Increasing Production by Diagnosing Well Productivity: A Case Study for Other Mature Fields

Abstract

The workflow for mature-field redevelopment requires a multidisciplinary team to analyze, select, and rank well candidates for intervention and production optimization. An objective evaluation of the well's productivity and reserves is essential for identifying possible alternatives to increase production. For this study, an analysis was conducted on 152 wells from the Carito field. As the second-largest oilfield producer in the Maturin sub-basin of eastern Venezuela, the Carito field encompasses approximately 150 km2 and comprises the El Carito and Carito south reservoirs. The Carito reservoir presents a high degree of heterogeneity resulting from complex, compressional faulting and varying sediments and includes hydrocarbons containing gas, condensate, volatile, black oils, and tar mat (oil mixed with wet sand). The Carito south reservoir behaves like a black-oil reservoir. The workflow presented in this study identified 20 candidate wells ranked by their potential to increase production. An intervention plan was then defined and ranked according to technical and economic criteria. This paper presents the successful application of this methodology in the Carito field to improve well productivity by approximately 7,000 bpd, proving that the method can be easily adapted to other areas.