Development and Implementation of a Reservoir Management Plan

REYNOLDS, RODNEY R., LANNY G. SCHOELING, DON W. GREEN, and G. PAUL WILLHITE, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

Proper reservoir management is a key to success when operating mature oil fields in Kansas and the mid-continent region. Many oil fields are at their economic limit and risk being plugged and abandoned if proper reservoir management techniques are not used. This paper describes the development and implementation of a reservoir management plan in the Zenith field. The Zenith field in central Kansas produces from a complex composite set of reservoirs and has had poor secondary oil recovery efficiency.

The developed plan consists of five basic steps which involve (1) database development, (2) volumetric and data analysis, (3) field testing, (4) field work to improve operations and economics, and (5) reservoir simulation to better characterize the reservoir and predict the optimum recovery process. These steps are placed in the general order in which they were implemented; however, most of the steps were ongoing throughout the study.

This paper emphasizes the importance of reservoir description in reservoir management. The methodology of field testing, personal computer mapping, and reservoir simulation is described along with a prediction of the optimum recovery process.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91008©1991 AAPG Mid-Continent Section Meeting, Kansas Geological Society, Wichita Kansas, September 22-24, 1991 (2009)