Observation and Monitoring Well: in Situ Window to Assess Recovery Efficiency
Authors: Wherity S. , Sidley T. , Cowling M. , Ismayilov A. , Noe-Nygaard J. 
Published: October 2014

Mærsk Olie og Gas AS as operator for the Danish Underground Consortium (DUC) has successfully planned and delivered an Observation and Monitoring well in the Halfdan field located in the southern part of the Danish North. Although not entirely unique to the industry (for further examples see Richardson, 19771; Widmyer, 19872; Wannell & Ezekwe, 19923) this will be the first well of its kind for Mærsk Oil and the DUC placed in a chalk reservoir.

This paper describes the planning and execution phases of the monitoring and observation well legs, summarizing the formation evaluation results primarily related to remaining oil saturations. The data derived from the evaluation program enables an evaluation of the success of the novel wells pattern design in the Halfdan field, enabling optimization of the reservoir recovery, in addition to confirming the vertical extent of the hydrocarbon column.

As oil and gas fields mature, the monitoring of production-induced changes becomes crucial to sustain, optimize, and improve production levels. Enhanced recovery techniques are applied to extend the field life, as a result reservoir behavior, including vertical and lateral sweep, becomes more complex and challenging to model.

Water injection is a common practice used to maintain the reservoir pressure and enhance oil sweep; yet sweep efficiency is not always equal, with water tending to move heterogeneously through the reservoir seeking higher permeability pathways and leaving trapped/un-swept oil behind. The fluid movement and distribution within the reservoir characterises the efficiency of the production system. Such inherently complex and capital intensive nature of understanding and optimising the recovery mechanism behoves the developer to acquire information to evaluate and enhance the recovery mechanism targeting maximising returns.

Monitoring and Observation wells allow the detection of in-situ fluids, enabling modification and enhancement of the dynamic modelling, assist with evaluation of the applied IOR technique, and lay the foundation for potential future EOR opportunities. The two-pronged well provides an early indication of the recovery mechanism success in terms of sweep efficiency, and is a guide to further performance optimisation; additionally it is an opportunity to identify and develop any un-swept volume.

The Halfdan field is situated in the Danish North Sea Central Graben approximately 250 kilometers off the West coast of Denmark, and is located between the Dan and Skjold fields. The Halfdan reservoir is Maastrichtian and Danian aged chalk characterised with relatively high porosity (25-35%) and low permeability (0.5-2 mD). Halfdan was discovered in 1998 with a 30,000 ft long horizontal well drilled from the Dan field. The first vertical well was completed in 1999. First production from Halfdan was obtained in late 1999.

A slant observation and monitoring well on the Halfdan field was drilled between neighbouring injector and producer horizontal wells respectively, the first such well in the Danish North Sea sector. The objectives were to assess the vertical and lateral sweep efficiency in the field, in addition the saturation change is planned to be monitored in time lapse fashion as the water flood matures around the monitoring well. To allow this, well completion is optimised by installing fiber-glass casing over the reservoir section. A fit for purpose logging and coring program was designed to meet the primary objectives. Logging included pulse neutron as well as formation pressure, PVT sampling and multi depth and frequency resistivity logging. Coring consisted of both specialised sponge and conventional cores. The core analysis program was designed to define the current reservoir properties and their hysteresis, deuterium oxide mud tracer was also added to assess invasion profile.