Surveillance of Complex Displacement Mechanisms in Mature Reservoirs to Maximize Recovery?

摘要

The Columbus basin offshore Trinidad is a mature hydrocarbon province. It contains multiple, stacked, discrete reservoirs which are supported and driven by complex displacement mechanisms. The reservoir surveillance challenges in the basin are compounded by the interaction of low salinity formation water, multiple fluid phases, thin beds, and completions that present difficult conditions for cased hole reservoir monitoring instruments. Challenging current monitoring practices resulted in the implementation of new strategic measurements in the surveillance plan that delivered valuable insights and clarity to complex reservoir management problems. The results obtained using existing procedures and technologies highlighted their shortcomings and uncertainties. To address these issues emerging technologies were evaluated under these challenging conditions. The results obtained clearly prove that tangible benefits could be realized through the use of the new surveillance techniques. The benefits of applying new technology as part of an integrated surveillance strategy will be described in this paper. This new approach has helped reduce the uncertainty in both fluid contact movement and remaining hydrocarbon saturations. This has had a direct impact on reservoir simulation and the definition of future reservoir targets.