SPE 27035 Reactivation of Marginal Fields R.A. Orunesu and J.M. Hernandez, Pluspetrol S.A. ‘This paper describes the methodology applied for the evaluation and reactivation of a field that was considered marginal for many years Challacd Field, located in the Neuquén Basin, 70 km from the city of Neuquén. Figure No 1 ‘The study carried out made it possible to have a precise volume of reserves and a program of ‘operations for their production. Such study was performed prior to the beginning of the operations, minimizing risks and uncertainties. One of the most important factors to be taken into account is the necessity of a good understanding of the reservoir in order to increase the possibility of success in any intent of reactivation of any field. ‘The permanent implementation of a complete study of Geology and Engineering of Reservoir will allow to increase the factor of hydrocarbons 327 Socaty of Petron Enghoere recovery in place, thus incorporating an important volume of reserves in a more economical way than the ones obtained in some cases by means of exploratory conventional techniques. Most of the reserves of our country and of the world can be surely found in fields that have been or actually are subexplofted due to different reasons, political, economical, ete., and in many cases to lack of investments in reservoir studies. iN ION Challacé Field was discovered by YPF in 1941, being until approximately 1960 one of the most important of the Neuquén Basin, In its development, 190 wells were drilled, 155 ‘of which were oil bearing. During this period, it2 REACTIVATION OF MARGINAL FIELDS produced up to 1000 m"/day. As from 1960, the field is considered marginal, with low oil Production and a high percentage of water. In the year 1990, 4,796,000 m? were accumulated, 23% of original oil in place estimated in 21,000,000 m’. Jn the year’1990, the field was acquired by Pluspetrol S.A. in the Ist. Public Tender of Marginal Areas. As from that moment, a reservoir study was carried out, together with a reconditioning of the surface facilities, increasing the oil reserves from 100,000 to 1,300,000 m’, obtaining a final recovery factor of 29.5% The oil production increased from 37 to 427,5 m'day, Pluspetrol S.A. has produced 300,000 1m? of oil so far. Fig, No 2. After the compilation of the necessary information and reconstruction of the production history, the study included an analysis of the geology and engineering of the reservoirs. From such study, 9 productive levels were identified, located in Tordillo and Challacs Fm. of Upper Jurassic Age, both of fluvial origin, with the presence of eolian events in the first one, The division of ‘the reservoir in different beds allowed to understand the important differences observed through the productive life of the wells, as well as the discontinuities in the petrophysical characteristics of the rocks and in the original contacts of the fluids. For each bed, drawings of structures, of total isothicknesses, permeable and net pay, of oil and water accumulations, among others were made. Reconstruction and analysis of the production history per well, along with the information given by the mapping, allowed to determine the original contacts of fluids and their present location in every bed under study. Based on this, and on a detailed study of each well, workovers and drilling programs were performed. Following these programs and considering the production up to that moment, a development and investment plan was carried out for the area, including a production forecast until the 328 SPE 27035 conclusion of the project in the year 2005. Fig. No 3. GEOLOGY Considering its structural features, the Neuquén Basin can be divided into two great regions: Engulfing Area and Andean Area. Figure No. 1. ‘Andean Area: It is characterized by an intense deformation of the sedimentary beds, with wide anticlines and sinclines elongated and affected by flank faults, predominantly N-S oriented, Engulfing Area: It has a tectonic style, its deformation implies basement dislocation with a decreasing intensity towards the boundary of the basin and a slight folding of the sedimentary basin. An important influence of the basament is observed, this causes that the most important alignments to have trends subparallel to the basin boundaries, conditioning in this way the paleogeography of the sedimentary units. The faulting, together with volcanism and the upward setting of an acid-mesosilicic substratum individualized the basin, resulting in a topography of Horst and Graben type. ‘The sedimentary filling is characterized by the cyclicity of several continental and marine episodes as a consequence of transgression and regression events. The main accumulation cycles were: Jurassic, Andic and Riograndic. The resulting landscape was originally sedimented during the Lower Jurassic with an important presence of volcanites and pyroclastic rocks in its composition. In general they are rocks of fluvial origin associated to alluvial and lacustrine fan sediments. This is the case of Challacé and Tordillo Fm. in the area under study. The subsequent filling is marine source, represented by Vaca Muerta and Quintuco Fs. clearly delimited by continental events. Challacé Field is located in the Neuguén Basin within the Dorsal area at the southern part ofSPE 27035 this bi The stratigraphic column can be observed in Atch, No 1, Challacé (Lotena) and Zona de Relleno (Tordillo) Fms. are the most important reservoir rocks, In general terms, the structure of the area corresponds to a monocline dipping S-SE, intercepted by an E-W normal fault with strike displacement. The movements originating this fault, named Challacd, folded all the sedimentary sequence resulting in an anticline of NE-SW strike, where most of the reserves of the area were accumulated, within the upper 100 m of Chaltacé Fm. and in the whole Tordillo Fm. ‘The trap is predominantly structural and the most important volume of hydrocarbons was allocated in the upper block of Challacé fault. Atch. 2. A detailed correlation among wells allowed to identify 9 productive levels, 8 of Which within Challacé Fm and the other in Tordillo Fm Lithotogically Challacé Fm is composed by pink and white quarvose sandstone, medium to coarse grained, clayish matrix. claystone and siltstone interbedded. ‘The depositional environment is continental, typical of alluvial fan with intervals clearly channeled originating optimal _petrophysical characteristics. The porosities vary from 16 to 22% and the permeabilities, from 20 to $00 md. ‘The sandstones develop bodies of 10 to 15 m of thickness separated by levels of silty-claystone of 5 to 20 m of thickness. These events of low energy correspond to flooding deposits and their identification helped to establish a geological correlation due to their extensive areal distribution, Atch, No 3, Tordillo Fm overlies unconformitly Challacé Fm; it is mineralized in the Central and East part of the field. Its lithology is of green and brown sandstones and quartzose conglomerates, 328 R.A. ORUNESU AND J. M, HERNANDEZ. 3 clayish matrix in their permeable facies and of clayish siltstones in their non-permeable facies. ‘These deposits also correspond to alluvial fans and, unlike Challacé Fm, there are eolic deposits, represented by interdunes facies of poor petrophysical characteristics In this way, an alternation of permeable with non-permeable bodies is observed, fact that allowed each productive level to have its own characteristics as reservoir rock, in some cases completely independent from the others. This phenomenon became evident when performing ‘measurements of pressure and of production flows in the workovers and in the log analysis of new wells. For a better understanding, a detailed correlation of the wells was performed, determining and mapping for each and every level, its structure, net thickness, permeable thickness, net pay, porosity and’ volume of original oil in place. Once the productive levels were identified, the production history was generated for each bed in each and every well of the field, ‘The individual mapping of each bed allowed the workovers tbe carried out in its best structural position. The structure usually studied was the bottom of Vaca Muerta Fm; nevertheless, due to the effects produced by the unconformity, this structure does not correspond to the alignments of the underlying bed. The lateral correlation is regular, with significant facial changes at short distance, and a hard work of intermalmic unconformity what brought about the erosion of the upper beds of Challacé Fm in some regions of the field. These Phenomena have actually favoured the trapping of oil and thus allowing its drainage from zones where the reservoir conditions are practically original Vaca Muerta Fm overlies Tordillo Fm., the principal source rock of Neuquén Basin, composed of bituminous marls, and on this one, Quintuco Fm., potential reservoir ofthe area. It is composed of clays and dolomites of platform