Abstract: Redevelopment Activities in the Carpinteria Field Offshore Santa Barbara Co, California and Slimhole Horizontals Reap Big Benefits

FLECKENSTEIN, WILLIAM

Pacific Operators Offshore Inc. (POOI) as the operator of 3 leases within the Carpinteria field participated in two projects with the DOE that supported the planning and implementation of the Offshore Carpinteria Field redevelopment. The first was the Advanced Reservoir Management (ARM) Project, that used 3-D modeling and simulation to better identify target intervals for redevelopment. The ARM project directly supported the second undertaking, a Class III field demonstration project. This included drilling of 6 redrills: 2 vertical pilots and 4 horizontal wells. Reservoir characterization efforts included extensive petrophysical and geologic work to thoroughly map and correlate the productive intervals and identify targets which contained oil bypassed by the natural water drive. Drilling and completion accomplishments include the use of a modified workover rig (240,000 lb mast) to drill the slimhole wells from 7 in casing, and produce the non-gravel packed wells with rod driven production systems.

Only 19% of the estimated 521 million bbl original oil in place has been produced (98 million bbl) field wide. The analysis of the Carpinteria field and successful pilot 6 well drilling project has led to an extensive redevelopment plan. The tentative plans include 18 to 27 horizontal well, 5 to 9 vertical redrills, 20 to 30 workovers, a pilot waterflood, and possibly a full field water flood project. Production has increased by 850 BOPD by the pilot redevelopment project. Over 300,000 bbls of incremental oil have been produced to date.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90911©2000 AAPG Pacific Section and Western Region Society of Petroleum Engineers, Long Beach, California