Abstract
The need to develop new tools that allow reservoir engineers to optimize reservoir performance is becoming more demanding by the day. One of the most challenging and influential problems facing reservoir engineers is well placement optimization.
The North Kuwait field (NKF) consists of six fields containing four naturally fractured carbonate formations. The reservoirs are composed of relatively tight limestone and dolomite embedded with anhydrate and shale. The fields are divided into isolated compartments based on fault zones and supported by a combination of different fluid compositions, initial pressures, and estimated free-water levels. Due to natural complexity, tightness, and high drilling costs of wells in the NKF, it is very important to identify the sweet spots and the optimum well locations.
This paper presents two intelligent methods that use dynamic numerical simulation model results and static reservoir properties to identify zones with a high-production potential: reservoir opportunity index (ROI) and simulation opportunity index (SOI). The Petrel* E&P software platform was chosen as the integrated platform to implement the workflow. The fit-for-purpose time dependent 2D maps generated by the Petrel platform facilitated the decision-making process used for locating new wells in the dominant flow system and provided immense support for field-development plans.
The difference between the two methods is insignificant because of reservoir tightness, limited interference, and natural uncertainty on compartmentalization. At this stage, pressure is not a key parameter. As a result, unlike brown fields, less weight was given to simulated pressure, and SOI was used to select the well locations.
The results of this study show that implementing these workflows and obtaining the resulting maps significantly improve the selection process to identify the most productive areas and layers in a field. Also, the optimum numbers of wells using this method obtained in less time and with fewer resources are compared with results using traditional industry approaches.
