About This Item
- Full TextFull Text(subscription required)
- Pay-Per-View PurchasePay-Per-View
Purchase Options Explain
Share This Item
The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
AAPG Bulletin
Abstract
AAPG Bulletin, V.
Reactivation of mature oil fields through advanced 
reservoir
characterization: A case history of the Budare field, Venezuela
reservoir characterization: A case history of the Budare field, VenezuelaDouglas S. Hamilton,1 Noel Tyler,2 Roger Tyler,3 Sandra K. Raeuchle,4 Mark H. Holtz,5 Joseph Yeh,6 Moises Uzcategui,7 Toribio Jimenez,8 Anna Salazar,9 Carmen E. Cova,10 Roberto Barbato,11 Alberto Rusic12
1Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas, University Station, Box X, Austin, Texas, 78759; current address: Hamilton Geosciences, 13224 Marrero Drive, Austin, Texas, 78729; email: [email protected]
2Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas, University Station, Box X, Austin, Texas, 78759; current address: Advanced Reservoir Characterization (ARC) Group, 4815 W. Braker Lane, Suite 502-387, Austin, Texas, 78759
3Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas, University Station, Box X, Austin, Texas, 78759; current address: Advanced Reservoir Characterization (ARC) Group, 4815 W. Braker Lane, Suite 502-387, Austin, Texas, 78759
4Bureau of Economic Geology, the University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas, University Station, Box X, Austin, Texas, 78759
5Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas, University Station, Box X, Austin, Texas, 78759; email: [email protected]
6Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas, University Station, Box X, Austin, Texas, 78759
7PDV, Apartado 4326, Edificio Corpoven Guaraguao, Puerto La Cruz, Estado Anzoategui, Venezuela; email: [email protected]
8PDV, Apartado 4326, Edificio Corpoven Guaraguao, Puerto La Cruz, Estado Anzoategui, Venezuela; email: [email protected]
9PDV, Apartado 4326, Edificio Corpoven Guaraguao, Puerto La Cruz, Estado Anzoategui, Venezuela
10PDV, Apartado 4326, Edificio Corpoven Guaraguao, Puerto La Cruz, Estado Anzoategui, Venezuela
11PDV, Apartado 4326, Edificio Corpoven Guaraguao, Puerto La Cruz, Estado Anzoategui, Venezuela
12PDV, Apartado 4326, Edificio Corpoven Guaraguao, Puerto La Cruz, Estado Anzoategui, Venezuela
AUTHORS
Douglas S. Hamilton is a consulting geologist with 20 years international experience in the petroleum industry, including more than 10 years as a reservoir geologist conducting fully integrated geological and engineering reservoir characterization projects. His specialist disciplines include sedimentology, sequence stratigraphy, basin analysis, subsurface stratigraphic mapping, play analysis, facies analysis, and reservoir characterization from core and wire-line log analysis. Hamilton worked at the Bureau of Economic Geology in Austin, Texas, for 10 years on fluvial, lacustrine, and shallow-marine oil and gas reservoirs from the United States, Venezuela, Mexico, Argentina, Australia, and Trinidad. He has authored more than 40 publications on depositional systems and reservoir characterization and received several Best Paper awards for his research on reservoir characterization. Hamilton holds a bachelor's degree (hons.) and a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Sydney, Australia.
Mark H. Holtz is a geologist and reservoir engineer with more than 15 years of reservoir characterization experience at the Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas at Austin. His expertise in reservoir characterization focuses on integration of geologic and engineering in both carbonate and sandstone oil and gas reservoirs. He has authored or coauthored 14 University of Texas monographs, 45 articles, and 31 abstracts on reservoir characterization. Mark's engineering has been broadly applied in primary and secondary oil and gas projects throughout Texas, as well as siliciclastic sequences in the Australian Cooper and Eromanga basins, Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, and the Vienna basin. He has taught more than 15 short courses in the form of in-house oil company courses, public continuing education courses, and Department of Energy technology transfer courses. He holds a bachelor's degree in geology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and is currently a master's degree candidate in petroleum engineering. He served as a reservoir engineering technical editor for the Society of Petroleum Engineers and was the secretary of the Austin chapter of the Society of Petroleum Engineers.
Toribio Jimenez is a senior reservoir engineer at PDVSA Gas Integrated Studies group in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, where he helps develop reservoir characterization and compositional simulation models for gas condensate and light oil reservoirs. He joined PDVSA in 1993 and held a variety of assignments in their San Tome and Puerto La Cruz offices, working mainly in the areas of production engineering, artificial lift, and reservoir engineering. He also worked as a graduate research assistant for the Bureau of Economic Geology in Austin, Texas. Jimenez holds a degree in petroleum engineering from Central University in Caracas, Venezuela, and an M.S. degree, also in petroleum engineering, from the University of Texas at Austin.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was carried out at the Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas at Austin. The Bureau acknowledges the support of this research by Landmark Graphics Corporation via the Landmark University Grant Program.
ABSTRACT
Budare field has produced 95 million bbl of oil since discovery in 1954, but a sustained 6 yr decline during the early 1990s reduced daily production to 3000 bbl of oil. Reactivation of the field as a result of this reservoir characterization study increased production by 13,000-16,000 BOPD, a rate that has been maintained in the 4 yr since the study was completed, resulting in an incremental recovery of more than 24 million bbl of oil. This increase in production was achieved through integrated reservoir characterization that identified the depositional heterogeneities and structural complexities responsible for intrareservoir entrapment of the bypassed oil in the field.
The main producing zones are the Tertiary-age Merecure and Oficina reservoirs that are interpreted as the deposits of large-scale bed-load and mixed-load fluvial and wave-dominated deltaic depositional systems. The geologic analysis indicates that the large-scale systems are divided internally, or vertically stratified, by thin but widespread shale markers resulting from flooding episodes and that facies variability introduces lateral discontinuities. Syn- and postdepositional faulting further disrupts reservoir continuity. Trends in fluid flow established from engineering analysis of initial fluid levels, response to recompletion workovers, and pressure depletion data demonstrated that these geologic heterogeneities (flooding shale markers, lateral facies pinch-out, and faults) are effective barriers to lateral and vertical fluid flow.
Considerable potential for sustained production exists at Budare field because the reservoir units are highly compartmentalized. Identification and targeting of the poorly drained and uncontacted
compartments at Budare facilitated the development of a production optimization portfolio that encompassed four principal advanced-recovery opportunities: field extension or step-out; attic areas of the reservoir
that are structurally higher than existing production and, hence, poorly drained; stratigraphically and structurally defined compartments that have not been tapped; and compartments that are poorly drained. Successful geologically targeted infill wells and strategic recompletions in these bypassed compartments achieved a sustained fivefold increase in daily production in the mature Budare field.
Pay-Per-View Purchase Options
The article is available through a document delivery service. Explain these Purchase Options.
| Watermarked PDF Document: $16 | |
| Open PDF Document: $28 |
AAPG Member?
Please login with your Member username and password.
Members of AAPG receive access to the full AAPG Bulletin Archives as part of their membership. For more information, contact the AAPG Membership Department at [email protected].