An Innovative Process to Unlock Heavy Oil Resources in a Highly Fractured Carbonate Field

Abstract

Mukhaizna field is one of the old fields in Southern Central of Oman. It was discovered in 1975, where Gharif was the primary target. Since then, the oil production was solely coming from Gharif reservoirs. Due to regular evidence of potential presence of hydrocarbon in Kahmah and Khuf groups from conventional wireline logs and old mud logs. Therefore, by early 2010, petrophysics was used heavily to validate the status of Kahmah group in terms of reservoir properties, mobility, pay thickness, and productivity across block-53 in Mukhaizna. The outcome of this analysis, Kahmah group found to hold more than 500 million barrels of heavy oil in place. Later, the appraisal was executed in phases and productivity was validated by placement of horizontal wells within this group at different locations. This paper will demonstrate the discovery process, appraisal results and focus on a very innovative thermal enhanced oil recovery technique introduced by Occidental Mukhaizna. This technique is expected to unlock similar resources of heavy oil in highly fractured carbonate in Oman and the region with estimated oil in place to be greater than 130 billion barrels.