Haradh-III: Industry’s Largest Field Development Using Maximum-Reservoir-Contact Wells, Smart-Well Completions and I-Field Concept

Abstract

TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractThe development of Haradh-III in the Southernmost area of Ghawar represents a major shift in paradigm in terms of the combination of the technologies. The field development combines four main technology features which include maximum reservoir contact (MRC) wells, smart completions, extensive use of real-time geosteering and I-field initiatives. This paper describes the motivation, implementation, and post-production evaluation of this unique field development. In the case of Haradh-III, field development with smart MRC wells delays water encroachment, improves flood front conformance and recovery, lowers water production and long term development and operating costs. Bottom water encroachment into the wellbore is mitigated as down-hole Internal Control Valves (ICV), as part of the smart completion, are adjusted. This in turn lengthens the life of the well, allows sweep and recovery to take place in the reservoir below the horizontal wellbores through the most effective sweep process: the replacement mechanism by gravity. The objectives of the development are accomplished utilizing a reduced number of wells, minimizing the accompanying infrastructure therefore lowering the capital expenditure while reducing the operating cost by maintaining, on a long-term basis, a low-water producing system, all occurring in real-time and within the I-field environment.

I-Field Data Acquisition and Delivery Infrastructure: Case Study

“…The Haradh-III project successfuly leveraged and integrated four technologies: MRCs; Intelligent Well completions (employing control valves for preventing premature water breakthrough); Geosteering for optimal well placement; and the I-Field concept enabling real-time surface and subsurface field monitoring and control (Al-Kaabi, et al, 2007).…”

“…Qatif and Haradh Increment-III fields (Al-Kaabi, et al, 2007;Saleri, et al, 2006) were the early I-Field implementations in Saudi Aramco. These two fields served as a pilot and test ground for capturing lessons learned and for re-defining users' and I-Field general requirements.…”

I-Field Capabilities Enable Optimizing Water Injection Strategies in Saudi Arabian Newly Developed Oil Fields

“…This section focuses on the three main components for I-Field including: real time data gathering, analysis and interpretation and finally, the decision making process [3]. This paper discusses each component separately and addresses the benefits of real time monitoring in optimizing pre-injection performance across the three fields.…”

“…Another benefit of real time monitoring is the ability to identify presence of faults or fractures connecting different reservoirs or connecting injector and producer wells in the same reservoir [3]. The earlier communication is discovered, the sooner injection can be modified to prevent excessive water production or unwanted oil migration between reservoirs.…”

Revamping Old Fields Using I-Field Technologies

“…1. Saudi Aramco has recently embarked on the development of several fields, including the AFK fields with an aim to transform the elderly and remote fields into state-of-the-art intelligent fields (I-Fields) equipped with proper handling facilities for oil, water and gas [6][7][8][9] . The new AFK project mainly consisted of a twofold plan.…”