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The Wara reservoir is one of the main producing formations of the giant Greater Burgan field. It has been on production under natural depletion for many years. A massive water-flood of this formation has recently commenced. This was preceded by a large-scale pilot water flood the aims of which included enhancing reservoir understanding. This paper describes how historical data, including data from the large-scale pilot, were used to construct representative part filed models. The area of the pilot water flood has significant volumes of data, including core and log data and dynamic data such as pressure transient data, interference tests, tracer tests and cased-hole logs. These provide valuable information for reservoir characterization. The Wara formation was deposited in a tidally influenced fluvio-deltaic environment where sand continuity is complex. There was a desire to develop realistic geological and simulation models that accounted for our understanding of Wara geology and were consistent with the large volumes of surveillance data. A major challenge was the choice of an appropriate area for the part field model. This was chosen so as to allow water influx into the area of interest over the life of the field to be accounted for and to allow relatively simple boundary conditions to be applied. Geological models were constructed using object based techniques. These models used reservoir rock types that were developed to broadly match permeability-height estimates from pressure transient data. The geological models were not guaranteed to account for the sand connectivity inferred form the surveillance data. A streamline based screening technique was used to exclude models that did not broadly capture the interpreted connectivity. Dynamic simulation models were then developed and conditioned to data using conventional assisted history matching techniques. At this stage, some sensitivities related to boundary conditions were explored. Sand connectivity was not varied at this stage. Some examples are given as to how the resulting conditioned models have been used to address questions about expected future reservoir performance. Specifically questions related to proposed well spacing and pattern type are discussed. This paper describes a novel approach to developing models that are geologically realistic and are consistent with the interpretation of reservoir connectivity from a range of surveillance data. This involves using a streamline based screening tool before using assisted history matching techniques. Such an approach can be applied to both part and full field models. The challenges of using such an approach with part field models are described. Some guidance is given to know when it would be appropriate to try to develop and condition part field models.
The Wara reservoir is one of the main producing formations of the giant Greater Burgan field. It has been on production under natural depletion for many years. A massive water-flood of this formation has recently commenced. This was preceded by a large-scale pilot water flood the aims of which included enhancing reservoir understanding. This paper describes how historical data, including data from the large-scale pilot, were used to construct representative part filed models. The area of the pilot water flood has significant volumes of data, including core and log data and dynamic data such as pressure transient data, interference tests, tracer tests and cased-hole logs. These provide valuable information for reservoir characterization. The Wara formation was deposited in a tidally influenced fluvio-deltaic environment where sand continuity is complex. There was a desire to develop realistic geological and simulation models that accounted for our understanding of Wara geology and were consistent with the large volumes of surveillance data. A major challenge was the choice of an appropriate area for the part field model. This was chosen so as to allow water influx into the area of interest over the life of the field to be accounted for and to allow relatively simple boundary conditions to be applied. Geological models were constructed using object based techniques. These models used reservoir rock types that were developed to broadly match permeability-height estimates from pressure transient data. The geological models were not guaranteed to account for the sand connectivity inferred form the surveillance data. A streamline based screening technique was used to exclude models that did not broadly capture the interpreted connectivity. Dynamic simulation models were then developed and conditioned to data using conventional assisted history matching techniques. At this stage, some sensitivities related to boundary conditions were explored. Sand connectivity was not varied at this stage. Some examples are given as to how the resulting conditioned models have been used to address questions about expected future reservoir performance. Specifically questions related to proposed well spacing and pattern type are discussed. This paper describes a novel approach to developing models that are geologically realistic and are consistent with the interpretation of reservoir connectivity from a range of surveillance data. This involves using a streamline based screening tool before using assisted history matching techniques. Such an approach can be applied to both part and full field models. The challenges of using such an approach with part field models are described. Some guidance is given to know when it would be appropriate to try to develop and condition part field models.
This paper describes a dynamic modelling and optimization study to investigate the viability of deploying intelligent completions for well management in a mature oilfield in order to mitigate the challenges of increasing water cut and rapid diminishing of surface locations for new wells across the Greater Burgan field. Reservoir simulation is used to assess the potential benefits of installing Flow Control Valves (FCVs) in a candidate well, to control production from multiple reservoir zones. A representative sector model is defined around the candidate well, to include surrounding wells that could influence its flow behaviour. Reservoir properties are extracted from a fine-scale geological realization and updated using current well logs. Sensitivity studies are performed to determine the appropriate size and grid design for simulation. The well is planned to be completed across six producing reservoir zones with a single tubing and an Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP). In the optimization strategy, the FCV aperture openings are adjusted over the lifetime of the well, to maximize the Net Present Value, while meeting operational and strategic constraints. The robustness of the forecast outcomes are highly dependent on the quality of reservoir characterization. A sector model large enough to represent the effects of reservoir heterogeneities and interference from other wells, was used. The efficient optimization workflows used here can be generalized for similar analyses of other wells and other fields. The optimized results demonstrate that installation of FCVs can help to meet the simultaneous objectives of boosting oil production while reducing water production. This is achieved by choking back the deeper high-water production zones to accelerate oil production from the upper high oil saturation zones, while also targeting offtake to induce the shallower low-pressure zone to deliver more. The large initial capital outlay, comprising the equipment and service cost of the FCV installation is fully offset within the first year of production, post installation. This study highlights the significant upside benefits for the management of complex brown fields such as the Greater Burgan by adopting smart well completion strategy. Improving well production performance, and supporting multi-zone completions, should also enable reduction of well counts for fields with existing high well density and lack of surface space to accommodate many new dispersed wells.
This paper discusses the development of full pore-to-process integrated asset models (IAM) for the Greater Burgan (GB) oilfield in Kuwait, the largest clastic oil field in the world. The IAM links the reservoir model with the multiple wells, pipelines, network models and process facilities models for improved forecasting and operational excellence in the South and East Kuwait asset of Kuwait Oil Company. The main objective behind the development of this integrated asset model is to enable enhanced asset management and to improve decision making, accounting for the complex interactions and synergies between reservoirs, production networks and process facilities in the hydrocarbon flow path all the way from the reservoir to the export points. The IAMs were developed using calibrated models built using next-generation simulators that enabled the running of forecast scenarios from the pore to process. The reservoir model was developed using a high-resolution reservoir simulator that enabled the simulation of this giant oilfield with more than 2000 wells in a few hours. The reservoir model was then coupled to the full-physics well-and-network models for 3 gathering centres of key interest which had also been previously calibrated to match wells and manifold rates and pressures. Finally, the network model was connected to the high-performance process facility model at the manifold headers. The reservoir-network coupling was done at the well level, each well coupled at the bottomhole with an updated IPR passed to the network and a resulting outflow constraint passed back to the reservoir every timestep to capture any effects of pressure regime established in the network. The network-process facility connection was established by using a feedforward push of the calculated mass flow rate, pressure, GOR, water cut, and temperature at the manifold, as updated boundary conditions to estimate the quantity and quality of fluids produced from the facility. The results of the integrated models showed moderate impact of the network on the performance of the reservoir over a 5-year forecast. Integration of the vast number of wells and network models with the crude processing facilities in a single IAM platform enables the evaluation of oil production improvement opportunities in terms of their long-term dynamic impact on the reservoir management. The IAM models will help to identify the bottlenecks in the system, optimize the production and achieve the aggressive oil target of the GB asset. This is the first set of fully first operational IAMs for Greater Burgan that includes all three key components – reservoir, network, and process facilities. The IAM gives access to control and define constraints in all the component models, making it an effective tool for further analysing development and optimization strategies for improved asset management of the largest clastic oilfield in the world.
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