RE: Are ALEF messing with the share price? Royalties?11 Jul 2024 15:57
Odins,
It is mainly down to when the depletion at reservoir notably crosses the dew point pressure, which they are already having to manage as they are obviously on the fringe of it with the induced condensate being produced.
Basically if they were to open the wells more, to try and flow more gas to surface, then this will drop the wellbore pressure further, that then escalates the induction of condensates at the near wellbore and within the wellbore.
You may think, hey so what, produce free gas and more condensates, but it doesn't work like that, basically the more liquid volume within the production tubing to surface, then you will quickly end up in a situation that the liquids in the column to surface are heavier than the reservoir pressure driving it out to surface and the well stalls out.
Currently they seem to be forced to manage/control the pressure by reducing the production and choking the wells back. this maintains a slightly higher pressure in the near wellbore and wellbore and reduces the amount of condensate that is generated in this area.
It is one of the reasons they need to install "velocity" strings in the wells, basically much smaller production tubing, which means the velocity of the gas travelling up that smaller tubing to surface is moving significantly faster, and that also means it helps flush the condensates out to surface easier too.
The Velocity strings could give a further 2-3 years of productivity before they are also overwhelmed and stall out.