Agile Smart Completion Application for Effective Water Production Control in Heterogeneous Carbonate Reservoir in Abu Dhabi Offshore Reservoir

Abstract

This paper provides the learnings from a successful application of a smart completion in a complex heterogeneous carbonate reservoir. It details the study, planning, coordination, and implementation process of two pilot wells by a multidisciplinary team, and pilot production performance results, illustrating the success. First, to select an optimum completion design for the field, multi-segment well option and local grid refinement option were applied to the reservoir simulation model including calibration of faults/fractures. Second, based on the modified model, sensitivity analysis was conducted; 1) by selecting different types of completion including Open-hole, blank pipes (BP), compartmentalized slotted liners (SL), inflow control device (ICD) and hydraulic flow control valve (FCV); 2) by optimizing the number of compartments (packer and blank pipe placements for all cases), and ICD / FCV numbers and nozzle sizes. Using the data from the modeled cases, economic analysis was conducted, which indicated that the ICD in conjunction with sliding sleeves (SSD) was the best option. Two candidate wells were selected to cover the variation of reservoir characteristics: one well representing the heterogeneous part of the reservoir with high-density of faults, fractures and kurst, and another one representing the relatively homogenous part of the reservoir suffering from heel to toe effect. A multidisciplinary implementation team was set up to align all stakeholders on subsurface requirements, following up the completion design, coordinating material procurement and logistics for mobilizations, daily drilling operations follow-up, real-time logging data interpretations and completion design adjustment. Evaluation of the two pilots’ results based on predefined KPIs during the study, exceeded overall expectations.