Guyana: Liza Phase 2 Novel Execution to Accelerate Field Development

The Liza Phase 1 development project features the Liza Destiny Floating Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, moored 190 km offshore Guyana in 1,743 m (5,719 ft) of water, and four subsea drill centers supporting 17 wells. Not only was this a Greenfield development that required an integrated team to prepare for Operations; it was also located in a New Frontier that required development of logistics and marine infrastructure to support multi drillship and FPSO operations in challenging metocean and tidal conditions. In addition, early operations and production testing was further complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic and safety protocols put in place to keep the workforce safe. Three aspects of achieving First Oil are discussed, highlighting challenges and lessons learned: Managing subsea completions, well cleanup, and flow assurance while drilling was ongoing Enabling accurate data collection from Multi-Phase Flow Meters (MPFMs) and downhole pressure gauges, which was critical to developing foundational understanding of well performance for reservoir characterization and management Establishing an integrated asset team and workflows to ensure life cycle value capture by managing complex marine operations, commissioning, and surveillance while meeting stringent COVID-19 protocols Lessons learned from Destiny Operations will be incorporated into future projects, including a robust digital strategy centered on a fiber ring to shore, which will enable high-speed communications for future FPSOs, and an onshore integrated operations control center for improvement of long-term operations. Early understanding of reservoir connectivity and performance from data collection will continue to inform the reservoir management strategy so as to maximize asset value for the country of Guyana.

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The Liza Field: From Discovery to Development

Austin

Das

Oyerinde

et al. 2021

Day 1 Mon, August 16, 2021

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In May 2015, Liza-1 encountered more than 90 m (295 ft) of high-quality oil-bearing Upper Cretaceous deepwater sandstones. Immediately, the >1 billion barrel Liza field began on its path from discovery to development. Following the Liza-1 discovery, ExxonMobil and the Stabroek Block co-venturers, Hess Guyana Exploration Limited and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana Limited, undertook a blockwide 3D seismic survey, the largest performed by ExxonMobil at that time, to better delineate the resource potential. Subsequent appraisal drilling built confidence in the performance and connectivity of the reservoir while providing calibration data to inform the development. The initial appraisal well was the "inverted-Y" Liza-2 drilled in early 2016, which comprised an original hole and a sidetrack. A comprehensive evaluation program was implemented with conventional coring of both the original hole and the sidetrack to provide reservoir calibration critical to field development. Furthermore, a production well test was performed on the Liza-2 sidetrack to build confidence in dynamic performance and connectivity assumptions. The Liza-3 appraisal was then drilled down dip of the Liza-1 and −2 to confirm static connectivity across the field. A scenario modeling and simulation approach was implemented at Liza to capture the full range of plausible realizations that could represent the field. The scenarios were measured against the incoming data (Liza-2 and Liza-3) when acquired, and scenarios with greater alignment to the data continued to be pursued while others were moved to a much lower probability of occurrence. This multi-scenario approach was utilized to develop an integrated reservoir model that allowed for depletion plan optimization across a range of subsurface scenarios within flow assurance constraints, ultimately supporting the final investment decision (FID) for the Liza Phase 1 project in 2017, just 25 months after the Liza-1 discovery. Following FID, advanced, proprietary Full Wavefield Inversion seismic reprocessing and high resolution 4D baseline seismic acquisition and processing have been utilized to enable continued optimization. The path from discovery to development culminated in December 2019 with the commencement of production from Liza Phase 1 less than 5 years after the first deepwater oil discovery in Guyana.

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Guyana: Liza Phase 2 Novel Execution to Accelerate Field Development

Cited by 3 publications

References 6 publications

The multi-visit-multi-voyage scheduling of the heterogeneous shuttle tanker fleet via inventory-oriented joint planning

The multi-visit-multi-voyage scheduling of the heterogeneous shuttle tanker fleet via inventory-oriented joint planning

Guyana Operations and First Oil

The Liza Field: From Discovery to Development

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