Field Examples Demonstrating Applications of the Five Principles of Reservoir Management

Abstract

Abstract The five principles of reservoir management are: 1. Conservation of reservoir energy. 2. Early application of simple strategies. 3. Sustained and systematic collection of data. 4. Implementation of improved technologies. 5. Long term retention of staff in multi-disciplinary teams. These principles can be combined with emerging technologies to devise and implement optimized reservoir management strategies. Advances in technologies for optimization of reservoir management strategies have made significant advances in the areas of real-time reservoir monitoring, interval flow control, and downhole flow measurements. The petroleum industry can achieve real-time reservoir management by installing these revolutionary technologies to improve and optimize economic recovery of hydrocarbons. Installations of downhole sensors and inflow control devices in many wells with data transmission/communication links have created a new class of smart/intelligent wells. Smart/Intelligent wells are equipped with devices that enable remote monitoring, control, and transmission of data from multiple zones thereby providing capabilities to reduce remedial costs and optimize reservoir performance. Data analytics can be used to ‘mine’ the huge data collected from these wells and fields and used to improve production processes. Field examples that demonstrate applications of the five principles of reservoir management with installation of advanced technologies to improve reservoir management and hydrocarbon recovery are: 1. The Agbami Field, Offshore Nigeria 2. The 26R Reservoir in California, USA and 3. The Shaybah Field in Saudi Arabia.