Integrated Reservoir Management Succeeded to Revert Production Decline in Belayim Land Mature Oil Field

By

 Hussen Mokhtar¹, Ahmed Amin¹, Medhat Mahmoud¹

(1) Faculty of Engineering, Cairo, Egypt

 Belayim land field was discovered on the eastern coast of Gulf of Suez in 1954 and was put on production one year later. The field reached its maximum daily oil production of 62,000 BOPD in 1963 then declined to reach its minimum rate of 28,000 BOPD in 1983. Since that time, continuous reservoir management efforts succeeded in reverting the field decline and it began to rise again to reach 61,000 BOPD which is a step in the way to reach 65,000 BOPD. The objective of this paper is to present Petrobel successful experience in handling mature fields with proper reservoir management. The field rejuvenation started with the integrated reservoir and seismic studies that yielded the long-term reservoir management strategies. These studies covered all production horizons regardless of reserves. Exploration activities ran parallel to development works where 2D and 3D seismic surveys were carried out, particularly on the southern and western parts of the field.

The development program covered water injection and monitoring, artificial lift optimization, horizontal wells drilling and stimulation by hydraulic fracture. Since the first remarkable successful of horizontal drilling application on well 112-71 which started production at a rate of 2,500 BOPD, a total of 14 horizontal wells were drilled adding a total of 14,000 BOPD.

These actions revealed the fact that with proper field management the reserves can be doubled from 360 MMSTB in 1963 to 830 MMSTB in the beginning of year 2002.