SPE 112226

Intelligent Wells to Intelligent Fields: Remotely Operated Smart Well Completions

in Haradh-III
Ibrahim H. Al-Arnaout, Saad M. Al-Driweesh, and Rashad M. Al-Zahrani, Saudi Aramco, and Zuhed Abdurahman, SPE,
and Suresh Jacob, SPE, WellDynamics Inc.

Copyright 2008, Society of Petroleum Engineers

Introduction
This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2008 SPE Intelligent Energy Conference and Haradh-III field is located in the southernmost part of the
Exhibition held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 25–27 February 2008.
Ghawar field and has been developed with 32 Maximum
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of
information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not
Reservoir Contact (MRC), multi lateral wells with intelligent
been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the completions installed on 28 wells. This setup reduces the well
author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum
Engineers, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of count required while achieves higher productivity from each
this paper without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited.
Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words;
well1. Studies have shown that field development with MRC
illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE wells and smart completion technology in Haradh-III will
copyright.
delay water encroachment, improve flood front conformance
and recovery while lowering water production and reducing
operating costs2. Table 1 shows the project statistics
Abstract summary3
Haradh-III, Saudi Aramco’s latest developed field within
Giant Ghawar Field, is regarded as one of the industry firsts in Production MBD 300 Multiphase flow 40
terms of its application of advanced drilling techniques, meters
multilateral wells, smart well completions and permanent
Injection MBD 560 RTU/ SCADA 72
monitoring systems. This recently commissioned field, on
Producers 32 Flow lines (10”) 68 Km
February 2006, integrated all of the above mentioned
technologies with an advanced SCADA system that enable the Injectors 28 Injection start up Sept 05
real time monitoring and control of the downhole and surface Evaluation/ 12 On stream date Feb 06
equipment remotely from the control room. Observation wells
Permanent 40 Intelligent 28
The design and installation of the automated surface control downhole gauges completions
system to remotely monitor and control the smart completions Average PI 150 Average reservoir 5 Km
is a multidisciplinary project integrating subject experts and contact
tools from well completions, production engineering, Table 1. Haradh-III Project Statistics
facilities, instrumentation, and communication engineers. The
system enables the operator in the control room to remotely The concept of intelligent fields was incorporated into the
operate the downhole valves in all the multilateral smart wells design of the field to enable continuous monitoring of key
through the SCADA system. reservoir performance parameters and real-time data
transmission from downhole to the engineers’ desktop. The
The paper will present the design, installation and surface infrastructure was designed with the communication
commissioning of the surface control system and remote and power facilities required to connect all the wells to the
monitoring capabilities and cite a field case of remote field SCADA. The field communication infrastructure was
operation to flow test a well with three zones smart well designed as an open architecture to integrate the intelligent
completion, permanent downhole gauge and surface well controls as an independent subsystem to the field control
multiphase flow meter. The system has enabled the operator to system.
remotely perform flow testing of the individual laterals of the
multilateral wells through different settings of the downhole System Overview
valves. The remote control capabilities enabled these tests to Haradh-III field communication network is based on a
be done from the control room without the engineer spending scattered / distributed layout linking all the wellsites to the
extended periods in the well site. GOSP. The field control system architecture uses a RTU
(Remote Terminal Unit) at the well site connected to a central
The learning discussed in this paper will provide an insight SCADA application in the GOSP, by means of a Fiber Optic
into how the implementation of such control system was communication network. In addition to intelligent completion
systematically handled to achieve a successful conclusion. technology, each well in the field is provided with both
2 SPE 112226

downhole point pressure and temperature sensor and a multi control line. The hydraulic control fluid is never vented to the
phase flow meter at surface. production tubing.

