Exploiting the Mature South El Morgan Kareem Reservoir for Yet More Oil: A Case Study on Multi-Discipline Reservoir Management
Authors: Hughes S.C. , Ahmed H. , Raheem T.A. 
Published: December 2007

The South El Morgan Kareem is a 30 year old giant reservoir located offshore in the Gulf of Suez in Egypt. The reservoir has produced 51 percent of the 1.96 Billion Barrels original oil-in-place. Ultimate recovery is expected to be 55 percent, an excellent recovery under waterflood operations. So, what is an operator to do with this nearly depleted offshore reservoir producing at a watercut of 82 percent, with an average producer rate of only 550 BOPD? Minimizing operating and development costs, while depleting the last remaining oil might appear to be the best strategy. The Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company (GUPCO) did just the opposite. GUPCO undertook an eighteen month, eight-man, multi-discipline field study with the aim to find ways to increase the recovery even more through further development.

The field study team not only recommended a development drilling and waterflood optimization plan for a total cost of $21 MM, they also recommended obtaining a 3D seismic survey over the field for another $3 MM. The 3D seismic data immediately proved beneficial, helping to optimize drilling locations and to identify an exploratory lead east of the main reservoir.

The majority of the drilling was extremely successful. The total of the initial producing rates from the six producers was 24,000 BOPD. Two prospects were especially aggressive recommendations, located deep down the flanks of the reservoir. The team's exploratory recommendation was a discovery, having an initial potential of 7,800 BOPD. The total development program will recover an additional 37 MMBO. In short, the aggressive strategy of obtaining 3D seismic and directing a major man-power effort to re-interpret all the geologic and performance data for this major field was a big success.

Introduction

The Morgan Field is one of the premier oil fields for Egypt. The giant field was discovered in 1965 and includes five distinct reservoirs totaling 2.7 billion barrels original oil-in-place. This paper focuses on the South El Morgan Kareem reservoir, the largest of the five, with an original oil-in-place of 1.96 billion barrels. Approximately 124 wells have been drilled to produce from this reservoir from 19 platforms. In October 1996, the reservoir produced it's billionth barrel of oil. This production milestone is indeed significant, since this is a remarkable 51 percent recovery of the original oil-in-place. This excellent recovery is both a blessing and a curse, however. Blessing, because of the tremendous oil recovered and what it has meant to Egypt, but somewhat of a curse, because it means there shouldn't be very much oil left. The ultimate recovery is estimated at 55 percent.

The majority of wells in this reservoir are producing from only the upper-most zones, as the lower zones are watered out and abandoned. The average producing watercut is 82 percent. The average producing oil rate is only 550 BOPD per well. Even worse, is the tremendous volume of water that the reservoir now produces; 160,000 BWPD, compared to 40,000 BOPD.

So, what is an operator to do with a giant, but nearly depleted reservoir such as South El Morgan Kareem? Does he spend as little effort and money on development as possible? Does he concentrate on minimizing operating costs while he depletes the last remaining oil, content with the excellent recovery he has achieved? That might seem a reasonable reservoir management strategy, but GUPCO did just the opposite. In 1993, an eighteen month, eight-man, multidiscipline field study was initiated with the aim to find ways to increase the recovery even more. This paper will present the findings of this work, the results of the successful development work, and how the results were achieved.

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