Kidan Sour Gas - Close Upstream Collaboration between Shell and Saudi Aramco Leads to Improved Understanding of a Complex Sour Gas Field

Abstract

The South Rub Al-Khali Company Limited (SRAK) is an incorporated Joint Venture between Shell and Saudi Aramco to explore for non-associated gas and associated liquids in the South Rub'Al-Khali Basin in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. SRAK's contract area includes substantial volumes of ultra-sour gas in structures known collectively as Kidan. These were discovered in the 1960's by Saudi Aramco and have been appraised with several wells since then but not developed thusfar. Alongside the exploration campaign targeting the deeper Paleozoic play, the venture has carried out substantial data gathering and evaluation of the overlying Jurassic sour gas contained in the Kidan structures (Figure 1). To enable the appropriate and most cost-effective development to be selected requires a rigorous approach to project planning with focus on up-front understanding of the complexities of the reservoir. Extensive data gathering at the front end stage of the project has therefore been a key part of SRAK's strategy resulting in high quality datasets from two wells located on the Kidan North structure and a well on the Kidan South structure have been acquired. These data include core, openhole logs, fluid samples and production test data.