The RTU is a powerful Pentium IV based PLC whose function A proprietary hydraulic control mechanism “AccuPulse TM“is
is to control surface choke valves as well as acquiring data used to function the downhole chokes to multiple positions.
from other sub-system located at the well site. The RTU PLC This is a full hydraulic module which displaces a fixed amount
boosts OPC Server capability. of fluid to the downhole valve causing it to move a
predetermined distance and open to the next choke position. In
The fiber optic field communication infrastructure leverages Haradh-III the system was configured to incrementally open
TCP / IP technology thanks to the bandwidth delivered by the from closed to fully open through ten intermediate positions.
Fiber Optic system. This has enabled the use of a mixture of This also allows the choke to be fully closed from any open
OPC DA and HDA technology. position by applying pressure in the close line only once. The
ability to close immediately from any intermediate position is
The field SCADA application acts as single interface point for useful in well control and high water cut applications. The
the whole field control. Data hand-off to the field historian hydraulic control lines from the downhole valves pass through
(PI station) occurs at the GOSP. The application is also the the tubing hanger and exit the wellhead. The lines are
integration point for intelligent completion systems. connected to the smart well control panel located at the well
site.
Figure 1, shows the field communication network linking the
wellsites to the terminal at the control room. On one end of the All the wells have permanent downhole gauges installed as
network are the downhole and surface equipment at every well part of the completion tubing. The gauges measure the
site and the other end is the field control supervisory pressure and temperature in the tubing. The gauges use
application in the control room. The different components of resonating quartz crystal sensor technology capable of
the intelligent field architecture are discussed in the sections temperature and pressure resolutions greater than 1°C and
below. 0.01psi respectively.

Intelligent completions in Haradh-III utilize a fully hydraulic Fluid pressure produces compressive stress in the quartz,
downhole control system to operate the valves and the fluid is which changes its resonant frequency. The gauge electronics
conveyed from the surface to the downhole tool through ¼” convert the resonator frequencies to a proprietary protocol
control lines. Figure 2, shows a sketch of the downhole prior to transmission to the surface via ¼” instrument wire that
completion. Each downhole valve has a 10-position choke to is installed outside the tubing. The gauge lines exiting the
control the inflow from each lateral. Production from each wellhead are connected to a surface gauge data logger which
zone enters the tubing through the ICV 4. The choke on the supplies power to the downhole gauges and records downhole
downhole valve is mounted on a hydraulically operated sleeve, data. The surface data logger is connected to the wellsite RTU
that moves up to open and down to close. It provides full bore via RS485 for real time data transfer to SCADA.
ID at all times. This enables the lower zones to continue
producing through the tubing even when an upper ICV is The IW Surface Control System is designed to monitor and
closed. The lower end of the tubing is plugged with a bullnose control the intelligent completions and consists of
to direct flow from the motherbore to enter the tubing through
the choke on the lower ICV. The lower ICV controls flow • Surface Hydraulic System placed at each intelligent
from the motherbore. Flow from the upper lateral(s) enters the wellsite
mainbore at the junction, follows an annular flow path • The supervisory application server in a computer at
between the tubing and casing, and enters the production the control room
tubing through the ICV for that zone. Packers provide the
isolation between the laterals and as barrier for the upper The combined functions provide an independent and dedicated
annulus. electro-hydraulic, microprocessor-based control system that
controls the down-hole completion.
The intelligent completions utilize a closed loop hydraulic
system where pressure is applied on either sides of a downhole The intelligent completion surface hydraulic system (SHS)
piston to open and close the valves. Each of the downhole cabinet is installed at each wellsite and the supervisory
valves have a dedicated “open” line from the surface and a application server at the control room operates all the
single “close” line is multiplexed to the close side of all the downhole flow control valves in the well through the field
downhole valves. Therefore the number of hydraulic lines SCADA network.
required is the number of downhole tools plus 1. For example,
a two zone completion deploying the hydraulic logic used in The intelligent well control unit at the wellsite comprises the
this field requires only 3 control lines (3 lines = 2 tools + 1). hydraulic pressure generation and distribution system as well
The valves can be functioned independently by applying as the electronic controllers. The system contains electronic
pressure in different sequence. Applying pressure down the controllers to operate the directional control valves and direct
open line will move the piston and the same volume is fluid into the downhole control lines for operating the
returned to the surface hydraulic panel through the remaining downhole valves. It also monitors the pressure on each control
SPE 112226 3

