IPTC 10854
Realizing the Potential of Marginal Reservoirs: The Al Shaheen Field Offshore Qatar
J. Thomasen, Maersk Oil Qatar A/S; I.A. Al-Emadi and R. Noman, Qatar Petroleum; N.P. Øgelund, Maersk Oil Qatar A/S;
and A. Damgaard, Maersk Oil Kazakhstan GmbH
Copyright 2005, International Petroleum Technology Conference
This paper was prepared for presentation at the International Petroleum Technology
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Introduction
The oil bearing reservoirs of the Al Shaheen field, Block 5
offshore Qatar were discovered in the mid-seventies in
connection with appraisal drilling on the underlying North
Field Khuff gas accumulation. However, at the time,
development of the Lower Cretaceous Al Shaheen reservoirs
was deemed unattractive due to their limited thickness and
tight nature.
Development of the reservoirs commenced in 1992, when
Qatar Petroleum entered into an Exploration and Production
Sharing Agreement with Maersk Oil Qatar AS.
This extended abstract presents highlights of the development
and describes some of the technological advances, which have
been applied to attain a commercially viable development.
Challenges
The giant Al Shaheen field comprises a series of thin, stacked
reservoirs, dominated by tight carbonates with more
permeable carbonate facies occurring over a limited part of the
field. The reservoir sequence further comprises a very thin
sandstone unit of variable quality.
Following the discovery of the Cretaceous oil accumulation in
1974, a number of appraisal wells were drilled by various
operators and comprehensive studies were conducted at the
time in order to establish the feasibility of development.
However, well tests in the vertical appraisal wells yielded
discouraging results and it was concluded that development
was not economically feasible.
The main problem was that the majority of the oil in-place
existed in thin carbonates with low permeability. Combined
with a relatively high oil viscosity, the vertical wells were
unable to sustain natural flow and gave very low rates with
artificial lift. Further, the hydrocarbon distribution was
identified to be governed by non-horizontal fluid contacts due
to considerable lateral pressure gradients in the liquid phases.
This made prediction of the extent of the accumulation
challenging1.
Another difficulty was that the reservoirs covered substantial
areas, and development would require a very large number of
platforms, each connecting to a limited oil in-place volume.
This was further aggravated by the fact that the individual
reservoirs did not overlay completely but rather spread over
different areas.
Finally, the fact the reservoirs were stacked and not in
pressure equilibrium meant that attaining an optimal
development of each individual thin reservoir layer and
integrating all these developments in a cost effective manner
posed a major challenge.
Development History
Qatar Petroleum and Maersk Oil Qatar’s initial appraisal
programme formulated in 1992 comprised a vertical well for
data gathering and two horizontal wells to test a number of
completion and stimulation techniques2. The horizontal wells,
drilled in 1993/94 both achieved world record horizontal
lengths3. The appraisal wells were brought on test production
through temporary facilities mid-1994 and indicated the
viability of using Maersk Oil’s horizontal well technology for
development. After drilling of another five horizontal wells, a
major development step comprising 56 horizontal production
and water injection wells as well as permanent facilities on 3
surface locations was initiated in 1996. This was followed by
another expansion in 2001 comprising 60 horizontal producers
and injectors and development of another 3 satellite locations.
A total of 131 horizontal development wells have been drilled
to date, including additional infill wells. The current offtake is
approximately 200,000 bopd with approximately 450,000
barrels per day water injection capacity. Water flooding has
been implemented in the three main reservoirs, the Nahr Umr
sandstone and the Shuaiba and Kharaib B carbonates4, 5. A
total of 18 permanent platforms are in place at six production
locations interconnected with pipelines and power cables. The
crude oil production is exported through an FSO and the
associated gas is conditioned, compressed and exported to the
nearby North Field Alpha operated by Qatar Petroleum.
Work on the next major development plan is being finalised
jointly between Qatar Petroleum and Maersk Oil Qatar.
2 IPTC 10854
Technology
The successful development of Al Shaheen achieved through
cooperation between Qatar Petroleum and Maersk Oil Qatar
has been viable only due to a number of technological
advances. This section gives an overview of some of the
salient technologies developed or implemented in Al Shaheen.
Horizontal Well Technology. Maersk Oil’s horizontal well
technology has been the most important contributor to the
successful development of Al Shaheen6. Fourteen world
records in horizontal well length have been set in the Al
Shaheen field, the longest of which has a 26,735 feet
horizontal section. Horizontal wells offer numerous essential
advantages.
