Turning Threat into Opportunity: NORM Management Helps to Recoup the Deferred Production from North Kuwait

Abstract

North Kuwait has a vision to produce about 1 million BOPD within next couple of year. As a part of this strategy, all efforts & opportunities are being synchronized to maximize the production. A serious threat to this plan was confronted by observation of Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) at some of the producers, a new challenge for which the asset did not anticipate or had any plan earlier. The paper proposal covers how this threat was converted into an opportunity. A comprehensive review of the wells with NORM was done to understand the link to specific reservoir related issues or zone's mineralogy. As this kind of production problem has been faced for the first time in North Kuwait, brainstorming and technical pros & cons were investigated with internal as well as external consultants. A due diligence was conducted to existing rules & procedures within KOC and Kuwait. Case histories from different parts of the world were reviewed as to how such issues had been resolved. Measurement of NORM, accuracy & validity was also looked into, which varied from vendor to vendor. Thus the gathered knowledge was shared with all stake holder teams. As almost 30-40 MBOPD was the locked in potential, fast track actions have been taken to create a contract to manage wells suffering from NORM. After going through a fast track identification of suitable vendor, contract was awarded to one of the international vendor. Accordingly, workover rigs were made ready to handle NORM remediation operations professionally. Simultaneously, technical evaluation of the performance of wells infected with NORM was done to understand the phenomenon and the relationship with the changes in reservoir pressure / stimulation. A workover schedule was prepared and implemented to revive the shut-in production potential to the GCs, resulting in a bump in oil production for North Kuwait. As a result of the strategy adopted, deferment of oil production due to NORM, which hovered to more than 1.5 years in the past, is prevented, thus helping production target requirements for the Asset. Performance evaluation of wells indicated that there is a strong relationship of reservoir pressure and stimulation with the NORM level. NORM management requires an integrated team approach, ranging from working units to the organization level and a proactive analytical approach to understand the impact of ongoing sub-surface operations on NORM tendencies. The proper understanding and analysis done in overcoming the NORM has aided in enhancing and sustaining the production via having extended productive life for the wells.