Abstract
In 2000, a multi-disciplinary technical team was formed to assess the potential remaining in a 96% depleted 1.3 billion BO recoverable oilfield complex (the Central Fields) in Bass Strait, Australia.
The first step was an extensive ‘data-mining’ exercise of the ~125 wells with ~500 completions in numerous reservoir units and 35 years of production history. This was followed by a period of geoscience/engineering collaborative analysis. A detailed field-wide reservoir correlation was integrated with production performance history and well-to-well interactions. These efforts resulted in the identification of an inventory of opportunities ranging from low-cost work-over operations to new drill-well candidates. A series of work-over operations performed from 2001 to 2004 yielded initial individual oil production rates of 1 thousand to 7 thousand BOPD and a total incremental reserve capture of over 10 million BO. In 2003, a two-well drilling program added in excess of 3 million BO recoverable with an initial production buildup of over 6 thousand BOPD
While relatively sophisticated techniques such as sequence stratigraphy and well performance modeling were important, these successful programs were primarily the result of rigorous data analysis and integration of geoscience and engineering workflows and were achieved with minimal advanced technology. Ongoing collaboration between geoscience and engineering will leverage off the documented results and incorporate future performance data to yield further insights and additional work-over and drill-well opportunities.
