Mature Field Re-exploration and Rejuvenation
Production Reactivation in Mature Fields
Deployment of advanced reserve growth strategies in mature fields is adding substantial volumes of oil to the US reserve base. This reserve growth phenomenon is largely the product of field re-exploration with the concommitant deployment of advanced reservoir imaging and recovery strategies. Synthesis of geological, engineering and geophysical data into an integrated, and quantified, reservoir model forms the basis for the development of multi-faceted, production-optimization portfolios that guide the extended development of the candidate fields. Successful field rejuvenation projects based on ARC Group's redevelopment portfolios have seen production-decline reversals of five- to ten-fold daily production and recovery of upfront costs expended on reservoir characterization studies in a matter of days of incremental production. A typical ARC Group portfolio of production optimization opportunities in a single reservoir in a mature South American field illustrates ARC Group's approach to production reactivation in marginal fields. Supported by a rigorous seven month field characterization, the production optimization portfolio for this one reservoir encompasses four principal strategies: drilling field extension or step-out wells; locating new wells in attic areas of the reservoir that are structurally higher than existing production and hence are poorly drained; targeting stratigraphically and structurally defined compartments that have not been tapped; and, tapping compartments that are poorly drained. Similar optimization portfolios are developed for all the major reservoirs in the field. Tapping uncontacted, bypassed, and poorly drained compartments can be accomplished through recompletion of selected existing wells and the drilling of resource-targeted (as opposed to blanket infill) infill wells. Both vertical and horizontal wells were applied depending on the style of heterogeneity that characterized the resource target.
The field redevelopment program that ensued resulted in immediate production response. A sustained six-year decline in daily production was arrested and production decline was dramatically transformed into a five-fold increase in daily production. Production has been sustained at the 16,000 barrel per day rate resulting in the recovery of an incremental 16 million barrels of oil in the three years since completion of the characterization.
Production decline reversal following integrated characterization of a stratigraphic and structurally heterogeneous South American field (from Tyler and Hamilton, 1999).
ARC Group's experience in the revitalization of mature fields has centered on Texas, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, and Trinidad. Thorough, science-based reservoir characterization is the basis for our successes in attaining increased production from mature fields for our clients.
