Identification & Mapping of Water Slumping Fronts by Ultra-Deep Electromagnetic Logging While Drilling Technology in Lower Cretaceous Reservoirs of Adnoc Onshore

Abstract

Abstract ADNOC's limestone reservoirs suffer from the phenomena of injection water traveling preferentially at the top of the reservoir placing injection water above oil held there by capillary forces. Horizontal wells placed below areas of water override, cause the water above to slump unpredictably, increasing water cut and eventually killing the horizontal. Ultra Deep Directional Electromagnetic (EM) Logging While Drilling (LWD) tools provide the measurements to identify and map these water zones, improving reservoir management and design optimal well placement. 1D & 2D EM inversion modeling was conducted on two of ADNOC's largest oil producing reservoirs to evaluate the ability of an Ultra Deep Directional EM LWD Resistivity tool to identify water slumping in the presence of formation bed resistivity contrasts and predict depths of reliable detection (DOD) under various well trajectory scenarios. The inversion was run using depth of inversions up to 150 ft, the maximum expected vertical distance of tool to injection water. Modeling provided an optimized tool configuration (frequency, transmitter-receiver spacing's) to meet objectives. The inversion results further provided guidance for Geosteering, Geomapping and Geostopping decisions. The inversion results in these reservoirs indicated that the Ultra Deep resistivity tool has a DOD of 50-150 ft to pick reservoir tops and water slumping or non-uniform waterfront boundaries. The real-time inversion will optimize landing and drilling long horizontal section to increase net pay for production and even through sub-seismic faults, measuring changes in the reservoir fluid distribution, reduce drilling risk and exceed well production life. This information will aid in updating static model with water flood areas, reservoir tops, faults and structure, designing better infill well spacing and trajectories within bypass oil regions, designing proactive and not reactive smart well completions to delay or reduce water production and ultimately extended plateau and improve ultimate recovery factor. Furthermore, it will aid resistivity mapping of underlying or overlying reservoirs for future development plans. The encouraging results of this study confirmed to move forward with a field trial in these challenging reservoirs for better reservoir and fluid characterization and its management.