Innovative early development of the shallow zone to sustain the production of the mature field Bekapai
Year: 2015
Proceedings Title : Proc. Indon. Petrol. Assoc., 39th Ann. Conv., 2015
Bekapai is a mature oil and gas field located in the offshore Mahakam Delta, Indonesia. The hydrocarbons are accumulated in complex multilayered reservoirs. Ten platforms were constructed to accommodate the oil production coming from 85 wells drilled between 1972 until today. The production started in 1974 with peak production at 60,000 bopd in 1978, followed by a period of decline until it reached its lowest point at 1,000 bopd in 2007. A field re-development project was initiated in 2008, and further extended in 2014 reaching a stabilized production of 11,000 bopd.
Bekapai has also significant gas resources in its shallow zone (1,000 – 1,300 mSS), the development of which was shelved due to priority of oil development. Hence, this zone, albeit being penetrated with almost all wells, has been rarely completed. On the other hand, the number of currently idle wells is high due to well performance or mechanical issues, thereby creating a window of opportunity to develop the shallow zone economically.
The project started with a subsurface evaluation, a database was established to list the shallow gas reservoirs penetrated by the idle wells and to rank them based on their reserves and accessibility. A well intervention procedure involving: annulus cementing, perforation, and sand control device installation was applied to access the reservoirs. Sand control is required since Bekapai Shallow zone is classified as sand-prone reservoirs. The surface network is then adapted to the gas production purposes. Besides contributing to gas export, the gas is also used as artificial lift to revitalize the oil wells.
This technique has been implemented and allows reviving two wells and a platform. Larger implementation is foreseen as part of the effort to sustain the production of this mature field.
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