SUB-SURFACE UNCERTAINTY IN OIL FIELDS: LEARNINGS FROM EARLY PRODUCTION OF LEGENDRE OIL FIELDS

Abstract

The Legendre North and South Oil Fields (together referred to as the field) have been producing since May 2001 from high rate horizontal wells and had produced 18 MMBBL by end 2002. This represents about 45% of the proven and probable reserves for the field.

Many pre-drill uncertainties remain. The exploration and development wells are located primarily along the crest of the structure, leaving significant gross rock volume uncertainty on the flanks of the field. Qualitative use of amplitudes provides some insight into the Legendre North Field but not the Legendre South Field where the imaging is poor. The development wells were drilled horizontally and did not intersect any fluid contacts.

Early field life has brought some surprises, despite a rigorous assessment of uncertainty during the field development planning process. Higher than expected gas-oil ratios suggested a saturated oil with small primary gas caps, rather than the predicted under-saturated oil. Due to the larger than expected gas volumes, the gas reinjection system proved to have inadequate redundancy resulting in constrained production from the field. The pre-drill geological model has required significant changes to reflect the drilling and production results to date. The intra-field shales needed to be areally much smaller than predicted to explain well intersections and production performance. This is consistent with outcrop analogues.

Surprises are common when an oil field is first developed and often continue to arise during secondary development phases. Learnings, in the context of subsurface uncertainty, from other oil fields in the greater North West Shelf are compared briefly to highlight the importance of managing uncertainty during field development planning. It is important to have design flexibility to enable facility adjustments to be made easily, early in field life.