line, controls the recirculation and pressurizing of the system order to provide complete functionality to the operator, the
via the main pump. The unit is installed non-air-conditioned intelligent well control is interfaced from its own supervisory
covered shelter about 200 ft from the wellhead. It has a application to the field control supervisory application through
National Electric Manufacturers’ Association (NEMA) rating peer to peer connection based on OPC DA. This system
of NEMA 4X which ensures the unit is resistant to water, dust leverages the advanced functionality of intelligent well
and corrosive agents. The unit is powered by 240 V AC power supervisory field management system while minimizing the
supply. The unit is connected through ethernet to the SCADA functionality to be embedded in the field control system and
multiplexer at each of the wellsites. Though designed for achieving full operational control from the SCADA
remote operation through SCADA, the unit can be operated in application.
local mode by manually operating the valves on the panel or
through a laptop computer connected directly to the controller The philosophy of this integration is based on the following
at wellsite. • The intelligent completion to be controlled from the
SCADA application by clicking on a well screen. A
The intelligent well supervisory application running in a bubble window will then appear and allow the
server in the control room remotely monitors and controls the operator to change positions of the downhole flow
28 SHS that have been placed at the various well sites. It control valves
communicates to in -field controllers through a multiplexer in
the GOSP communications room via a physical Ethernet • Minimize the programming required by field control
connection between them. The supervisory application5 system supervisory application to integrate the intelligent
is based on distributed architecture technology as shown in well control to SCADA. The field control application
Figure 3. The main components of the supervisory application should be able to control the intelligent wells with
are limited number of tags through OPC DA.
• Intelligent completion valve position should be
• The server – central computer where the application updated on the field control application throughout a
is run valve movement operation. The SCADA system
• The application – provides the Human Machine should be able to display whether the intelligent
Interface (HMI), data storage, data collection and completion valve is in a confirmed or unconfirmed
distribution (OPC Client/Modbus) functionality. position as established in the intelligent well
• Well Control Modules – each well contains a well application.
control module
• Hydraulic Supply Modules – each well contains a An OPC data hub was created on the intelligent well
hydraulic supply module supervisory application to hold the tags that will be linked to
the field/SCADA application. Only the minimum number of
Network Architecture & Interface tags required by the SCADA to control the intelligent wells
The intelligent well supervisory application implements a was included in the OPC data hub. Based on the tags in the
distributed architecture with each wellsite controllers at the OPC-data hub, an OPC DA Control Module was developed to
periphery. The in–field controllers contain the proprietary interface between SCADA and intelligent well supervisory
firmware that continuously monitors and controls the application. The control module connects on one side to OPC
downhole intelligent completion system. The In-Field data hub in the intelligent well application and on the other
controllers are connected to the supervisory application via an side offers a simplified interface to the field control/SCADA
Ethernet LAN utilizing TCP/IP communications. This application. The Control Module gathers the appropriate
supervisory application provides functionality for data information from OPC data hub, conducts validations for the
acquisition, consolidation and distribution, system level tool move operations, and sets the necessary OPC tags to send
control and specialized user interface for the intelligent wells a tool move command to the in-field controller. Moreover, the
at Haradh-III field. Control Module also provides the necessary feedback on
system availability and operation status to enable the SCADA
All control requirements originate from the supervisory to monitor the status of each individual intelligent completion.
application and are communicated to the specific In-Field
Controllers. Thus, the supervisory application manages the The interface between the field supervisory application and
high-level commands and the In-Field controllers handle the the intelligent well control application was documented during
complex logic required to carry out a tool move in the the system design phase and it was tested before field
downhole intelligent completion. The request can be initiated installation. The test equipment set up is shown in Figure 4.
from the supervisory application or the SCADA supervisory
application from the operator console in the control room. Field Installation and Commissioning
The complete installation of the system consisted of the below
Integration with Field Control Supervisory three phases
Application 1. Installations at wellsite
The control room operator monitors and controls all the field 2. Configurations of intelligent well supervisory
processes through the SCADA supervisory application. In application
4 SPE 112226

