Utilizing Ultra-deep Resistivity Mapping in a Mature Oil Field of Kuwait: Eliminating Pilot Well and Achieving Effective Arrival in Sweet Formation, Case Study

AlHajri, Naser; Al Khaldy, Ali Dawood; Hassan, Jassim; Dashti, Reham; Ahmed Hassan, Abdulaziz; Rane, Nitin; Al-Duraia, Ebraheem; Bojarahs, Khalid; Mudavakkat, Anandan; Ali Al-Hindi, Khalid; Al-Attar, Tarek Fathy; Farhi, Nadir; Kharitonov, Alexander; Samie, Mohamed; Clarion, Benjamin; Abdulkarim, Anar

doi:10.21608/jpme.2024.313692.1213

Utilizing Ultra-deep Resistivity Mapping in a Mature Oil Field of Kuwait: Eliminating Pilot Well and Achieving Effective Arrival in Sweet Formation, Case Study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Head of the Department Department of Petroleum Engineering PAAET Kuwait

² Team Leader, Drilling Department Kuwait Oil Company

³ Sr. Drilling Engineer Drilling Department Kuwait Oil Company

⁴ Sr Drilling Engineer Kuwait Oil Company Kuwait

⁵ Senior Geologist Kuwait Oil Company Kuwait

⁶ Geologist Kuwait Oil Company Kuwait

⁷ Senior Petrophysicist Kuwait Oil Company Kuwait

⁸ Senior Geophysicist Kuwait Oil Company Kuwait

⁹ Team Leader Technical Support Kuwait Oil Company Kuwait

¹⁰ Drilling & Workover Technical Services Kuwait Oil Company Kuwait

¹¹ Drilling Engineer Solution Manager Halliburton Kuwait

¹² Well Placement Lead Halliburton Kuwait

¹³ Country Manager Halliburton Kuwait

¹⁴ Technical Advisor Halliburton Kuwait

¹⁵ Petrophysicist Halliburton Kuwait

10.21608/jpme.2024.313692.1213

Abstract

The biggest sand-stone oil-field in the world is the Great Burgan reservoir, which has been in development and production since the 1930s with a surface area approximately 1000 km2. It consists of three oil fields (Burgan, Magwa, and Ahmadi). These reservoirs were discovered in Feb. 1938. Traditionally, it developed using directional oil wells. Instead of using deviated wells historically, a recent project has been started to use horizontal wells to extract of the upper Burgan - 3 (UB-3) formation unit. Typically, a pilot well is necessary to recognize producing layers and the depth of the oil water contact (OWC), that needs to be prevented in the horizontal portion. Eliminating the pilot well would help reduce the cost and the time of development. The azimuthal ultra-deep resistivity mapping technique (UDR) has demonstrated its ability to reduce the necessary for pilot wells by mapping reservoir boundaries and OWC in real-time, earlier than conventional methods. This allows for real time geosteering to locate the well in one drilling run in the productive zone. It also aids in reducing non-productive time by simplifying the process of stopping drilling and set the casing directly above a target zone, and in optimizing potential well planning in field development. An economic study conducted on offset wells indicated encouraging possibility from the application of this method in the Upper Burgan 3 (UB-3). The application of this technique reduced the delivery time to 10.39 days, which in turn saves costs of about 894000 USD$,...

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