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The E&P industry has been facing multitude of challenges including lack of large discoveries coupled with continuously declining production from existing assets. Moreover, the situation is aggravated due to large volumes of unproduced hydrocarbons at abandonment owing to unoptimized development strategies. This paper discusses the strategy adopted to revitalize declining production and target remainder of the sweet spots in a mature gas field on production for the last seven decades. Furthermore, the workflow introduced, integrates the surface and subsurface engineering strategies with an ideal blend of operational considerations that avoids heavy CAPEX involvement. The field presented in this paper has been producing since 1955, with around 112 wells in four independent reservoirs. Three of these reservoirs are fractured limestone with more than 80% depletion (with very little to moderate aquifer support). At its plateau, the field produced around 1,000 MMscfd gas. However, recently the production decline rose to around 7% annually, as the performance of multiple wells have gone down with declining reservoir pressure and water production. Therefore, to cut water production and arrest the annual field decline, various activities were carried out including cementing, tubing size optimizations, and chemical placements, but to no effect. Resultantly, a two-step workflow is developed that starts with selection of wells faced with rapidly declining production and high water-cut. These are then analyzed using production logging data for zonal contributions and contact movement. Next phase was to develop a comprehensive algorithm to analyze the re-processed seismic and geological parameters, integrated with reservoir simulation to identify the undrained area and quantify potential gain from the optimized sidetracks. Deploying the proposed approach yielded immediate returns in the form of initial gains of around 10 MMscfd gas production from the first two wells with addition of around 10-15 BCF reserves in the portfolio. Similarly, implementation of the strategy on another set of two wells resulted in production enhancement of 6 MMscfd gas and ~6BCF additional reserves from one of these wells. While the other well did not yield optimized results due to operational challenges which includes uncontrolled losses in complex and intricate fracture network. Consequently, this triggered the addition of fracture attribute study in the earlier developed workflow, further strengthening the sidetrack programs. While liquid loading and water breakthrough are common challenges pertaining mature assets, stereotyping one solution across the board may not result in optimum results. The proposed workflow delineates multiple factors for production gains including G&G analysis, well construction details, additional fracture-attribute study, and completion types, that can be adjusted to harvest the maximum rewards in such mature fields.
The E&P industry has been facing multitude of challenges including lack of large discoveries coupled with continuously declining production from existing assets. Moreover, the situation is aggravated due to large volumes of unproduced hydrocarbons at abandonment owing to unoptimized development strategies. This paper discusses the strategy adopted to revitalize declining production and target remainder of the sweet spots in a mature gas field on production for the last seven decades. Furthermore, the workflow introduced, integrates the surface and subsurface engineering strategies with an ideal blend of operational considerations that avoids heavy CAPEX involvement. The field presented in this paper has been producing since 1955, with around 112 wells in four independent reservoirs. Three of these reservoirs are fractured limestone with more than 80% depletion (with very little to moderate aquifer support). At its plateau, the field produced around 1,000 MMscfd gas. However, recently the production decline rose to around 7% annually, as the performance of multiple wells have gone down with declining reservoir pressure and water production. Therefore, to cut water production and arrest the annual field decline, various activities were carried out including cementing, tubing size optimizations, and chemical placements, but to no effect. Resultantly, a two-step workflow is developed that starts with selection of wells faced with rapidly declining production and high water-cut. These are then analyzed using production logging data for zonal contributions and contact movement. Next phase was to develop a comprehensive algorithm to analyze the re-processed seismic and geological parameters, integrated with reservoir simulation to identify the undrained area and quantify potential gain from the optimized sidetracks. Deploying the proposed approach yielded immediate returns in the form of initial gains of around 10 MMscfd gas production from the first two wells with addition of around 10-15 BCF reserves in the portfolio. Similarly, implementation of the strategy on another set of two wells resulted in production enhancement of 6 MMscfd gas and ~6BCF additional reserves from one of these wells. While the other well did not yield optimized results due to operational challenges which includes uncontrolled losses in complex and intricate fracture network. Consequently, this triggered the addition of fracture attribute study in the earlier developed workflow, further strengthening the sidetrack programs. While liquid loading and water breakthrough are common challenges pertaining mature assets, stereotyping one solution across the board may not result in optimum results. The proposed workflow delineates multiple factors for production gains including G&G analysis, well construction details, additional fracture-attribute study, and completion types, that can be adjusted to harvest the maximum rewards in such mature fields.
This paper presents a case study of Field Sigma, a large gas condensate field in Pakistan. Sigma comprises two primary sandstone reservoir formations, X and Y, where an oil rim was discovered during the late field life. A re-development plan utilizing an integrated reservoir simulation model was formulated to enhance oil production from the oil rim beneath a gas cap. The key challenges faced included reservoir pressure depletion, reservoir heterogeneity, complex fault geometry, and fluid contact uncertainty. The study aims to introduce a novel concept for optimizing oil production from the oil rim reservoir through an integrated reservoir study. In this study, an independent seismic interpretation was conducted on the most recent 3D seismic data, focusing on mapping the major faults that impact the static/dynamic reservoir model and evaluating the transmissibility of the mapped faults iteratively during the history-matching phase. A comprehensive petrophysical study was conducted to calculate various petrophysical parameters on a field scale, providing an updated and consistent analysis that minimized uncertainties from the previous interpretations. Field Sigma has a complex anticline structure with intricate fault geometries and thrust sections. Thus, the static model's structural grid was created using the Volume-Based Modelling (VBM) method, chosen over Corner Point Gridding to represent the complex nature of the field's structure accurately. The reservoir engineering data was thoroughly analyzed and incorporated into a dynamic simulation model. The history-matched, compositional model was used to generate production forecasts. From the various evaluated well locations, Eight economically favorable infill and appraisal sites were identified, with 5 in the Southeastern compartment and 3 in the sub-thrust area of the Northeastern compartment. To appraise the Free Water Level (FWL), Sigma-5 was proposed as an appraisal well in the Southeasternern compartment and after achieving the appraisal objective, in case of water production, the well had the option to sidetrack in an up-dip location. The infill wells Sigma-6,7 and 9 were proposed between Sigma-3 & 4 to drain the remaining hydrocarbon volumes and were considered comparatively less risky as compared to the other wells. However, due to the limited dynamic data, there exists uncertainty in the reservoir connectivity and there is a possibility of encountering further depleted pressures as compared to the simulated pressures. The appraisal well Sigma-8 is proposed to evaluate the eastern extent of the Southeastern compartment, however, this area has high-depth uncertainty and limited well control. All three wells identified in the Northeastern compartment target the Sub-thrust region and were considered high-risk wells. The paper emphasizes the crucial role of data integration from diverse sources in the re-development of a complex mature oil-rim brownfield through the combination of geological knowledge, reservoir-level petrophysical evaluation, incorporation of core data, production history, reservoir understanding, and critical data acquisition during the infill drilling, the project team gained the confidence to devise and execute successful re-development strategy. The iterative creation of robust static and dynamic models provides a valuable planning resource for future endeavors. The methodology outlined in the paper holds broad applicability to typical field developments, establishing it as a valuable industry practice.
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