Integrated Optimisation of Lease Development Strategy and Reservoir Management Through Use of Simulation Tools

By

Mohamed Abd El-Shafi¹, Mohamed Elselawy¹

(1) Faculty of Engineering, Cairo, Egypt

North Port Said is an offshore concession located in the Mediterranean Sea about 30 km off the Northern Egyptian coast. More than 25 gas fields have been identified based on seismic interpretation. These accumulations are often characterized by several hydraulically independent reservoirs. Two gas-condensate fields were discovered by two discovery wells in 1982/1983, and these wells showed several gas bearing intervals inside the Wakar formation of Miocene age. Following that discovery, 6 additional gas fields have been discovered through 6 additional exploration wells in which all wells found several normal-pressure dry gas bearing intervals inside the Kafr El_Sheikh formation of Pliocene age. The remainder of the identified gas fields belongs to Pliocene age. Production started in 1996 and there are currently three gas fields producing through 16 wells with daily production of 10,500,000 Sm3 of gas & 1,750 Sm3 of condensate as of 1999.

A 3-D simulation model has been built for each independent reservoir. The independent simulation models have been coupled to account for constraints on overall production rates and sharing of a common surface network.

Coupling independent reservoirs also allows accounting for constraints on overall surface production rates, including the physical impact of a surface pipeline network. Individual simulation models are thus run simultaneously as separate processes honoring all common surface constraints.

The current field(s) development plan is to produce the gas fields into a common surface facilities network. The optimization of the facilities and surface network includes up to a maximum gas production rate of 14,000,000 Sm3/day.