Reconciliation of Production Data and Geology for Robust Development Plan

Abstract

This paper discusses the re-construction of the long-term development plan for an offshore giantfield located in Abu Dhabi with the aim to mitigate the rising challenges in the maturing field. The primary objective is to understand the reservoir behavior in terms of fluid movement incorporating the learning from the vast history while correlating with the geological features. The field has been divided into segments based on multiple factors considering the static properties such as facies distribution, diagenesis, faults, and fractures while incorporating the dynamic behaviors including pressure trends and fluid movements. On further analysis, various trends have been identified relating these static and dynamic behaviors. The production mechanism for each of the reservoirs and the subsequent sub reservoirs were analyzed with the help of Chan plots, Hall plots and Lorentz plots which distinctly revealed trends that further helped to classify the wells into different production categories. Using the above methodology the field has been categorized in segments and color coded to indicate areas of different ranking. The green zone indicates area of best interest which currently has strong pressure support and wells can be planned immediately. The wells in this area are expected to produce with a low risk of water and gas. The yellow zone indicates areas of caution where special wells including smart wells maybe required to sustain production. This area showed relatively lower pressure support owing the location of the water injectors and the degraded facies quality between the injectors and the producers. The red zone highlights areas which are relatively mature compared to the neighboring zones and will require new development philosophy to improve the recovery. The findings from this study were used as the basis for a reservoir simulation study using a history matched model, to plan future activities and improve the field recovery. This study involved an in-depth analysis incorporating the latest findings with respect to the static and dynamic properties of the reservoir. This has helped to classify the reservoir based on the development needs and will play a critical role in designing the future strategies in less time.