Development of an Integrated Reservoir Surveillance Process for World's Second Largest Field in Kuwait

Abstract

The Greater Burgan Field in Kuwait is the largest clastic reservoir and the second largest field in the world accounting for most of the oil produced in the country. Discovered in 1938 it has over 1000 wells drilled to date. New wells are being added every year to this field to meet the production strategy of Kuwait Oil Company. It is becoming extremely important to identify and perform focused surveillance work to have a better understanding of the reservoir, drainage mechanism, remaining potential and pressure decline. A huge amount of data accumulates every year leading to questions whether acquiring so much data is really justified. Techniques and processes used to acquire surveillance data to detect anomalies and the routine monitoring needs had to be quantified to assess the value of information. Thus a detailed study was undertaken to review the historic surveillance activities and the interpretation of the acquired data. The value of increased surveillance was highlighted through a dual approach of a quantitative and a qualitative analysis through which incremental benefits were achieved both directly and indirectly such as increased oil production, reduction in produced water, finer tuning of simulation models and sub surface maps. The study concluded that the necessity for up to date surveillance data is justified by its importance for generating value based information for:Well performance and nodal analysis for production optimization and improved recoveryReservoir management and monitoringMappingSimulation studies for reservoir characterization, depletion mechanism and reserves addition This paper describes the approach taken in the study towards the development of an integrated reservoir surveillance plan for monitoring the massive Burgan Field and highlights the challenges and accomplishments in this process. It covers the designing, completing, and operating aspect of this successful plan which can be used in other fields around the world. Introduction The Greater Burgan Field is world's largest sandstone oil field and covers a surface area of about 320 square miles (Figure 1). Discovered in 1938 it comprises of a North South faulted anticline. This field provides the largest supply of crude production from Kuwait to meet the country's production target. The four main reservoir units comprising the field complex are the Wara, Mauddud, Burgan Third Sand (3S) and Burgan Fourth Sand (4S). Other contributing units are Minagish, Marrat & Zubair reservoirs. A highly dynamic development plan is being implemented by Kuwait Oil Company to achieve and sustain the production targets established by the corporate goals. The strategy involves an increase in well activity, production facility and capacity upgrade in the Greater Burgan Field. Numerous wells are planned to be drilled including high producing horizontal wells in the main Burgan sands.