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This year marks the sixth year anniversary of the birth of the Maximum Reservoir Contact (MRC) wells in Saudi Aramco. The outstanding performance of 99 MRC wells drilled to date in different fields reflects the impact of MRC wells on improving well performance, enhancing recovery and reducing unit development costs. In view of this performance, the use of this technology will continue to be on the rise. This paper will highlight the drivers, selection criteria, and lessons-learned from the MRC wells. It will further highlight cases of how MRC wells became the cornerstone in optimizing the development of tight reservoirs and in re-engineering mature ones. In addition, the paper will highlight the impact of MRC wells on rate sustainability and on increasing off-take levels by up to five times when compared to vertical and single lateral well completions. MRC wells not only targeted new development wells, but also extended to workover programs where low performer and dead wells were converted to MRCs. Results were phenomenal in terms of improving well productivity and delaying water and gas breakthroughs-thereby improving sweep. Introduction An MRC well is defined as a well having an aggregate reservoir contact in excess of 5 km, through a single or multi-lateral configuration. The MRC well concept was developed to further improve well productivity and thereby lower drawdown pressures resulting in higher well potential and lower development costs. MRC wells have been mainly deployed, in Saudi Aramco, in reservoirs with low to medium rock permeability, and relatively thin oil columns. The first deployment of MRC technology took place in 2002. MRC wells have primarily been implemented in three fields: Shaybah, Haradh and Abqaiq fields. By year-end 2007, 99 MRC wells were completed in Saudi Aramco. Several publications were issued on this topic highlighting the succession of MRC wells in Saudi Aramco 1–7. Figure 1 illustrates the growth of MRC wells since 2002. The use of this technology will continue to be on the rise reaching several hundred MRC wells in the next four years. 31320337599200220032004200520062007Cumulative MRC Wells Year Results from the three fields have proven that MRC wells have significantly improved reservoir and well performance, minimized or eliminated water and gas production, and reduced development cost. The first MRC well drilled in Shaybah field was a tri-lateral well with a reservoir contact of 8.5 km. Initially, the MRC wells in Shaybah field were completed through open-hole completion. The MRC concept was not limited to new wells, it has also revolutionized the workover practices to maximize the value of existing wells (i.e., weak or dead conventional or single lateral wells). The effectiveness of MRC wells depends on the proper planning, design and placement of the laterals. This paper will capture the drivers, selection criteria and lessons-learned over the past six years of MRC implementation.

With the proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) technology and IR4.0, digital information is becoming more integrated into our daily operations. Such a modality of operation allows all disciplines in an organization to collaboratively manage and operate their assets to achieve the maximum value of their assets. In this paper we describe one of the initiatives under the company's digital transformation strategy. It is a simple yet innovative application of Advanced Process Control (APC) that facilitates continuous optimization of the performance of Electric Submersible Pumps (ESP), to not only comply with the assigned production targets, but also to automatically meet the operational constraints. The successful implementation of this technology on multiple oil wells in an onshore oilfield has demonstrated significant power saving, and is expected to minimize premature failures and extend pump life.

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Guest editorial In recent years, many companies in the oil and gas industry have been making steady progress employing digital oilfield (DOF) solutions to improve operations through better data capture, visualization, analysis, and automation. As more implementations provide value to particular fields or assets, a question remains of how they can be leveraged as a whole to provide aggregate value at the business portfolio or corporate strategy levels. The large volume and detail of information that DOFs generate, not only in terms of data, but also decision outcomes, interpretations, and knowledge, both tacit and implicit, contribute significantly to a company’s intellectual capital. Looking at the business case, asset-level business drivers are normally defined by considering short-term benefits in light of immediate challenges. Because of the varied production environments and diverse approaches associated with DOF implementations, determining return on investment and value for an organization’s overall production business is difficult at best; it is analogous to an “apples vs. oranges” comparison of assets. For companies actively pursuing multiple DOF programs, managing commercial uncertainties is, therefore, a key challenge for allocating resources, defining a coherent vision, and ultimately determining the appropriate level of commitment, financial or otherwise. Applying this perspective, there is a clear opportunity, and corresponding challenge, to scale the DOF value proposition by smoothly integrating independent digital assets into a cohesive system by delivering a smarter, more comprehensive view of a company’s business portfolio. Toward this end, several key concepts and issues should be considered carefully in order to understand the implications of each implementation as the first step toward corporate value realization. Strategic Business Intelligence DOF solutions leverage real-time asset awareness, in combination with intelligent analytical tools and collaborative business processes, to continuously optimize production. Data is gathered and manipulated to create information, which in turn develops into knowledge for decision support. Knowledge is the critical piece and having the ability to exploit it to the benefit of the organization should be fundamental. This is the essence of business intelligence and is at the core of the DOF value proposition.