Oil companies are facing several challenges from external and internal environment like volatility of crude oil price, capex reduction, subsurface uncertainty, delay in the surface facilities etc. that impacts the long-term strategic plans. Kuwait Oil Company (KOC)'s annual Asset Action Plan (AAP) operationalizes the long-term strategy of the company assurance of annual AAP is key for having a credible forecast and meeting long term goals. A robust Corporate Assurance process has been developed that consists of workflows that will guarantee company's ability to develop and execute credible field development plans. A review on proper planning, execution and alignment of different business processes is required during assurance of Asset Action Plan. This assurance process provides confidence to the management in approving the AAP. Opportunity based Asset Action Plan (AAP) process is the backbone of KOC's annual business planning and portfolio management system. This allows alternative portfolio choices and management can make the right decision. The opportunity will provide consistency and clarity of the Portfolio constituents and common rational basis for investment decision making and allow for alignment between the KOC major business processes. AAP process is carried out annually and is initiated through high level business guidelines management. During finalization of AAP, an assurance review by corporate technical team for large national companies having multiple assets is considered as best practices that support management in approving the AAP and to steer the company in right direction. AAP Assurance process involves reviewing the forecast with the historical performance of the reservoir, planned activities, expected outcomes from the activities, feasibility and associated cost. A systematic three stage process has been adopted to conduct AAP Assurance for reservoirs which are at different phases of development. This assurance workflow and methodology helps to align changing oil and gas scenarios, different business process, health of the reservoirs and meeting future production targets. This process ensures that proposed AAP plan will be able to deliver production target commitments and identify any gaps and propose mitigation plans. This also confirms that ongoing development plans are in alignment with facility planning. It also validates conformance of the adopted reservoir development and management workflows with global best practices (analogue reservoirs) to maximize recovery and maintaining health of reservoir.

This study focuses on a multi-well pilot test for a chemical enhanced oil recovery (CEOR) project in Sabriyah Lower Burgan reservoir that is located in the north of Kuwait. The objective of this research is to evaluate the economic applicability of a proposed Alkaline Surfactant Polymer (ASP) formulation based on laboratory core flooding in a multi-well pattern of the candidate reservoir. Simulation and economic modelling was used for this evaluation. Sabriyah Lower Burgan is a large sandstone reservoir with excellent rock properties (Darcy permeabilities). The field is currently developed through primary depletion with an active edge water drive. All forms of EOR were evaluated and CEOR was the only practical technology that passed all screening criteria. Understanding the reservoir behavior is critical and evaluating multiple implementation strategies is important to insure economic success. The objective of the pilot test is to demonstrate that the recommended ASP formulation can economically mobilize remaining oil (ROS) in Sabriyah Lower Burgan reservoir. The process to achieve this objective includes: Expand a small scale pilot into a large multi-well pilot.Evaluate different well pattern configurations using numerical simulation to demonstrate the effectiveness of CEOR in producing additional oil.Apply economics to all case studies to determine applicability and commerciality of the different proposed case studies.List observated key challenges associated with large scaled field implementation. Including economics in a technical CEOR assessment will help understand practical aspects of field CEOR implementation for the Sabriyah Lower Burgan field.

