Publications

XYZ field is located in the central part of Karim Small Fields’ (KSF) Block, southeastern of South Oman Salt Basin. The oil accumulation in this field is discovered by the exploration well XYZ-1 that was drilled by the previous operator of the field in 1975. The well recovered 0.5 liter of oil with 16API from DST of 2 meters Gharif reservoir’s interval. Four vertical wells were drilled until 2006 to delineate the discovery but no commercial oil flow is recorded. Previous wells were subsequently classified as abandonment candidates due to sub-economic oil accumulation of low thickness, in a truncated rim play, that contains heavy, viscous oil. Medco took over the block in 2006 and a renewal plan was introduced. An integrated Field-Development Planning study was conducted in order to provide an optimum strategy to develop the field. Structural configuration of Middle and Lower Gharif reservoirs is reconstructed using updated well tops and 3D seismic data to identify truncation area and avoid locating the wells in areas without reservoir. Horizontal wells were selected to obtain bigger reservoir exposure and designed perpendicular to the reservoirs’ distribution to penetrate multi layers. This strategy shall result in a better reservoir performance and also minimizes the risk of missing the reservoirs due to uncertainty in the truncated structure. This effort led to an infill drilling campaign that was started in 2016 and successfully proved that commercial oil production can be achieved in this field. According to updated 3D fine grid model, original oil in place in XYZ field has been increased than initial estimation and distributed within Middle and Lower Gharif reservoirs. Up to now, Medco has drilled and completed sixteen wells and renewed the status of the field from in-active into a productive field.