Effective Reservoir Management with Three Case Studies

Abstract

Because operators generally have taken a conservative approach to reservoir management, tremendous opportunities exist for increasing production and profitability in domestic reservoirs. Recognizing the potential recovery possible because of sub-optimal reservoir management, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) developed a Reservoir Management Demonstration Program to increase reservoir management understanding through demonstration and technology transfer. Three cost-shared projects were launched under cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs). The first completed project, in East Randolph field, Portage County, OH, was in a small, newly discovered oil reservoir producing from Cambrian marginal marine sandstones of the Rose Run formation. The second completed project addressed a large, mature waterflood in Citronelle field, Mobile County, AL. Substantial progress was made on the third, in Bainville North field, Roosevelt County, MT. Reservoir management strategies were, indeed, developed to increase recovery and profitability. At East Randolph field, gas reinjection was recommended as a secondary recovery technique over waterflood. For Citronelle field, a flow-unit approach to optimizing waterfloods using existing data was developed for the short-term strategy, and recommendations for additional data collection and analysis were developed for the long-term. In the Bainville North field, a reservoir model for simulation aided evaluation of new potential in one of several producing zones. Each project shows the importance of developing reservoir management plans in the context of knowledge of the reservoir system, business environment, and technologies (such as affordable new PC-based programs capable of handling tasks previously requiring a mainframe). Experience also has led to valuable insights on reservoir management methodology, by identifying the general steps and considerations necessary to formulate reservoir management plans for any reservoir. P. 143