SPE 107918 Design and Surveillance of Development Projects Through Specific Software Tools: Importance of Data Management in Mature

and Complex Fields in the Golfo San Jorge Basin, Argentina

Ricardo Mazzola, Isabel Cano Frers, and Dario R. Baldassa, Pan American Energy LLC; Jorge Valle and Alejandro Lacivita, Interfaces SA; and Carlos A. Ponce, Alfredo F. Viola, and Miguel A. Laffitte, Pan American Energy LLC

Copyright 2007, Society of Petroleum Engineers This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Latin American & Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1518 April 2007. This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE Program Committee following review of information contained in a proposal submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper, as presented, have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Papers presented at SPE meetings are subject to publication review by Editorial Committees of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper for commercial purposes without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to a proposal of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The proposal must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper was presented. Write Librarian, SPE, P.O. Box 833836, Richardson, TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435.

The selected software tools additionally let us integrate the projects into the Long Term Plan, and Budget, taking advantage of the virtuous Circle of Plan-Do-Control-Learn. A project simulation is solved in a period substantially shorter than the one it demands a conventional simulator, which is of great advantage at the time of analyzing different scenarios in an area where the structural complexity and the meager petrophysical information are important barriers at the time of making a study. The control and daily pursuit of the Projects through these systems have favored substantially the fast decision making, the correct lease of resources and a better operative answer. To complete the description of our Optimization options other tools and practices are described. Introduction Cerro Dragon fields are located at the Northern flank of the San Jorge Gulf Basin, in the province of Chubut and Santa Cruz, Argentina.

Proposal Cerro Dragon is a mature Area located in the Argentine Republic, 90 km to the West of Comodoro Rivadavia and 1,900 km to the South of Buenos Aires, with a surface of 3,480 km and with 3,738 perforated wells. Since its discovery in1958, and after a long history of production, a change of strategy on 1999 resulted in an important increase in Production and Reserves Decision making at every level, such as people health, environment care, and strategic, organizational, structural, operative and technological planning, was key for the rebirth of this field. The work is centered in how we handle the information, the entailment of the data bases and the use of systems we have built to contribute to maintain the production growth of the Cerro Dragn Asset. Based on the field complexity we recognized that it was necessary to implement new tools that would allow us to make production and investments prognoses, integrating information from different sources, as well as to detect improvement opportunities. The selected software tools allowed us to perform simulations and dynamically survey the projects. The information used came from geological, geophysical, physical production, interventions, measurements, and automation databases, among others. Some of them were developed during the 2 initial years (1999 2000).

R o

e r Se n g u

Lago Colhu Huapi Mus ters Lago

Manantiales Behr Sarmiento

40

Hermoso

El Tordillo

26
A NT.FUNES
M.Magallanes Oriental Zorro Caadon Grande

Comodoro Rivadavia

GOLFO SA N JOR GE 3

ANT.GRANDE
L.Perales L.Mesetas Escorial

C.DRAGN

M.Espinosa C.Len

Caleta Olivia

Las Heras

PIEDRA CLA VA DA

El Huemul

C.Minerales El Cordn

Lago Buenos Aires

Perito More no

R o D e s e a

PIEDRA d o CLAVADA PIEDRA CLAVADA EL KA IKE KOLUEL KAIKE K OLU KOLUEL KAIKE EL VALL E
C.Vasco

P.Truncado

43
Pico Truncad o

OIL FIELDS 0 100 km

Figure 1 Cerro Dragon Areas Location Plat

ATLANTIC OCEAN

CERRO CERRO DRAGON DRAGON

Escalante C.Perdido Las Flores Cerro Drag n Ant.Grande Valle

ic

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The Cerro Dragn Contract Area, consists of approximately 50 fields. The area has been operated by Amoco since 1959. In 1997, Pan American Energy, become the operator following the formation of a joint venture between Amoco (now BP Amoco) and Bridas. Cerro Dragon has been under development as an oil producing area since 1959 through a combination of infill and extension drilling for additional primary oil production and Waterflooding Projects in some selected fields. Approximately 60% of the area is now under water flood. Cumulative oil recovery to date from both primary and secondary development exceeds 760 million barrels. There are currently 2410 Oil producing wells and 405 water injection wells in the area.
Cuenca San Jorge Area Cerro Dragn
Historia de Produccin y Actividad
1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005
2200

