First Microseismic Monitoring Results for a Middle East Carbonate Reservoir: Minagish Oil Field Case Study, Western Kuwait

Emmanuel Gaucher¹*, Christophe C. Maisons¹, Abdullatif Y. Al-Kandari², Kamal Al-Atroshi², and Jassim M. Al-Kanderi^2
1Magnitude, France
²KOC
*[email protected]

During the first quarter of 2006, a microseismic monitoring pilot was implemented in Minagish field, western Kuwait. The target zone was the Minagish Oolite, a microporous carbonate reservoir, about 350 ft thick and around 9,600 ft deep (below mean sea level). The monitoring antenna, an SST-500 wireline tool of four 3C-geophones, was temporarily deployed in an abandoned well on the eastern flank of the field. The purpose of the surveillance was: (1) to assess the occurrence of microseisms induced by the production operations and especially the water injection along the flank; then (2) to characterize such microseismicity; and finally (3) to measure the effective network sensitivity with depth. Such a microseismic pilot survey should provide insight on the added-value that this monitoring technique may bring to the production and reservoir engineers. During the 50 days of effective monitoring, about 2,000 microseisms were identified and 600 events, from magnitude -2.0 to 0.3, were located. The large majority was distributed on the western side of a NNE-trending line as consistent with the direction of the local oil-water contact. A more detailed analysis also highlighted clusters of microseisms between injection-production doublets. In fact, one doublet was believed to be connected, which has been confirmed. Additionally, the depth survey showed that microseismic monitoring was still efficient above the Shu’aiba Formation. The pilot’s objectives were successfully attained and the results were beyond our expectations. Hence, it is proposed to deploy a cost-effective and optimized microseismic network suitable for the entire Minagish field.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90077©2008 GEO 2008 Middle East Conference and Exhibition, Manama, Bahrain