Abstract: Play
Types in Oil Field Development: An Example from Prudhoe Bay Field, Alaska
MORSE, ROBERT, ARCO Alaska Inc., Anchorage, AK; STEVE JONES, BP Exploration Alaska, Anchorage, AK; DAVID PULS, ExxonMobil Azerbaijan Operating Company, Baku, Azerbaijan; STEVE RAINEY, BPA Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland
Prudhoe Bay field, entering its third decade of production, has produced over 9 BBO.
Increasingly smaller reserve targets have been made economically and operationally viable
with sustained reductions in drilling costs, significant improvements in geosteering
drilling capabilities, and well targeting resolution on the order of tens of feet. This
diminishing, complex, and tightly constrained production environment mandates continual
efforts to reduce technical risk and improve operating efficiency. The analysis
of
development
play
types is one such effort.
Complex oil fields such as Prudhoe Bay field can be meaningfully subdivided into
development play
types which represent significant categories of reserve opportunities
that share similar combinations of geologic, drilling, and/or engineering risk, as well as
performance. A statistical basis for the prediction of
play
type performance, risk
reduction, and reserve potential can be attained by reviewing the performance of many
wells that represent a given
play
type. These performance appraisals can provide metrics
and insight to systematically improve performance by focusing on improved drilling and
targeting practices, as well as focusing our data gathering and
analysis
on critical
play
risks only.
Play
type
analysis
provides the basis for portfolio management, as opposed to
individual well prediction and management. Furthermore, identification of key
play
risks
versus reserves potential can dramatically focus technology development efforts.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90911©2000 AAPG Pacific Section and Western Region Society of Petroleum Engineers, Long Beach, California