¹Present affiliation: Hamilton Geosciences, Austin, Texas, U.S.A.
²Present affiliation: Integrated Energy Services, Austin, Texas, U.S.A.

ABSTRACT

The Bureau of Economic Geology and Corpoven S.A. (now Petrleos de Venezuela) jointly undertook a detailed reservoir characterization study of the Merecure and Oficina Formations in the Arecuna field of the Faja region, Eastern Venezuela Basin. The primary objective of the study was to delineate the volumes and residency of remaining oil saturation and to develop appropriate advanced recovery strategies for maximizing recovery efficiency of the heavy oil in the Faja region. Initial completions in the field were all from vertical wells, and production rates were subeconomic. The field-development strategy was to accelerate production rates by taking advantage of increased drainage efficiencies of horizontal wells. A horizontal-well drilling program, however, requires a very accurate reservoir model, particularly in the Faja, where the reservoirs were highly compartmented because of complex faulting and lateral and vertical facies heterogeneity of the fluvial reservoirs. Moreover, hydrocarbon- and water-bearing reservoirs are strongly interlayered in the field, requiring the trajectory of the horizontal wells to be targeted accurately.