Publications

The Handil field comprises over 550 hydrocarbon accumulations stacked from 230 to 3000 m depths in a four-way dip structure. It has produced oil and gas for 40 years and over 400 wells have been drilled. A 3D seismic survey was acquired in late 2011 and the seismic interpretation and attributes analysis have been studied. Main methods for the field development have been the well correlations. With the inevitable production decline, the search for prospect areas outside well clusters to find un-drained areas based on the seismic data is getting more and more important. Amplitude variation with offset techniques are well-known direct hydrocarbon indicators (DHI), which uses near- and far-angle stacks of seismic data to compute the amplitude anomalies standing out from the background trends of water-bearing sands. Based on a study of rock physics using sonic logs, the reservoirs in Handil fields show Class III AVO, exhibiting strong amplitudes at near angle stacks and brightening with offset. The results of AVO seismofacies show good correlations with most reference wells. However, the main challenge in this study is the residual hydrocarbon due to long period of production and concomitant water rise. Depleted reservoirs with residual hydrocarbons show a similar AVO anomaly as oil- and gas-bearing sands. With the careful investigation of AVO anomalies, several high potential prospects of hydrocarbon sands are found in un-drained area, which will be used for future well plans.