Abstract
Gas Fields Development asset in Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) has recently achieved the distinction of generating an Asset Action Plan (AAP) utilizing a new forecasting tool. In the past, the AAP was generated by a tool developed with visual basic functions in Excel, relied on the vendor for permanent code maintenance, and lacked full control of KOC staff. The management steer was to ensure activity continuity in KOC by regenerating AAP with an industry-standard commercial tool.
An immediate need for utilizing an industry-standard AAP forecasting tool was initiated. The functional specifications required by the asset were shared with several vendors. After rigorous review, AAP new tool was selected as it satisfied most modeling requirements such as the ability to handle a high number of wells over many fields and reservoirs, flexibility to run multiple development scenarios, and reduced run time that will enable sensitivity runs to be completed within limited preparation schedule. A comparison of the previous tool's outputs with the new tool of one of the previous year's results showed similar results with much less effort.
AAP tool takes subsurface dynamic simulation model results, drilling, and facilities schedules as input through the Data Management Tool (DMT) and the Decline Curves Extractors (DCEs). The DMT sheet is the main interface for all the dynamic model data while the DCEs are the well-specific decline curves initially grouped to form equivalent tank decline curves based on reservoir pressure performance.
After the completion of one of the legacy AAP P50 scenario using new tool, AAP new tool and the previous tool's forecast profiles were compared. The resulting profiles and cumulative production are similar. The asset strategic gas plateau rate from AAP new tool vs the previous tool was very similar.
The differences are within the calculations tolerance showing the new and previous tools resulted in a similar forecast. The cumulative volumes are up to the economic threshold of 50 MMscf/d. Major advantage of the new tool is fast run performance which requires ~ 1/3 of the time required for the previous tool.
After completing the testing phase with the new tool, further improvements were agreed with the vendor. New functionalities will make AAP a standalone, automated tool that is capable of linking to official AAP platform of KOC, Corporate Portfolio Management System (CPMS). Post processing of the AAP profiles including generation of opportunity profiles and calibration to short term production forecast (STPF) are additional improvements. This results in generation of an optimized drilling sequence.
