Integrated study of an under-performing field

Overview

A South American company asked us to conduct a subsurface and surface study of their East African field that was performing below their pre-production expectations.

Challenge

The operator discovered and developed the field without appraising it. The operator has a large equity and the JV partners did not contribute knowledge or challenge to the partnership. Local field staff effectively run the field, and the focus had been on short-term cashflow, rather than economically sound decision-making. Data collection was sparse and RISC were not provided with any technical analyses or reports.

RISC was asked to identify problem areas, new opportunities, and then suggest short-term initiatives and a longer-term plan.

Approach

Over a three month period, RISC’s technical team:

• Re-interpreted the seismic data and identified a new structural interpretation based on a reactivated, underlying fault system. This led to reservoir compartments, but with fault offsets below seismic resolution
• Identified the multiple compartments and oil-water contacts from production data, wireline logs, MDT data and well tests
• Generated probabilistic volumetric estimates for each of the Cretaceous reservoirs
• Reviewed the performance of drilling 14 wells, operations and HSE
• Reviewed each well’s status and suggested incremental perforation and shut-off opportunities
• Created an updated development plan and reservoir management plan
• Recommended workover activities and a data acquisition programme
• Reviewed the Operator’s prospects and identified two other exploration prospects

Outcomes

RISC provided our client with solutions and a plan to improve production performance.

• RISC built a work programme for 2016/17 including reperforations and pump upgrades
• Specified wells for water injection trials to determine injectivity and connectivity within reservoir compartments
• Alerted the Operator to shortcomings in operating procedures and HSE reporting

RISC was then requested to provide a thorough review of Operations and HSE with new data.