United Nations Framework Classification (UNFC) for Energy and Mineral Resources is a unique instrument for harmonizing industry business processes, efficient capital allocation with policy framework and government oversights. The core competency of UNFC is focusing on objectives of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while managing the natural resources required for the present and future needs of society. The company manages the upstream oil and gas sector, with significant expertise in managing exploration and production of hydrocarbon resources in diverse geological, engineering, and commercial environment. Present day activities span a large spectrum from pure reconnaissance for resources to producing from very mature fields with increased geologic, engineering, and commercial complexities. KOC uses Resource and Reserves Management System (KOC-RMS) for accounting and reporting of reserves and resources, which is based on principles of Petroleum Resources Management System (PRMS). PRMS [AZ1]is a framework for classifying and categorizing estimates of petroleum reserves and resources and it is used by most of the upstream oil and gas companies worldwide. UNFC provides common language for classification and reporting of solid mineral and petroleum resources, with main emphasis on socio-economic viability, technical feasibility, and maturity of a project. There have been continued efforts for bridging the gap between PRMS and UNFC systems, including the mapping of PRMS guideline updated in 2007 being to the UNFC system updated in 2009. This effort produced clearly marked similarities between the two systems and there is an effort currently underway to map the PRMS guidelines updated in in 2018 to the recently updated UNFC. This integration will help in comparing renewable energy resources with non-renewable energy. The objective of the present case study is to assess the applicability of UNFC for Energy and Mineral Resources management system for a mature oil reservoir. The results of this UNFC case study identified producing, justified for development, and contingent projects with limited social or environment impediments to development. The novelty of this study is the first known application of the UNFC approach to a petroleum reservoir of the Middle East and shows applicability to similar oil fields around the world. This approach can assist in the identification of all technical and non-technical aspects, such as social and environmental issues associated with development, and may be used to reflect the hydrocarbon resource maturation and reserves progression framework of a reservoir.

The Sabriyah Lower Burgan (SALB) is a multi-billion-barrel reservoir located in north of Kuwait with favorable fluid and rock properties, with the addition of a strong active aquifer. The presence of the aquifer is favorable for primary development of the field but is a challenge for chemical EOR. The objective of this study is to identify the key challenges to be managed to increase the probability of success for a large-scale field implementation. The SALB has passed multiple stages of the EOR process (technical screening, laboratory formulation design, SWCT, pilot design) and is currently in the implementation phase for chemical EOR pilot. This paper assumes that the pilot is successful and addresses larger scale implementation concerns. It discusses the necessity of a large-scale multi-well pilot to evaluate economic viability and considers the risks of large-scale chemical EOR implementation in Sabriyah Lower Burgan. Three challenges are documented as key risks that can jeopardize a large-scale field implementation: (1) EOR Chemical/water incompatibility with reservoir, (2) economic factors, and (3) geologic features such as the aquifer. The key findings and conclusion of this paper is the use of Monte Carlo simulation on reservoir simulation and economic parameters to evaluate their impact on the success of the project and outline the main risk parameters.

Sabriyah Lower Burgan (SALB) is a multi-billion-barrel reservoir located in north Kuwait with favorable fluid and rock properties, and a strong active aquifer. The presence of the aquifer is advantageous for primary development of the reservoir but presents a challenge for conventional application of chemical EOR (CEOR). SALB has passed multiple stages of a CEOR evaluation process (technical screening, laboratory formulation design, SWCT, pilot design, risk assessment, etc.), and is currently considered for a multi-well CEOR pilot. This study investigates the viability of using sacrificial wells in the management of the lateral aquifer present in the SALB Layered formation, which represents a sought after CEOR target. The objective of these sacrificial wells is to reduce the potential negative impacts of the existing aquifer on commercial CEOR deployment. The adopted approach involved using a history matched field model with EOR parameters calibrated to laboratory results for ASP and CO2 technologies. The multi-well field model was used to evaluate and compare different development scenarios to assess the impact of sacrificial wells. These scenarios were evaluated based on production performance and economics. It was observed that strong aquifer presence complicates both CO2 and ASP project implementation. Challenges due to the aquifer include loss of EOR agents into the water leg, difficulty in accounting for effective pore volume of the project and water encroachment. It is difficult for EOR project economics to compete with an effective aquifer primary development. Sacrificial wells can be used to reduce the strength of the aquifer, potentially improving the effectiveness of the EOR technology. Although the sacrificial wells are unlikely to be economic on their own, they can improve the overall economics of the project. The amount of recovered oil due to EOR deployment is an important parameter to evaluate the economic feasibility of using sacrificial wells. Many reservoirs around the world have strong aquifers, for which conventional reservoir engineering advice has been to avoid EOR application. This paper introduces a novel approach to deal with these strong aquifers by strategically placing wells that can reduce the aquifer's strength, thus making EOR deployment more favorable.