WP
2000

1800

1400

TOTAL DE POZOS EN PRODUCCION

1000

C AN T ID AD D E P O ZO S P R O D U C T O R E S

TOTAL POZOS INYECTORES

NUMERO DE EQUIPOS DE PERFORACION

WI

Figure 3. A schematic cross-section show the Field complexity

600

200
10 5

Some keys of the Cerro Dragon rebirth A Development Master Plan

100000

400

87500

OIL

P R O D U C C IO N (B O P D )

75000

300

3D Record and Processing

V E N T AS D E G AS (M M ft 3 /d )

62500

PRODUCCION TOTAL DE PETROLEO

Gas
200

An electrification plan Facilities expansion DATA MANAGEMENT INTEGRATION AND SOFT

50000

37500

VENTAS DE GAS
IW
100

25000

12500

RECUPERACION SECUNDARIA

1960

1965

1970

1975

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

30 JUL 2006

General Geologic Setting & Reservoir Description The Cerro Dragon asset comprises 800,000 acres in a roughly rectangular block located on the north flank of the Golfo San Jorge Basin, a Mesozoic extensional basin filled with Jurassic lacustrian and Cretaceous fluvial deposit with Tertiary compression and wrenching superimposed on earlier extensional features. The main reservoir consists of sandstones of the Comodoro Rivadavia Formation and altered tuffaceous sandstones and siltstones in the Mina Del Carmen Formation. Hidrocarbons Traps consist of tilted horst blocks, faulted anticlines and structurally enhanced stratigraphic pinch outs. Wells are produced commingled from stacked individual reservoirs 1 to 8 meters thick, each one with different initial reservoir pressure and fluid properties and contacts.

In 1999 more than 90 % of the fields and wells information was available only in hard copies, the challenge was integrate it into Databases. First step: Digitalization of old logs Develop and copy Wells File INFOPROD and BDIEP data entry (3500 wells) Detailed geological studies in the waterflooding blocks Second step: A virtuous circle Planning , Doing, Control, Learn was a very useful tool, associated with more friendly and empowered softwares. Sotware tools objectives goals: 1. Adjust the Production Forecast 2. Improve CAPEX and OPEX 3. Identify and Qualify the information required to share in the new Databases.

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Cuenca del Golfo de San Jorge (C.G.S.J)

TOTAL FIELD HISTORY MATCH
P C D-80/P C D-81/P C D-149/P C D-153/...

10000

Plannig

Doing
1000

Learning

Control

100

New Tools
Figure 4. A virtuous circle

10 1965 1970 qlP [m /d]

1975 1980 1985 qo P [m /d]

1990 1995 qlAlP [m /d]

2000 2005 2010 qo AlP [m /d]

2015

2020

2025

Figure 6. History Match and forecast

Sahara project expansion Design & surveillance

The core of the new way for our work was SAHARA a friendly software to history matching the production wells and forecasting. Along the years this software was empowered with new options of connectivity with our data bases and new options of calculations and simulation became available. Waterflooding Projects, Workovers and Drillings Plan were simulated block by block in each field of Cerro Dragon.

Injection rate Liquid rate

Injection rate forecast

Liquid rate forecast

Oil rate Oil rate forecast

WF MANGEMENT TOOLS
Oil production wells
i-Choke
INFOPROD (PAE Production DB) BDIEP (Drlg, WO & Completion DB)

Injectors wells

Figure 7. Some case of design

DYNA PACK (Artificial Lift DB)
SAHARA Reservoir Simulation Reservoir Management

LANDMARK (geological & geophysical)

CDIII: Expansion Horizontal

Arena J4E

New Projects Simulation

Forecasts & Reserves Estimation

P C D-80

P C D-196 P C D-149 P C D-273

P C D-847

P C D-0T P C D-164 P C D-159 P C D-173 P C D-153

Current Project Management

P CD-81 P C D-845 P CD-0L P C D-240 P C D-848 P C D-179 P C D-852 P C D-187 P C D-259 P C D-0R P C D-195 P C D-0M P C D-180 P C D-0F P C D-160 P C D-0O P C D-257 P C D-851

Figure 5. Inputs and outputs from SAHARA

The source of the Geological models was Landmark Software, the production and operation information source was INFOPROD , the completion and work over information including test was BDIEP SLPOS, the beam pumping information source was Dynapack . For each one of these sources data loading processes were added to SAHARA. The simulation time in Sahara was reduced dramatically compared with conventional simulators, less information or simplification of it to simulate is very important when you have around a hundred layers in each well, with different fluid properties, only a SFT pressure by layer and completion or workover test for each one by swabbing.

