The Reservoir Technical Limits Approach Applied to Maximising Recovery from Volumetric and Aquifer-drive Gas Fields

Alane, Abdelmadjid; Lumsden, P. J.; Smalley, P. C.; Hallam, Richard; Salino, Peter; Wells, Steven J.; Primmer, T. J.

doi:10.2118/175004-ms

SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition 2015

DOI: 10.2118/175004-ms

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The Reservoir Technical Limits Approach Applied to Maximising Recovery from Volumetric and Aquifer-drive Gas Fields

Abdelmadjid Alane¹,

P. J. Lumsden²,

P. C. Smalley³

et al.

Abstract: Maximising recovery of hydrocarbons from oil and gas fields represents responsible asset management and is extremely valuable both to the operator and the host country. Doing this successfully involves a complex combination of technical, commercial, organizational and human factors. This was addressed by developing the Reservoir Technical Limits (RTL™) process; the process and its application to oil fields was described in a 2009 SPE paper (109555). The present paper describes subsequent progress in developing… Show more

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2021

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Cited by 2 publications

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Maximising Enhanced Oil Recovery Opportunities in UKCS Through Collaboration

McCormack

Thomas

Mackie

2014

Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference

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The UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) is one of the most mature offshore basins in the world. Achieving optimal recovery from the basin is demanding, but as the anticipated ultimate recovery factor is 46% (1) of oil initially in place, there is still significant opportunity to optimise recovery from the existing oil fields. PILOT, a partnership between the UK Oil and Gas industry and the UK Government, has been re-focussing its efforts on maximising North Sea recovery. There are currently only two Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) schemes operational within the UK North Sea. The principal barriers to implementing EOR projects are believed to be (1) incomplete subsurface understanding; (2) supply of secure, low cost injectants; (3) the challenge of implementing EOR retrospectively on a brownfield site; (4) concerns over project economics. The PILOT EOR Work Group was set up in 2012 to co-ordinate industry and government attempts to tackle these challenges. A three phase programme was identified to: (1) systematically screen the UKCS fields for EOR potential; (2) engage industry and look for synergies and collaborative opportunities to progress EOR understanding; (3) where possible, initiate new EOR projects with operators. The UKCS EOR screening exercise confirmed that there is still a significant realistically achievable EOR prize of up to 1 billion barrels of oil. The second phase of work focussed on developing collaborative ways of working to tackle the technical and commercial challenges associated with EOR projects, with particular focus on offshore ‘brownfield’ environments. Three EOR techniques were progressed and high graded on the basis of their prize and do-ability in an offshore environment: (a) Low Salinity Waterflood EOR; (b) Chemical EOR; (c) Miscible Gas Injection. Industry workshops were held for each EOR type and prioritised work programmes were implemented via operator "clusters", facilitated by the PILOT EOR Work Group. Examples of deliverables include (i) generation of a low salinity coreflood protocol to ensure that laboratory studies are performed in a consistent manner; (ii) initiation of a Joint Industry Project and an industry call for proposed facilities solutions for implementing low salinity on brownfield platforms; (iii) identification of industry resource to support UKCS operators with planning of chemical EOR opportunities. Successful completion of these collaborative activities will increase the chance of implementing further EOR schemes in the UKCS, unlocking the significant EOR prize.

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Maximising Enhanced Oil Recovery Opportunities in UKCS Through Collaboration

McCormack

Thomas

Mackie

2014

Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference

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Integrated Brownfield Opportunity Identification Using the Efficiency Factor Approach

Julier

Smalley

Molen

et al. 2021

SPE Europec Featured at 82nd EAGE Conference and Exhibition

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The long-term prosperity of oil and gas companies requires a constant influx of new volumes of producible oil and gas that can be developed to replace existing production. Without such activity it is inevitable that production will eventually fall as the resource base is gradually consumed The attractiveness of achieving more barrels from existing discovered fields has always been strong as it has long been recognized that such opportunities can be economically attractive and rapidly brought to fruition. It is also recognized however that such opportunities may be more complex relying both upon excellent subsurface understanding and successful brownfield project execution. It is therefore not surprising that in many cases actual recovery factors (produced volume/initial in-place volume) in oil and gas fields can be significantly less than what should be technically achievable. Identification of economically robust brownfield opportunities remains an industry challenge. In this paper we address this challenge by reporting a new workflow for brownfield opportunity identification leading to recovery factor improvement. Shell's Recovery Factor Improvement (RFI) Workflow was developed to address these issues and builds upon the existing best practice workflows to better explore and define the activities that would be required to achieve top quartile recovery factor performance. The workflow combines elements of various existing published approaches: (1) Shell's TQ-EUR Tool is an internal database that allows current and forecast recovery factor to be compared with that of analogue reservoirs using a reservoir complexity factor and key reservoir performance parameters as comparison criteria across the Shell portfolio. (2) An efficiency factor-based analysis of recovery factor; (3) a structured workshop to elicit new recovery factor improvement activities by addressing each individual efficiency factor in turn; (4) Consistent reporting of results. The combination of these approaches creates a powerful workflow to improve brownfield field opportunity identification and maturation. The RFI Workflow is intended to provide asset teams with a practicable and repeatable process that can be completed without specialist technical support or software to enable the identification of robust new opportunities. Experience with using the new workflow has demonstrated that it is able to bring new understanding to asset teams, consistently identify new opportunities and highlight common portfolio-wide opportunity types that would benefit from further central technology development funding.

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The Reservoir Technical Limits Approach Applied to Maximising Recovery from Volumetric and Aquifer-drive Gas Fields

Cited by 2 publications

References 4 publications

Maximising Enhanced Oil Recovery Opportunities in UKCS Through Collaboration

Maximising Enhanced Oil Recovery Opportunities in UKCS Through Collaboration

Integrated Brownfield Opportunity Identification Using the Efficiency Factor Approach

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