Key Elements of Successful Well and Reservoir Management in the Bonga Field, Deepwater Nigeria

Abstract

TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractProduction from the deepwater Bonga turbidite reservoirs was started in November 2005. As with all waterflood and Enhanced Oil Recovery schemes, 'world-class' Well and Reservoir Management (WRM) is the foundation of a successful project. A comprehensive WRM plan was defined for Bonga very early in the project, and its implementation from start-up has demonstrated tremendous value.More than 220 MMstb have been produced as of March 2009 from 13 subsea producers, and reservoir pressures have been maintained by water injection from the start of production in 13 subsea high rate water injectors, allowing high field production rates to be sustained. Well and reservoir performance data obtained during the first three years of production, and information from 4 D seismic shot in early 2008 are now used to optimize the planning and drilling of additional wells as part of the Phase 2 development drilling project. Bonga is a 'brownfield' that is not immune to normal well and asset integrity issues, and declines in well injectivity and productivity. Ability to respond swiftly to these issues is part of the Bonga WRM Plan. This paper presents key elements of successful WRM in Bonga. These include people factor and cross discipline integration, Smart Fields ® capability, 'live' WRM Plan and monitoring, good understanding of subsurface, application of integrated production modelling, intervention readiness and effective well integrity management. The paper concludes on key learnings applicable to future deepwater waterflood projects.

Business Value from Intelligent Fields

“…Regular surveillance is carried out and opportunities for well interventions and well and reservoir performance optimisation are screened and optimised against the integrated model (ref. 27,28). Examples include debottlenecking, re-routing of wells and changing of separator pressure settings.…”