Controlling Congestion and Connectivity in Field with Multiple Reservoirs

Abstract ADNOC Onshore operates a sour field on South West of Abu Dhabi with the wells to the northeast of the field exhibiting generally higher H2S content than wells to the southwest. Congestion of the field is recognized as a major issue affecting safety, access to existing reserves and operability since the early 2000. The congestion is caused by the high density of surface facilities resultant of numerous interfaces in the field (stakeholders), making well surface location finalization very challenging and impacting directly on subsurface congestion (by risking or impairing access to lower staked reservoirs - subsurface collision), rig moves, field connectivity, etc. This poses serious challenges to future developments if the approach of business as usual were to continue. The field has been producing from several oil and gas reservoirs but accelerated plans for oil and gas long term developments extended the exploration to other new reservoirs, increasing the challenges on reservoir exploration (brown field vs green field approach), on safety (exponential increase in number of wells, reservoirs with higher H2S content, etc.). It also increases surface and subsurface congestion, as the complexity of producing from more staked reservoirs increases. Decongesting the field and controlling the associated congestion of on-going projects is a key activity to manage space for future development, sustainable operation and business continuity. So far, the evaluation of a certain project options in terms of footprint impact has been qualitative in the sense that the decision is made based on the congestion observed on Enterprise Geograhic information System (GIS) map and in order to quantify footprint use and achieve a trustworthy comparision mechanism, a Geograhic Iinformation System (GIS) based congestion factor calculation tool had to be developed. This paper covers the development of the Congestion & Connectivity tool as an important milestone in ADNOC Onshore's initiatives to quantify and address the congestion issues on surface and consequently on subsurface and extend to other ADNOC Onshore in the long run.