Operating
oil and gas properties in the Gulf of Mexico can present many challenges on a
daily basis.Throw in an occasional
storm or two and those challenges become more apparent.One company forced to shut in their wells due
to a storm had an idea to take advantage of the upcoming shut-ins to perform
much needed testing on a few of their more prolific wells.Data Retrieval Corporation had a proposal
for such an occurrence.
The
proposal for one specific high rate producer called for sending a unit out for
30 days.During the 30 day period, if no
shut-in of sufficient length for analysis occurred, the only cost to the
operator would be shipping.A unit was
shipped in hopes of obtaining a shut-in for evaluation of reservoir limits,
boundaries, and faults.
Based
on reservoir seismic data, an offset drilling prospect existed which suggested
the possibility of a separate undrained area.Since the prospect was downdip of the producing well, a high geologic
risk was associated with the new prospect.It was hoped that the pressure data would either mitigate the risk, or
deem another take point unnecessary.
Through
careful planning, a test was designed to either prove or disprove the
possibility of drilling another well.Considering the cost to drill, it was very important to capture quality
data for analysis.Along with DRC and
the SPIDR, Wavex Reservoir Dimensioning and Imaging was brought in to interpret
the gathered data and provide an independent geologic model to compare with the
seismic mapping.
About
2-1/2 months of accurate pressure data was obtained during the peak hurricane
season of 2008, which involved several shut-in periods of varying
duration.Wavex and DRC met with the
operator to go over the data.Whatís
most interesting is the maps were made ìblindlyî, meaning no prior knowledge of
what the operating companyís maps looked like.To their complete satisfaction, the pressure data derived map was very
similar to the geoscientistsí map of the reservoir, meaning that the two
potentially separate areas were actually connected.Also, the reserves estimates given by Wavex closely
matched what they had themselves reported.The end result of the data gathering and analysis was that no further
consideration was given to a prospect which would have resulted in an expensive
and unnecessary well.
The
operator involved was pleased with the results, that in the future when it
comes time for pressure transient testing and analysis, Data Retrieval
Corporation will be tops on their list.
