offer their extensive experience and expertise in optimizing gas field assets, and

using the integrated asset modeling approach for achieving that objective. Their extensive

industry experience covers petroleum, reservoir, simulation, EOR, ECBM, production

and facilities engineering. The instructors also have extensive experience in teaching

courses to engineers around the world, and for the SPE.