In 2017, an operator in western Argentina required the deployment of an early production facility (EPF) to produce five remote wells. The operator’s objective was to decide if these five development wells would be profitable enough to build a permanent facility. To achieve those goals, the operator needed a reliable acquisition system to analyze the well data and prototype the facility design, but it also needed tanks for storing the produced liquids for transport by truck.
To ensure faster deployment, the operator turned to SLB for its express EPF offering, a key part of the Production ExPRESS solutions portfolio. An express EPF package is a fully mobile solution that lets operators start up production faster than conventional EPFs and can be deployed rapidly for early cash flow while a dedicated facility is being built. The express EPF package consisted of standard well testing equipment configured to serve as a prototype of the future production facility. A three-phase separator was used to handle the well effluent in addition to storage tanks for the oil and water produced, with a flare to burn the gas produced and several pumps to load the liquid in trucks. A total of 30 tanks of 440-bbl capacity were manufactured locally for faster delivery.
The temporary express EPF installation was deployed for a total of 20 months, a period for the operator to analyze the results and evaluate the economic feasibility of constructing a new facility. During that period, more than 210,200 bbl of oil was produced by the five wells, stored on site, and then loaded and delivered by truck—an average of 370 bbl/d—while 162,724 bbl of water were disposed. Based on the well data acquired from the well test facilities, the operator decided that the five wells were not profitable enough for a dedicated production facility. As a result, the operator decided to construct its own mobile production facility using the Production ExPRESS solutions design, thus avoiding the capex required for new infrastructure.
