Continuous Operation Model for Tight Gas Development in Sulige Gas Field, China

Abstract Sulige gas field of China is a typical tight gas reservoir with the features of low-pressure, low-permeability and low-abundance. During almost twenty years of development, low production and high cost are the two most important elements which hinder its quick development. In the beginning, vertical wells are the main well type used in the gas field. However, large number of collected data and analysis from the vertical wells shows that horizontal well can be more effective. To pilot the development result of horizontal wells, several pilot zone and blocks are selected. In the second half of the twenty-first century's first decade, horizontal drilling and completion have been widely used in this field. Considering the advantage of horizontal wells compared with the vertical wells, gas production has been substantially increased. With the success of shale gas development in North America, many of advanced technologies and management skills have been frequently applied to other kinds of oil and gas field, tight gas, tight oil, etc. Due to the job complexity and economic expense, technical skills and management experiences have been significantly improved, which is beyond everyone's imagination, especially for the cognition of unconventional resources, development methodology, intersecting job procedure, etc. All these improvements ensure the breakthrough of development in Sulige gas field in the last 5 years. This paper aims to describe the application of continuous operation model, which is also called factory operation model, in block Su53 of Sulige gas field from the technical point of view. First, the background of block Su53 will be introduced, including geological characteristics, formation property, development history, etc. Second, continuous operation procedure will be described, which covers the intersecting operation among several kinds of specialties. Third, the successful application of continuous operation model in pad Su53–82 which includes 10 horizontal wells, 2 directional wells and 1 vertical well and the applied technologies will be introduced. Finally, we compare the gas production and economic benefits with the regular wells.