Title : Mature field evaluation and redevelopment case histories and lessons
Abstract:
Mature fields meet one or more of the following criteria: fields that have produced for more than 25 years, fields that have produced water cuts of around 95%, fields that have been neglected during low demand such as now, fields that are currently in operation with obsolete technology, poor facilities, and market access. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, these mature oil fields are contributing up to 80% of world production, which could translate to 89 million barrels of oil per day. Often poor infrastructure and poor state of record keeping pose steep hurdles in monetizing these assets. A surprising fact is that in many of these fields, the oil is in very low-risk plays, often very shallow reservoirs, with a low cost of recovery. In this low-price environment, a 1% increase in recovery factor and enabling reduction of a fraction of lifting costs could make all the difference in the breakeven price of oil. Conservative estimates of reserves are about 15-30 billion barrels in some of these basins. Unfortunately, some of these fields are poorly managed, through various EOR techniques, relying on antiquated subsurface geology. Some of these fields did not benefit from the technology growth in the last 20 years. These fields could see new life with 3D seismic data, interpretation based on sound regional and prospect level geology, chronostratigraphic mapping, fit-for-purpose reservoir modeling to guide the appropriate recovery program, and a new breed of entrepreneurial spirit, for substantial rewards in these fields. The subsurface heterogeneity (complexity) of an oil field is the single, most challenging aspect with a dominant influence on-field productivity. Chances are with increased knowledge of the field, one is better equipped to deal with the challenge, provided one uses the right geology model to start with and has an improved understanding of the subsurface data. Detailed and well-documented case histories of mature oil field revivals from different parts of the world, with varied geology and economic criteria.
Target Audience: The common theme runs across all of these case histories are:
- Extensive and innovative use of 3D seismic data,
- High-resolution sequence stratigraphy, and
- Reservoir modeling .
The lessons learned could be useful in motivating and finding ways enhance production in several mature oil and gas fields of the world. Geoscientists, Petrophysicists, Reservoir Engineers, and Production Engineers with at least 5 years of experience.
