Abstract: Lopeno Field: Results of a 3-D Seismic Shoot Zapata County, Texas
RICHARD W. DEBUS, and EDWARD E. RUDDER
Gulf
Resources Corporation, San Antonio, Texas
In 1994, Mustang Oil & Gas Corporation, Parker & Parsley Petroleum,
and POGO Producing Company contracted Grant Geophysical, Inc. to conduct
a 3-D seismic survey over Lopeno Field (Upper Wilcox, Zapata County, Texas).
At that time, Lopeno Field had produced 111 BCF, but no new wells had been
drilled since 1990 and production was falling off rapidly. The three companies
thought that the Field still had further potential and that the combination
of 3-D seismic, commingling of multiple sands, and larger fracture stimulations
would make it an economically viable project again. The 3-D survey was
shot and sixteen new wells have been put on production to date, adding
an estimated 100 BCF to the ultimate recovery (now 250 BCF) of the field.
Several additional wells are planned. This success could easily be deemed
to have been derived from the 3-D shoot. In reality, many wells had been
planned before the shoot and had not been drilled because of waiting on
the pending interpretation of the data and the economics of the time. The
Lopeno 3-D shoot did not cause any major alterations to the previous structural
interpretation, or find deeper pay. The tool did become extremely useful
in the precision selection of locations in an old field where there are
concerns about drilling into depleted zones and staying as structurally
high as possible in small fault blocks. In this manner, the Lopeno 3-D
shoot saved all these companies money and made it worthwhile.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90932©1998 GCAGS/GCS-SEPM Meeting, Corpus Christi, Texas