Reservoir management applications to oil reservoirs

Abstract

Winnipegosis and Red River oil production in the Bainville North Field in Roosevelt County, Montana began in 1979. The Red River is at 12,500 ft and one well is completed in the Nisku formation at 10,200 ft. This well produced 125,000 bbl from the Nisku during its first 41 months. Since operating conditions inhibit dual completions and Nisku wells cost $900,000, the need for a Nisku development plan is apparent. The size of the reservoir and optimum well density are the key unknowns. Recognizing the need for additional Nisku data, a 5000 acre 3-D seismic survey was processed and the results used to map the top of the Nisku. The reservoir thickness, porosity, and water saturation were known from the openhole logs at eight well locations on an average of 320 acres spacing. The thickness of the thin pay limited the seismic information to areal extent of reservoir depth. Static reservoir pressure from drillstem test was available at two wells. Additional reservoir pressure data in the form of transient tests were available at two wells. Under Los Alamos National Laboratory Basic Ordering Agreement 9-XU3-0402J-1, the New Mexico Petroleum Recovery Research Center (PRRC) characterized the Nisku to develop a reservoir management plan. Nance Petroleum provided all available field and laboratory data for characterizing the Nisku formation. Due to sparse well coverage, and the lack of producing wells, the PRRC had to develop a new reservoir description approach to reach an acceptable characterization of the entire reservoir. This new approach relies on the simultaneous use of 3-D seismic and reservoir simulation to estimate key reservoir properties.