Optimization of Mercury Measurements in Appraisal Wells

2009 - MTS assisted a major gas producer to measure mercury during early well flow. The gas company needed to know if a new development would produce significant quantities of mercury so that production facilities and gas processing systems could be designed. Surface tests for mercury using a test separator are seldom accurate due to losses of mercury to metal surfaces. Production tubing can scavenge essentially all mercury in early produced fluids such that measurements of mercury in gas or condensate taken soon after drilling are always biased low; so low in fact that they can be misleading. Downhole sampling methods also suffer from major mercury losses due to small fluid volumes and large sample container surface areas. MTS has developed new procedures to quantify losses of mercury so that early mercury measurements correlate to reservoir concentrations.

Mercury in Gas Measurements