The increased reservoir contact and thus productivity achieved
through long horizontal wells has made it possible to produce
from the low permeable carbonates for extended periods
without artificial lift and with moderate decline rates.
The long horizontal wells have considerably reduced the
number of wells and platforms required to develop the Al
Shaheen field. If, for example, reservoir drainhole lengths had
been only 4,000 feet compared with the 15,000 to 20,000 feet
typical for Al Shaheen, covering the current area of
development would have required an order of magnitude more
wells and platform locations. Further, the long horizontal
drainholes allow design of water flood as a near line drive
leading to optimal sweep and minimizing water breakthrough
problems. An additional advantage of the long well reach is
the capability of gathering appraisal information at long
distances from the platforms.
Geo Steering. Well placement in the thin low permeability
reservoirs is critical for optimal production performance.
Further, the 2–10 feet thick Nahr Umr sand is deposited
between two reactive shales, necessitating careful well
placement to minimize drilling related problems. State of the
art logging while drilling tools have been employed and real
time azimuthal density and/or resistivity data has been used to
steer wells both in the carbonate and sandstone reservoirs.
Onsite geologists are continuously integrating the logging data
with drill cutting data and data from neighbouring wells to
actively steer the wells for optimal position in the reservoirs.
Rotary Drilling Systems. Placement of the long horizontal
wells in the target zones, which are usually less than 5 feet
thick, requires accurate steering. With a reservoir depth of
only 3,000 to 3,500 feet traditional directional drilling motors
will only provide reasonable steering capability some 10,000
feet from the entry point. Consequently, drilling horizontal
sections of 20,000 to 26,000 feet with directional control
would not be possible. Since the introduction of rotary
steerable systems in Al Shaheen in 2001 approximately 70
wells have been drilled with continuously increasing system
reliability and increasing penetration rate. For example, a well
with a total depth of 28,000 feet can be drilled and completed
within 35 days. Both “push the bit” and “point the bit” systems
have been used. In the carbonate reservoirs “push the bit” type
systems have yielded very good results, whereas “point the
bit” systems have been proven efficient in the thin sand
reservoir, enabling a 70% increase well length.
Bit Technology. In order to minimize number of long trips
required for bit changes, each trip taking several days, bit life
is a key concern. Especially the Nahr Umr sandstone reservoir
is very abrasive and previous bit life was limited to 50-60
hours necessitating one or more bit trips in each horizontal
well. A new type PDC bit, which can drill the entire horizontal
section, has been developed in co-operation with the bit
manufacturers. This bit type is used extensively, and in some
cases it has been possible to use the same bit to drill several
long horizontal reservoir sections.
Lining long horizontal wells. Although the majority of the
horizontal wells are completed bare-foot, lining is occasionally
required. Maersk Oil Qatar has developed different methods to
enable lining off long horizontal well bores. Methods used
include tapered liners and multiple stage liners that are latched
together to form one long continuous liner. These techniques
have made it possible to fully line off and acid stimulate wells
with horizontal sections in excess of 24,000 feet.
Early Production/Production While Drilling. The
importance of gathering continuous production data early was
recognized from the outset. A key unknown of the Al Shaheen
reservoirs was the medium to long term performance of the
production wells. Consequently, a programme was devised in
which all the oil produced during the test period could be
gathered. In this way flaring of the produced liquids was
completely avoided, minimizing any negative impact on the
environment an extended period of well testing would have.
This technology has subsequently been developed to
accommodate the production facilities on the drilling rig,
allowing production and drilling to proceed simultaneously
from a single jack-up unit.
Oil Properties from Cuttings. Significant changes in oil
quality occur across the Al Shaheen accumulation. The
Kharaib B reservoir, for example, has oil API gravity ranging
from 14 to 38 degrees. Initial work was focused on
determining whether the variation was a result of
compartmentalization or resulting from continuous gradients.
Having established that the variation occurred as gradients,
onward work focused on understanding and mapping the
variations. A technique was developed which enables a good
estimation of the live reservoir oil characteristics based on
small amounts of dead oil extracted from drill cuttings. With
the extensive reservoir coverage provided by the long
horizontal wells, a substantial database has been established,
leading to understanding and mapping of the variations.
Wireline Testing. The stacked reservoirs in the Al Shaheen
field posed the challenge of obtaining dynamic information
from each individual reservoir layer without conducting an
excessive number of well tests. Formation pressure testing
and sampling on wireline provides a cost-effective and
environmentally friendly method to obtain high-
resolution information about in-situ rock and fluid properties.
