Pilon Field After 70 Years - Challenge, Strategy and Economic Viability To Continue Developing A Mature Heavy Oil Field Through Available Technologies, Geoscientist and Engineering Practices

Abstract

Over the last 15 years, operators in the oil industry have used new technologies and field strategies, which have brought opportunities for maximizing the Net Present Value. For example, through drilling drainholes or revisiting existing wells, using MWD-LWD techniques for having a better control hitting the target, and Concentric Coiled Tubing practices for cleaning wells up, additional production is gained. This practice has been demonstrated by Lagoven, S. A. in Pilon Field, when it was subsidiary of PDVSA, drilling 69 reentries, horizontal lateral bore of 1200 feet, from 1993 to 1998, with an exceptional performance of the drilled formations for the medium radius application. How revitalize Pilón Field through drilling new drainholes and also cleaning up potential wells, which essentially are plugged by sand, was the focus of this project. The actual contribution of the field is just over 14,000 BPD and after making part of the reservoir management processes others 19,000 BPD have been projected in the short term through 44 new wells intervention. That process implicated to understand their geological setting checking the geocellular model, recovery mechanism, past reservoir performance and recent fluid flow patterns, wellbore diagram and integrity, allowing to make a prediction of production for the further 10 years. In addition, economic considerations were carried out considering not only well intervention but also surface facilities in order to deal with the high volume of unwanted fluids. Eventually, sensitivity analyses were done demonstrating that the worse scenario is having oil price lower than $17/bbl. On the other hand, the critical point would be availability of rigs and CCT unit in the market.