Through-tubing bridge plug (TTBP) water shut-off (WSO) workovers in the October Field have resulted in an average incremental initial production increase of 2500 bopd per job. Average water cut (WC) was reduced from 55% to 16%. Seventy-eight WSO workovers have been completed since December 1991. Technical and economic success approach 90%. Just under $4.8 million dollars has been spent for an average cost of $61,500 per job. Costs paid out in less than two days using a normalized $13 per barrel crude price. Based on results achieved during the past 4.5 years, these WSO workovers establish the October Field as a notable and on-going case history for lower zone water control. Water production from the October Field has gradually increased during the past decade. As a result, steeper production declines and gas lift operational problems developed. Based on reservoir characteristics, lower zone water was isolated using TTBP's conveyed by way of portable mast electric line units. A dump bailer was used to place a 14 foot cement cap over the TTBP to provide a permanent pressure seal. After a 24-hour shut in cement cure period, wells were almost always returned to production at a significantly higher oil rate and dramatically reduced WC. The cost of a rigless TTBP WSO workover is much less than conventional rig deployed WSO work which averaged over $500,000 per job. Prior to December 1991, rig WSO's were the only method used in the October Field. Hence, rigless WSO workovers have become vital for cost control. Rigless WSO work has also become a useful reservoir management tool for maximizing oil production and minimizing water production thereby conserving reservoir energy and optimizing lift gas. Introduction The October Field is located offshore in the Gulf of Suez (GOS) approximately 200 miles southeast of Cairo and 70 miles north of the operating base in Ras Shukheir, Egypt (Figure 1). The October Field area is the largest of seven major producing areas in the GOS operated by the Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company (GUPCO); a joint venture between Amoco Egypt Oil Company and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation. Combined GUPCO GOS production averaged 365,000 bopd during early 1996. Gas lift is the most widely used form of artificial lift. Original oil in place (OOIP) for all fields approached 10 billion barrels by 1996.
Production Optimization is often attributed to new technologies, sophisticated algorithms and application of market leading expertise. In Amal, after years of production, our learning is production optimization is more about doing simple things well and getting better at it every day through practice and planning. In this paper, we will present an example for the capability of using limited resources in offshore fields to maximize oil production for wells suffering from high water production. The challenge was in one of oil wells, which has been ceased to flow due to high water cut and consequently we deferred around 400 BOPD. To illustrate this point, we will focus on how we can retain the oil production from this well while the ongoing gas lift project is not ready yet. We thought about the integrity between the wells in the same platform by using one of gas wells from gas reservoir as injector to lift the ceased to flow oil well and how we could obtain the gas quantities to be injected into the oil well however the rest will be produced normally from the gas well. We will share how a loaded well with high water cut was revived through this idea of gas lifting with a higher pressure well, many runs were performed using commercial software of wells modeling and reservoir simulation. We determined the proper rate and WHFP from the gas well to be injected in the oil well to recover that oil and we could improve the well productivity. As a result, the well has produced over the last ten months and we could maximize the oil production with our limited resources and without any huge gas lift project. Again, this idea helped maintain safe and continuous production from ceased to flow well and we recovered around 110,000 barrels of oil until now and the well still produce.
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