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Stimulating Mature Oil Fields

Increasing profitability using precise 3D models to reveal recompletion opportunities

The Daqing Production Factory Number 4, located in northeast China, is a thirty-five year old, mature oil field in which oil production has been declining an average of 15% each year. As such, recovering by-passed oil and increasing production have been the major goals of this factory since the early 1990s.

Perspective view of the 3D model; the two wells piercing the top zone of high oil-saturation (in red) were changed to producers.

Recovering By-Passed Oil Requires Accurate Models

To achieve these goals, the business unit adopted EarthVision in early 1997. At that time, one of the unit's geologists spent four weeks building two geologic structure models containing faulted sand-bodies and properties from well data, dynamic production data, and hand-drawn maps. One of the sand-body models showed that an area of high oil-saturation (red zones in the figure above) was trapped by a fault, but the two wells drilled in this high saturation area were water injection wells. Based on the EarthVision models, the geologist decided to change these two wells into producers, and provided the 3D location of this interesting zone to the reservoir engineer for further reservoir development.

The other structural model showed similar revelations: the strikes of the faults differed from the strikes displayed on the previously hand-drawn maps. This discovery explained why some producers were not affected by the existing injection wells. As a result of this discovery, the geologist added new perforation and fracture zones for two existing wells in this area.

Hand-drawn map.

Map from 3D model.

Average Increase of 200 Barrels Per Day Per Well
for a $1.25 Million Profit

The precision of the EarthVision 3D geologic models has made the fracturing and perforating operations very successful. By making the four well changes mentioned above, the business unit increased oil production by 144 thousand barrels within six months. The average production rate for each well increased by 200 barrels per day. The business unit gained over 1.25 million dollars in profit without drilling any new wells.

Increased Oil Production and Profits by Decreased Water Saturation

Reserve Increase of 2.1 Million Barrels Due Solely to Accurate Modeling

In the last half of 1997, one geologist in this oil field built an EarthVision geologic model using 24 new wells that had been drilled in the first half of 1997. Based on EarthVision calculations from this model, the reserve was 2.1 million barrels more than previously thought; previous calculations had been performed with an in-house 2D mapping package. In 1998, the Daqing Production Factory Number 4 drilled 53 new wells, all planned using EarthVision's 3D visualization tools.  These wells have been very successful and the EarthVision reserve calculation has proven to be accurate.

EarthVision unlocks the profit potential of 3D models--effective tools for maximizing drilling dollars.

 
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Last updated: March 22, 2007