Breakthrough Horizontal Well Length in Gulf of Suez, Egypt

By

 David Blanchard¹, Mohsen El Melegi¹, Ahmed Rabie¹, Bill Billman²

(1) Ocean East Zeit Petroleum Ltd, Cairo, Egypt (2) Ocean Energy Inc, Houston,

 As the longest horizontal well drilled to date in Egypt the East Zeit A-19 well in the Gulf of Suez has measured up to expectations of flow rates and sustained production. The well was drilled by Ocean East Zeit Petroleum Company from the East Zeit “A” platform in the central southern Gulf of Suez to exploit the Miocene Kareem Formation, a prolific producer in many fields in the Gulf. The Kareem Formation is characterized by a series of stacked sands deposited as regressive submarine fan deltas that prograded over and downlapped onto the Upper Rudeis. Since only poor quality vintage 2D seismic was available over the East Zeit field during prospect generation the entry and exit points of the horizontal section had to be derived by numerical models using existing well data that integrated geology and reservoir parameters.

A well of this technical complexity required an integrated team effort between geologists, reservoir and drilling engineers and service companies. Successful drilling using eccentric tools that allowed simultaneous reaming and drilling with steerable assembly (SRWD), allowed the 2700 foot horizontal section to be drilled using robust MWD/LWD tools at the most economic cost without sacrificing data gathering. A pre-slotted 5 inch liner was hung uncemented off the 9 5/8 inch casing. Once the well was turned on the field production increased from 7,100 to 14,392 bopd. The A-19 well has produced over 4 million barrels of oil to date making it one of the most prolific wells in the East Zeit lease.