3. Interfacing intelligent well supervisory application to intelligent well application. This application completes the
field control/SCADA application communication link from the SCADA console in the control
room to the downhole valves in each intelligent well. Figure 5
The activities at the wellsite started with the successful shows the well control screen on the SCADA application
installation of the intelligent completions. The requirements where the operator can operate the downhole valves while
for implementing the I-Field were incorporated into the design simultaneously monitoring the data from the downhole
of the surface communication and civil construction. The gauges, surface multiphase flow meters and well data on the
construction activities at the wellsite included installing same screen
surface control lines from the wellhead to the panel area,
building the covered shelter for the intelligent well control Field Operations
panel and a temperature controlled room for the RTU and The successful integration of intelligent well control to the
fiber optic multiplexer. SCADA console provides the ability to control the downhole
valves in an intelligent well while simultaneously monitoring
The intelligent well surface control units were tested in the data from the downhole sensors, multiphase flow meters on
shop prior to shipping to the wellsite for installation. The shop surface and other surface sensors. The operator can
tests included connecting the unit to four downhole control immediately identify the effect of operating a downhole valve
valves on the shop floor and function testing the valves to on the well production in terms of water cut, downhole
multiple positions. A 10,000 ft reel of hydraulic control line pressure etc. This data is transmitted via the company intranet
was used in these tests to simulate the downhole control line in to the engineers’ desktop for further analysis and optimization.
the wells and estimate the duration of each operation. These
tests help to select the different time and pressure setting on Well Haradh-A1 was successfully flow-tested from the GOSP
the system. At the wellsite, the unit is placed in the shelter and without the engineer having to go to the well site. This well is
connected to the electric power supply, to the intelligent well a 3 zone completion with a mother bore and two laterals. Each
hydraulic lines from the wellhead and to the fiber optic zone contains one downhole valve to control flow from it. The
multiplexer for communication to SCADA. Each wellsite field downhole flow control valves for the intelligent completion
controller is assigned a unique IP address on the were operated from the central facility and data for the
communication network. downhole gauge pressure and temperature were observed
through the operator workstation. It was observed that the
The system is then pressure tested and all functions of sensors, downhole gauge temperature and pressure readings decreased
actuators and PLCs are verified on location. The unit is while closing all the laterals on the well and increase when the
function tested by moving the downhole valves of the well laterals were opened. The MPFM continuously records the gas
with the help of a laptop locally connected to the Ethernet port oil ratio, water cut and oil flow rate and the surface pressure
on the PLC at the well site. Production Engineers were upstream and downstream of the surface choke were also
involved at the installation as well as all the other function remotely monitored.
testing phases.
Well Haradh-A2 was successfully operated from the SCADA
Configuration of Intelligent Well Supervisory workstation. This well is a 3 zone completion with a mother
Application bore and two laterals. The naming convention used on the
The intelligent well supervisor application was installed on a SCADA is L0 (mother bore), L1 (lateral 1) and L2 (lateral 2).
rack mounted server machine in the production facility. This The test comprised of closing all the tools and bringing them
server is connected via Ethernet to the multiplexer in the back to their initial positions before the tool moves. A view of
facility into the field wide fiber optic network to each wellsite the different positions of the SCADA screen has been shown
multiplexers and finally to every in-field controller. The in figure 5.
application server at production facility and the field
controllers at each wellsite are assigned with a unique IP Currently, continuous testing for individual lateral is
addresses enabling the application to communicate to every undergoing to ensure optimal performance and after around
intelligent well controller in the field. The details of each well two years of production, the overall water-cut of the field is
like number of downhole valves, depth, etc are then less than 1%.
configured on the supervisory application. The downhole
valves can be remotely operated from the production facility at Conclusions
this stage.
• The commissioning of the automated surface control
Interfacing the intelligent well supervisory application to field system for the intelligent wells has enabled the
control/SCADA application to provide the control room engineer at the control room to monitor well
operator the ability to function the intelligent wells was the parameters and control the downhole valves for the
last phase of the system installation. An OPC data hub was IW directly from the SCADA application.
created in the intelligent well application to hold the tags
required by the SCADA to operate the intelligent wells. The • This enables the wells to be tested as required
OPC control module application was then installed on the without traveling to the wellsite and the test data is
SCADA application to interface with the OPC data hub on the stored in the data base in real-time.
SPE 112226 5