The layer wf was improved with new injectors and infill well perforation

P CD-0D

P C D-190 P C D-0H

P C D-186 P C D-184 P CD-0J

P C D-832

P C D-191 P C D-274

D-183 C D-220 P CD-0PP CP P CD-0K

P C D-0I

P C D-258 P C D-192 P C D-0A P CD-0B

P C D-804 P C D-850

P C G-113

P CG-819 P CG-26 P C G-157 P C G-153 P C G-86 P C G-109 P C G-251

0.00

1.00

2.00

3.00

4.00

5.00

6.00

7.00

8.00

Figure 8. How you see each layer and the injection pattern

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The exploitation status, dynamic and statics parameters of the wells, dinamometer studies, artificial lift system conditions, monitoring, Pulling Frequence, Production Meeting comments, references, bottomhole installation, operating conditions, changes, formation water injection by injector well and by layer can be monitored very quickly. Early detection can be achieved for taking right decisions.
Workover- Puling Perforations PCD-172 Jobs Artificial Lift System changes Decisions taken Waterfooding response
10

Sahara surveillance - Well analysis Well sketch

1000

2400 Liquid Production & Produciton tests 2000

100

Artificial List system 1600 Change to ESP

1200

Oil Produciton & Production Tests

800 1

Lifting Optimization
0.1 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04

Sumergency 400
0 05 06 07

Figure 11. How look a view of a typical well sketch

Figure 9. Well producing Chart

Sahara surveillance 3-D visualization

Wells
Sand J4

For Injector Wells: In these charts it is possible to detect water distribution problems and injectivity reductions.
1000 PC-49 Workover Jobs

Sand M1 Sand M7 Sand O6

Total Water injected

100

Layer 110 Layer 115

Sand S4

Layer 150

Layer 113 Figure 12. Layers view in a 3D Screen

10

Water Injection Distribution per Mandrel and Layer

The output of the SAHARA integrated data and simulation are : 1. Drilling Plans 2. Workover Plans 3. Conversion to injector Plans 4. Production and Injection forecast 5. Several Scenarios
2005 2006 2007 qw iC PC-49 113[m/DC]

2000 2001 qw iP PC-49[m/DC] qw iC PC-49 115[m/DC]

2002

2003 2004 qw iC PC-49 110[m/DC] qw iC PC-49 150[m/DC]

Figure 10. Well Injector Chart

All the SAHARA output is loaded into the P&CG system (Planeamiento & Control de Gestin system) where the analyst can manage the budget and CAPEX Expenditures to prepar the Long Term Plan.

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Which tools are currently under development : Facilities visualization WETS module evaluation Which are the challenges to addres in the future: Export data to BDRC (Certified Reserves Data Base) Software utilities integration as: o o
Figure 13. Sumergency Map

Well type design Dynamic Pressure Calculation in pipes Gas material balance

Drilling & WO surveillance programm

Drilling Productor: 4/4 Adecuacin Productor: 26/43 Adecuacin Inyector: 9/9
PCG-205 PCG-872 PCG-25 PCG-878 PCG-65 PCG-61 PCG-889 PCG-142 PCG-60 PCG-71 PCG-892 ICG-1 PCG-267 PCG-70 PCG-888 PCG-48 PCG-147 PCG-69 PCG-874 PCG-46 PCG-828 PCG-835 LOCPCG-68 PCG-841 PCG-845 T-116 PCG-858 PCG-15 PCG-275 PCG-855 PCG-277 PCG-9 PCG-280 PCG-935 PCG-4 PCG-710 PCG-5 PCG-707 PCG-138 PCG-708 PCG-18 PCG-7 PCG-79 PCG-815 PCG-8 PCG-840 LOCPCG-94 LOCPCG-52 PCG-51 PCG-826 PCG-236 T-106 PCG-875 PCG-891 PCG-890 PCG-261 PCG-810 PCG-876 PCG-11 PCG-12 PCG-14 PCG-17 PCG-19 PCG-279 PCG-213 PCG-40 PCG-187 PCG-183 PCG-41 PCG-20 PCG-188 PCG-112 LOCPCG-208 PCG-212 PCG-704 PCG-136 PCG-137 PCG-811 PCG-38 PCG-36 PCG-21 PCG-922 PCG-156 PCG-220 PCG-144 PCG-709 PCG-145 PCG-223 PCG-121 PCG-45

