This is the first of two papers which describe a comprehensive multidisciplinary effort toward reservoir characterization in the Greater Burgan field. In early 1995 a team of geologists and engineers began reviewing and evaluating Greater Burgan data in order to build an integrated reservoir model. This paper describes the interpreted depositional history of the Burgan formation, relates water encroachment in the reservoir to the stratigraphic architecture, and discuss the potential for oil migration between the main reservoir units. P. 509

Asphaltene deposition in the reservoir, wellbore and facilities has long been recognized as a problem in the Marrat reservoir in the Magwa field, Kuwait. One option of avoiding asphaltene problems in the reservoir, including the near wellbore region, is to maintain reservoir pressure and flowing BHPs above the asphaltene onset pressure (AOP). Given that there is a large pressure difference between AOP and the bubble point pressure and that natural flow is possible at pressure well below AOP, there may be economic benefits in operating the reservoir at pressures below AOP. Benefits relate the reduced and delayed costs of water injection facilities. There may also be some additional recovery related to fluid expansion. Potential problems relate to possible adverse changes to relative permeability due to asphaltene related wettability changes, productivity impairment due to near well-bore asphaltene deposition and increased asphaltene problems in the wellbore. The second and third of these potential problems have been assessed by a field trial. This paper describes the selection of a candidate well and the design of a field trial to assess these problems. The selected well was produced first with FBHP well above the AOP. Asphaltene deposition in the tubing was monitored, fluid samples were taken and pressure transient tests were performed to diagnose well inflow performance. No decline in well productivity was seen in this period. Asphaltene deposition in the tubing was a problem and the well required cleaning during this period. The well was then produced at high rate, with flowing BHP well below AOP and a similar surveillance program was carried out. Finally the well was returned to low rate production. Analysis of the data from the high rate and subsequent low rate production periods indicated that there had been a limited decrease in well productivity. These data also showed that asphaltene deposition in the tubing was less of a problem during the high rate test than during the preceding low rate test.

Unwanted water production is a major challenge in the horizontal wells in the Greater Burgan field in Kuwait. The long lateral sections and the presence of heterogeneity lead to uneven sweep of hydrocarbons. Greater Burgan has over 60 horizontal wells to date. Initially they produced dry oil and up to the expectation but soon the water cut increased in a number of wells and avoiding water break through became a major challenge. Burgan sandstone is a highly productive reservoir and the permeability variation is huge from less than a Darcy to a few Darcy. Thus, the horizontal wells have uneven flow profile and subsequent coning and cresting effects resulting in bypassed oil and poor recovery. To have a better down-hole water management in horizontal wells a number of options from chemical water shut-off and isolating the toe side using packers to use of straddle packers in the middle and heel side of the horizontal section were tried. However, the use of Inflow Control Device-ICD proved to be the best option to restrict and slow down and contain the water production by creating additional pressure drop and achieve better sweep efficiency. The first ICD completion in the Greater Burgan field and in KOC was implemented in a sidetrack well in 2007. To date the well is flowing with 45% water cut which is almost constant from the beginning for 7 years now. It resulted in a net gain of 2400BOPD from this well. This paper will describe this case history, how the system was designed, completed, and monitored, and the successful results achieved for over 7 years. This successful use of ICDs for water conformance lead to more applications in Kuwait and will give a good understanding for the future use in other areas.

In the recent past four shallow wells were drilled in the Ahmadi Area and the purpose of these wells was to observe the fluid movement in these wells, either to the surface or communication between the zones in the down-hole. These unconventional wells were designed for unrestricted inflow of fluids into the wellbore as appreciable commercial flow was never expected. The challenge was also to log the flow and pinpoint the fluid entry points. Conventional PLT tools were not suitable as spinners threshold velocity could not be achieved in such feeble flow. Research was done to find the most suitable tools and equipment that are available in the industry and most useful to this project at very shallow depths and in real-time monitoring. It was decided that the minor temperature variation against the contributing zone could be captured real-time by DTS (Distributed Temperature Sensors) and Permanent Down-hole Gauges will give the real-time pressure and temperature readings at the point of its installation in the wellbore. These data can be analyzed to quantify the flow contribution and fluids entry points. At this shallow depth the effect of diurnal temperature change was also a main factor. The DTS and Permanent Down-hole Gauges were installed in all 4 wells, 3 of these are 250’ deep and the fourth well is 1000’ in depth. The performance of these tools gave very distinctive results that benefitted in the investigation of the fluid movement in these wells and in the surrounding. This paper and presentation will show the details of this project for the 4 wells and the installation and performance of these tools and how it benefitted the project. The real-time monitoring of these data and the challenges encountered will also shared.

Interference testing, although primitive in terms of its introduction and idea to the petroleum industry, still stands to this day as one of the most cost effective and efficient ways of confirming communication and evaluating reservoir properties between wells. Similarly, a pressure build-up is one of the most accurate ways of estimating dynamic reservoir parameters surrounding the well, providing that the shut-in of the well is allowable. On the other hand, a drawdown test is not usually recommended due to the instability of the flow rate, and hence, the uncertainty in the parameter estimation when analyzing the transient of the pressure drawdown. In this project, due to production constraints a drawdown test was run for the active horizontal well as a substitute to the pressure build-up. It was therefore decided to couple the drawdown test with an interference test so as highlight the subsurface uncertainties. In order to achieve these objectives, careful design and operational coordination between the different asset teams and contractors is crucial to obtain interpretable and useful data. Water production was observed in some of the nearby wells, and therefore communication between the horizontal well and the surrounding wells needed to be verified. The main objective of this project was to evaluate the reservoir parameters and connectivity surrounding the important horizontal well. In this test, the horizontal well was the active well in a five well interference test. The results of the test indicated different pressure behaviors seen from the observation wells corresponding to the pulse created by the horizontal well. Communication was established in some of the wells, whereas, faults were also verified in the surrounding regions. In addition, the drawdown analysis of the horizontal well showed all the flow regimes that relate to a horizontal wells' signature as well as boundary behavior which coincide with the interference test results. The results of the drawdown analysis indicate the possibility and accuracy of conducting a pressure transient analysis using this method without being constrained with production objectives, and hence not shutting the well in.