• The integration of the IW control, downhole gauge References

data and the MPFM data at the control application 1. Saleri, N.G., Al-Kaabi. AO., Muallem, A.S.: “Haradh
enables the production to be optimized. III: A Milestone for Smart Fields” JPT (November
2006)
• The facilities available in Haradh-III will accelerate 2. Afaleg, N.I.,Pham, T.R., Al-Otaibi, U.F., Amos, S.W.,
the introduction of well optimization tools. and Sarda, S.: “Design and Deployment of Maximum
Reservoir Contact Wells with Smart Completion in
• The open architecture in the communication system Development of a Carbonate Reservoir”, paper SPE
avoided the need to embed the IW supervisor 93138, presented at the 2005 SPE Asia Pacific Oil and
application in the SCADA and enables the easy Gas Conference and Exhibition, Jakarta, Indonesia, 4-5
inclusion of well optimization tools in the IW April 2005
application. 3. Al Kaabi, A. O., Al - Afaleg, N. I., Pham, T.R., Al
Muallem, A. S., Al – Bani, F. A., Hart, R. G. and
• Selecting a single vendor for the intelligent wells has Hembling, D. E.: “Haradh – III Industry’s Largest Field
helped to make the surface integration to the SCADA Development Using Maximum – Reservoir – Contact
easier. Wells, Smart – Well Completions and I – Field
Concept,” paper SPE 105187, presented at the 2007
Nomenclature SPE Middle East Oil & Gas Conference, Bahrain
International Exhibition Centre, Kingdom of Bahrain,
SCADA: Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition. 11 – 14 March
GOSP: Gas Oil Separation Plant. 4. Al-Arnaout, I.H., Zahrani, R.M., Jacob, S.: “Smart
RTU: Remote Terminal Unit. Wells Experiences and Best Practices at Haradh
PLC: Programmable Logic Controller. Increment-III, Ghawar Field” paper SPE 105618,
OPC: Open Connectivity via Open Standards. presented at the 2007 SPE Middle East Oil & Gas
TCP / IP: Transmission Control and Data Protocol. Conference, Bahrain International Exhibition Centre,
OPC DA: OPC Data Access (one of the OPC specifications). Kingdom of Bahrain, 11 – 14 March
OPC HAD: OPC Historical Data Access (one of the OPC 5. Mathieson, D, ; Giuliani, C; Ajayi, A; and Smithson, M
specifications). – “Intelligent Well Automation – Design and Practice,”
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MPFM: MultiPhase Flow Meter. Antonio, Texas, 24 – 27 September

Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thanks the Saudi Aramco and
WellDynamics for granting permission to publish this work.
6 SPE 112226

Figure 1: Overview of field communication.

Figure 2: Intelligent well completion in Haradh-III.

SPE 112226 7

Figure 3: Overview of intelligent well supervisory application.

Figure 4: Equipment setup for system integration test.

8 SPE 112226

Figure 5: Integrated well control screen.