Other systems and software developments support our daily work

Drilling Inyector: 7/8 Conversin Inyector: 4/4

Caadn Grande II W est

PCG-871 LOCPCG-64 PCG-882 PCG-884

SITU surveillance system Well following up

PCG-209

2003 2004 2005 2006

Locacin P1 Locacin P2 Locacin P3
Drilling Productor Drilling Inyector Conversin Inyector

PCG-10

PCG-1 PCG-895

PCG-63

PCG-801 PCG-2 PCG-37 I-3 PCG-934 PCG-146 PCG-222

PCG-23 PCG-807

PCG-39

PCG-54 PCG-808 PCG-949 PCG-921

productor PCG-264 PCG-221 PCG-224 PCG-919

PCG-128 PCG-16 PCG-3 PCG-219 PCG-6 PCG-809

I-1 PCG-47

PCG-87 I-2 PCG-920

PCG-90

PCG-816

PCG-936 PCG-802 PCG-49 PCG-281

PCG-276 PCG-91

PCG-812 PCG-93

PCG-924

PCG-22 PCG-866 PCG-865 PCG-154 PCG-948 PCG-868 PCG-702 PCG-159

PCG-81

PCG-162

PCG-78 PCG-838 PCG-938PCG-161 PCG-844 PCG-852 PCG-42 LOCPCG-102 PCG-937 PCG-853 PCG-59 PCG-850 PCG-854 PCG-939 PCG-856

Adecuacin

OIL GAS WATER INJECTOR DRY LOCATION OLD LOCATION ABANDONED-OIL SHUT-IN-GAS SHUT-IN-OIL SHUT-IN-WATER DRILLING-OR-TESTING SHUT-IN-INJECTOR

PCG-229

PCG-243

PCG-864 PCG-125 PCG-107 PCG-927 PCG-703 PCG-266 LOCPCG-104

Figure 14. Quickly visualization of Drilling and WO Programs Figure 16. Pump off and beam pumping data visualization

Sahara surveillance Underdeveloped status

SITU surveillance system Facilities following up

Figure 16. Underdeveloped status screen Bubble map

Figure 15. Underdeveloped status screen

Figure 17. Facilities Control Panel

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Dynapack surveillance Well analysis

Subsurface injection installation Injection histories analisys

Tension Packer

Injection mandrel with flow regulator valve

Flooded sand

Tension Packer Flooded sand Anchor Packer Flooded sand

Figure 18. Beam pumping data visualization

THE PRODUCTION CYCLE COMPLEXITY IN TWO FIGURES

AND

INJECTION

Production Cycle

Figure 20. Subsurface injection installation

405 water injection wells 19 injection plants

FIELD GAS SYSTEM FLUID OIL+WATER+ GAS OIL 2 MAIN TREATING PLANTS TO CALETA CORDOVA TERMINAL (SALES) AND ADITIONAL WATER SEPARATION PLANTS WATER INJECTION PLANTS

18 water treatment plants

SATELLITE STATIONS WATERFLOOD PROJECTS PROD. WELLS INJECTION WELLS WATER DISPOSALS

Conclusions Integrated data management is one of the keys of the Cerro Dragon rebirth. A flexible and friendly simulator with connection to our data bases gives us a power tool to make good decisions.

Figure 19. Cerro Dragon production cycle

Databases according the field complexity and needs is the best way The virtuous circle is the best tool of our teams to complete the targets.

1,850 Beam pumped wells 30 PCP pumped wells 450 ESP pumped wells 2 Gas production wells 70 Oil and gas Stations 2 Oil treatment Plants 1 Gas Treatment Plant

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Acknowledgements Thanks are due to: PAE Cerro Dragon Development Reserves Teams because this paper reflect their hard daily work.

The PAE facilities and automation team for improving the data loading and databases operation. The PAE IT Team communications. for high quality systems and

INTERFACES Management and design Team because theyve working along many years to improve and integrate into customized software for their and our ideas and needs. References

1.

Ezequiel Massaglia, Dario Baldassa, Carlos Ponce, Bernab Zalazar. Injector-Well Completion Designs for Selectively Waterflooding up to 18 Zones in a Multilayered Reservoir: Experience in the Cerro Dragn Field. SPE paper 99997 presented at the 2006 SPE/DOE Symposium on Improved Oil Recovery held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.A., 2026 April 2006. J.P. Martins, SPE, J.M. MacDonald, C.G. Stewart, SPE, and C.J. Phillips, SPE, BPExploration (Alaska) Inc. The Management and Optimization of a Major Wellwork Program at Prudhoe Bay. SPE paper 30649 , 1995.

2.