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One of the reservoirs in a giant field in onshore Abu Dhabi has been producing for six decades. The reservoir was already saturated at the time of production commencement, with a large oil rim and a gas cap. Both water injection and lean gas injection have been relied upon to sustain production, and will play an even more prominent role for the future development of oil rim and gas cap. Due to the stakeholders’ different entitlements / equity interests in the hydrocarbons originally existed in oil rim area versus gas cap area, it is important to be able to allocate liquid hydrocarbon production and injection gas utilization among the stakeholders, based on a systematic framework. This paper presents a comprehensive comparison of two modeling-based approaches of fluid tracking for condensate allocation and gas utilization – a tracer modeling option in a commercial reservoir simulator, and a full component fluid tracking approach implemented for this reservoir. The component tracking approach is based on the idea that if individual components represented in a fully compositional reservoir model are tracked separately starting from model initialization, one can trace back the source of hydrocarbon production from both gas cap and oil rim. This approach is implemented through the doubling of the number of components in the equation of state fluid characterization – one set of components for the gas cap, and another set for the oil rim. In order to track the net utilization of the injected lean gas, additional components are needed – in this case one more component representing the lean gas, as the injected gas is a dry gas. The results of the comprehensive comparison demonstrate very clearly that these two approaches yield consistent condensate allocation and gas utilization results over the entire life of field (including history match and prediction). For condensate allocation, the hydrocarbon liquid production split depends on how the injected lean gas is tracked. For gas utilization, the injected lean gas must be tracked as a distinct component separate from both oil rim and gas cap components. The comparison also shows that although the tracer-based approach is numerically more efficient with less runtime, the full component tracking approach is simulator agnostic, and therefore can be implemented in any reservoir simulator. In addition, the full component tracking method can be used for cases where injection gas is a known mixture of oil rim and gas cap gas – something the tracer-based option cannot handle. In summary, this paper presents a first comprehensive comparison of the two (2) different fluid tracking modeling approaches, with practical recommendations on modeling-based hydrocarbon liquid production and injection gas utilization allocation in cases where the commercial framework makes such allocation necessary.
One of the reservoirs in a giant field in onshore Abu Dhabi has been producing for six decades. The reservoir was already saturated at the time of production commencement, with a large oil rim and a gas cap. Both water injection and lean gas injection have been relied upon to sustain production, and will play an even more prominent role for the future development of oil rim and gas cap. Due to the stakeholders’ different entitlements / equity interests in the hydrocarbons originally existed in oil rim area versus gas cap area, it is important to be able to allocate liquid hydrocarbon production and injection gas utilization among the stakeholders, based on a systematic framework. This paper presents a comprehensive comparison of two modeling-based approaches of fluid tracking for condensate allocation and gas utilization – a tracer modeling option in a commercial reservoir simulator, and a full component fluid tracking approach implemented for this reservoir. The component tracking approach is based on the idea that if individual components represented in a fully compositional reservoir model are tracked separately starting from model initialization, one can trace back the source of hydrocarbon production from both gas cap and oil rim. This approach is implemented through the doubling of the number of components in the equation of state fluid characterization – one set of components for the gas cap, and another set for the oil rim. In order to track the net utilization of the injected lean gas, additional components are needed – in this case one more component representing the lean gas, as the injected gas is a dry gas. The results of the comprehensive comparison demonstrate very clearly that these two approaches yield consistent condensate allocation and gas utilization results over the entire life of field (including history match and prediction). For condensate allocation, the hydrocarbon liquid production split depends on how the injected lean gas is tracked. For gas utilization, the injected lean gas must be tracked as a distinct component separate from both oil rim and gas cap components. The comparison also shows that although the tracer-based approach is numerically more efficient with less runtime, the full component tracking approach is simulator agnostic, and therefore can be implemented in any reservoir simulator. In addition, the full component tracking method can be used for cases where injection gas is a known mixture of oil rim and gas cap gas – something the tracer-based option cannot handle. In summary, this paper presents a first comprehensive comparison of the two (2) different fluid tracking modeling approaches, with practical recommendations on modeling-based hydrocarbon liquid production and injection gas utilization allocation in cases where the commercial framework makes such allocation necessary.
An onshore reservoir in Abu Dhabi is a thin four-way anticline reservoir with an oil rim and extensive gas cap. The oil rim and gas cap have different ownership interests. The oil rim is under active development, while the gas cap is yet to be developed. The first part of this study was to verify the adequacy of tools for calculating historical and estimating future resource exchange between the gas cap and oil rim. This condensate tracking study involved QC (Quality Control) of the fluid characterization of the oil rim and gas cap, and validation of the tracking features in the t-Navigator reservoir using a dual-EOS model. The second part of this study was to investigate the optimal reservoir management strategy around the wells in the oil-rim closest to the gas cap, and the row of injectors (gas cap fence) surrounding the oil rim. The gas cap fence is intended to form a barrier between the gas cap and oil rim producers and prevent gas encroaching into the oil rim. The study showed that the fence is effective, however, due to heterogeneity, drilling timing and gaps in the fence a perfect seal is not achieved. Historical reservoir performance was analyzed to understand the fence behavior and simulation studies were also performed to give insight into the future reservoir management strategy. Alignment of the condensate tracking study with the reservoir management strategy update ensured that the benefits of the new strategy come primary from increase oil production and not condensate. The updated reservoir management strategy (injection strategy and production limits) is predicted to increase oil production rate by 20% in the short term and increase oil rim recovery factor by 2.4%, with little additional cost.
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