Publications

Bekapai field and South Mahakam cluster (consists of Stupa, Mandu and Jempang-Metulang Fields) are located in Mahakam PSC. Bekapai is an oil field with 42 Km of biphasic export line, while all fields in South Mahakam are rich condensates gas fields with 63 Km of triphasic export line. Both have various surface constraints that lock some of the field potentials, with pressure setting at the surface facilities as the main bottleneck. As a result, field rate must be reduced partially to respect maximum operating pressure in the platform. The field trial was performed in Bekapai and South Mahakam, which have high Condensate Gas Ratio and high-pressure drop along the pipes and resulted in positive impact on field production. Afterward, the full-field application was launched. Injection of Drag Reducer Agent (DRA) has successfully unlocked field potential without major surface modification. The chemical works by suppressing the energy dissipation during turbulent flow which results in a lower pressure drop along the pipeline. The main result from the injection is the delta pressure reduction of the network, which allows higher fluid production at the same operating pressure. Conversion of pressure reduction to additional export fluids is equal to 6 bars to 3000 bpd of oil export in Bekapai, and 5 bars to 20 Mmscfd of gas export in South Mahakam. Upside gain from better performance of the weak wells is also observed in the other branch of the network. The Mahakam experience is a good example where the DRA application works for both oil and gas fields. It supports optimizations performed in the field to achieve optimum production. This paper describes various lessons learned during the project: gain as the function of fluid rate, several parameters that impact the performance of the chemical, and method of injection trial to gather data and predict the economical project incorporating existing material-balance simulation.