Influence of Field Development and Flow Assurance Issues on Well Completion Design at Marco Polo Field
Authors: Renfro Kevin D. , Burman J.W. Jack 
Published: October 2008

Anadarko's Marco Polo deepwater development project is located in Green Canyon Block 608 in the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 175 miles south of New Orleans, in a 4300' water depth environment. Challenging flow assurance and field development issues affect both well completion design and production operation strategies. This paper will focus on how the completion design for the Marco Polo wells addresses these various issues, and will highlight a number of concepts and technical firsts that can be of application to other deepwater development projects.

Background

Field Development

The Marco Polo Field was discovered in 2000 with the drilling of the GC 608 #1 well, and subsequently delineated by four sidetracks. The project was sanctioned for development in 2001; six development wells were drilled in 2002 and 2003, and were temporarily abandoned to await completion after installation of the TLP in 2004. The TLP hull and deck were installed in January 2004. A 1000-hp completion rig will be installed on the TLP in the first quarter of 2004, and will be used to run riser tiebacks and perform completions. The Marco Polo Field will be developed with 6 direct vertical access (DVA), dry tree wells with a dual riser system producing from a 6-well slot TLP. First production is planned for mid 2004.

Geological

The Green Canyon Block 608 (Marco Polo) field is located in the southern portion of the Marco Polo mini-basin. The productive horizons at the Marco Polo Field consist of seven stacked Lower Pliocene sandstone reservoirs; the M10, M20, M30, M40, M50, M60, and M70. Refer to Figure 1 for Marco Polo Type Log. 75% of the estimated recoverable reserves are contained in the M40 and M50 intervals. Reservoir depths range from 11000 to 13500' tvd-ss.

The depositional model for the field is restricted basin floor amalgamated sheet fan sands. Moderate to strong aquifer support is expected, although the potential presence of internal baffles and barriers introduce uncertainty to the extent of the aquifer support.

The trap was created by salt uplift due to sediment loading. The trap consists of graben faulting associated with the salt uplift. The main faults are west-southwest to east-northeast trending faults that form the graben. The bounding fault to the north is downthrown to the southeast while the bounding fault to the south is downthrown to the northwest. The main updip trap component to the west is salt. The graben is further subdivided into separate compartments by additional faulting.

Two main fault compartments make up the Marco Polo field. Another graben fault, downthrown to the north west and trending in the same direction as the bounding faults, subdivides the graben into these two main compartments, designated as Fault Block I and Fault Block II. The two main fault compartments are further subdivided into two additional fault compartments by faults that are trending northwest to southeast and downthrown to the west (towards salt). The four producing compartments for the Marco Polo field are designated FB IA, FB IB, FB IIA and FB IIB (Updip compartments are denoted "A"). Refer to Figure 2, M10 Sand Structure.