Development features and affecting factors of natural depletion of sandstone reservoirs in Sudan

• Main Authors: Mu Longxin, Wang Ruifeng, Wu Xianghong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. 2015-06-01
• Series: Petroleum Exploration and Development
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876380415300288

Most reservoirs in Sudan are medium to high porosity and permeability sandstone reservoirs, these reservoirs have been developed by natural depletion since put into production, and the development is characterized by sparse wells of high production, big pressure differential, delayed infill drilling and water flooding, and rapid investment recovery. H field, FN field and P field are bottom water drive light oil field, bottom water drive heavy oil field and stratified high pour point oil field respectively, and they are representative fields in Sudan. The production performance of the three oil fields features sparse well spacing and high plateau rate, short stable production period, rapid water cut increase and fast production decline. Commingled production results in poor inter-layer development and complicated residual oil distribution. On the basis of the above analysis, major affecting factors of Sudan sandstone reservoirs natural drive have been identified through lab experiments, field development plan and field monitoring. The high off-take rate is conducive to the increase of the contract period recovery and recovery factor; sparse well spacing based on crude mobility range and determining infill well production cutoff considering contract terms can be helpful for cost-effective development; barriers and inter-layers can be made use of to detain bottom water coning and to enhance the development effect of bottom water oilfields; and delayed water injection in stratified high pour point reservoirs has no effect on recovery factor during contract period. Key words: sandstone reservoir, depletion development, development characteristics, development policy, Sudan