At the current stage of development of the Al Shaheen
IPTC 10854
Field, fine-scale modeling of reservoir anisotropies is
an important part of improving static and
dynamic models while reservoir limit testing and collection
of well production rates are secondary objectives. For
several years, Maersk Oil Qatar has therefore replaced
conventional production well testing with formation pressure
testing and sampling in appraisal and exploration wells7.
An additional use of the wireline formation tester has been
fluid sampling in the long horizontal sections to support the
information on oil properties derived from cuttings. The
wireline formation tester tools have been run to depths
exceeding 24,000 feet MD with very good results.
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. Detailed reservoir
characterization of the long horizontal has been a special
challenge with difficult logging conditions. NMR T2
distributions, both measured while drilling and on wireline,
have been successfully applied in a large number of wells in
the sandstone and carbonate reservoirs of the Al Shaheen
Field.
In the long horizontal wells in the carbonate reservoirs,
logging with the new LWD NMR technology has proven
successful in determining the facies changes and qualitative
permeability variation8. A new quantitative methodology for
rock-typing and permeability estimation has recently been
developed for the Shuaiba reservoir from core analysis work,
and the methodology was verified with both wireline and
LWD NMR tools9. NMR logging has also successfully been
applied in the complex multi-mineral sandstone reservoir,
identifying bound fluids and providing lithology independent
porosity estimates for reliable characterisation of the reservoir,
which can be uncertain using conventional log responses.
Future Challenges
The future development of the Al Shaheen field will be aimed
at expanding the area of development to cover the entire Block
5 as well as fully implementing water flood in the main
reservoirs. Several new challenges are anticipated in this
context. Development towards the edge of the hydrocarbon
accumulation will entail production from poorer reservoir
quality, higher water saturations and even thinner oil columns
than developed to date. Further, in most areas the oil is
becoming heavier toward the margins.
In the maturing water floods, inflow profiling and water shut
off in the long horizontal wells is challenging. Due to the
length of the wells, running production logging tools across
the entire reservoir section is not possible with existing coiled
tubing and tractor technology and other means of monitoring
inflow profiles are required. With respect to water shut-off,
trials have been made both with chemical and mechanical
conformance control and further trials are planned. However,
shutting off water toward the toe of the long wells remains
challenging.
There are undeveloped reservoir layers with poor reservoir
quality but considerable hydrocarbon in-place volumes.
3
Production appraisal data from these reservoirs show that
development will be highly challenging.
On the longer term, implementation of tertiary recovery
techniques may be attractive. Initial studies of various
techniques have been conducted, pending further evaluation,
field trials may be matured.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the management of Qatar Petroleum
and Maersk Oil Qatar AS for granting permission to publish
this paper.
References
Reference 1 Engstrøm, F. and Toft, J., 2005: ”Experiences using
EQR Modelling for Saturation Predictions in a
Middle East Carbonate Reservoir”, IPTC-10878 to be
presented at the International Petroleum Technology
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2005.
Reference 2 Jørgensen, L. N., Brown, A. A. and Redekop, G. E.,
1994: “Stress Field Orientation and Fault Trends
Offshore Qatar”, paper presented at Middle East
Geoscience Conference, 1994.
Reference 3 Andersen, P.M., 2003: “The Stepwise Development
of the Al Shaheen Field”, paper presented at World
Petroleum Congress, 2nd Regional Meeting, Qatar,
December 2003
Reference 4 Huq, N. and Thomasen, J., 1997: “Horizontal Well
Application in a Tight Reservoir with Dual-PVT
Description and Stochastic/Matrix Permeability
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Jeppesen, M. W., 1999: “Cost-Effective Development
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1999.
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B., 2005: “Use of Advanced Reservoir Data
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10893 to be presented at the International Petroleum
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Reference 8 Rose, D., Hansen, P. M., Damgaard, A.P. and Raven,
M. J., 2003: ”A Novel Approach to Real Time
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Wells Using LWD NMR”, SPWLA 44th Annual
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Reference 9 Frank, S., Narayanan, R., Hansen, P.M., Allen, D.,
Albrechtsen, T., Steinhardt, H., Raven, M. .J.,
Fordham, E., Bize, E. and Rose, D., 2005: “Carbonate
Rock Typing Using NMR Data; Case Study from Al
Shaheen Field, Offshore Qatar”, IPTC-10889 to be
presented at the International Petroleum Technology
Conference held in Doha, Qatar, 21–23 November
2005.