Under the Auspices of The Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mines
As production from mature oil and gas fields declines, attention begins to focus on the condition of ageing facilities, cost optimization and the evaluation of options that can extend economic field life and delay the high cost impact of abandonment. Decommissioning costs are often significant and therefore safely prolonging field life by improving production and reducing costs are vital in creating the best financial returns from old fields in mature basins. Extending field life is also gaining importance in those regions where governments are removing access to exploration areas. This enhances the importance of existing oil and gas accumulations in regions where hydrocarbon resources are becoming both scarce and less accessible.
Fully evaluating the potential of existing fields and near field opportunities using existing infrastructure adds reserves, reduces costs per boe, boosts or extends the production lifetime and may allow the tail of a field’s base production to be realised that would otherwise be uneconomic. Additional production can be achieved in a number of ways including the recompletion of existing wells, exploration and development of satellite targets, identifying bypassed oil and potential reservoirs above or below existing developments.
Commercial solutions are also used to extend field life and can include government led initiatives such as the UK’s Maximising Economic Recovery (MER) Project which brings together regulators, operators and the service sector in order to identify mutually beneficial solutions. Improvement can also be achieved through M&A activity where assets can change hands and be revitalized by new companies and new approaches. Hub and Area Plans also provide mechanisms whereby a more holistic approach can enable the life of both fields and key infrastructure to be extended.
The use of technology is a further approach that has proved successful in a number of basins around the world. Advances in geophysical techniques through better calibration with geological data can identify unswept oil, missed pay, identify new targets and thus extend field life. Enhanced oil recovery is a further set of processes that can produce additional amounts of oil left behind after primary and secondary production by improving oil displacement and volumetric sweep efficiency.
This session will look at the ways in which the industry has extended field life through both commercial and technical approaches with a specific focus on techniques which have been used successfully within the Mediterranean region.
Official Program Book
Advertise