Pushing Maximum Reservoir Contact Applications to New Limits in Tight Facies: A Case Study of Middle East's Highest Reservoir Exposure Producer

The paper presents the evolution of reservoir management strategies that supported a recently drilled penta-lateral producer, which set a company record of total reservoir contact in a major greenfield in the Middle East. This paper will investigate the maximum reservoir contact (MRC) evolution in the field, the design phase of this game-changing producer, lessons learned and future implications. The reservoir management objective for this producer was to capture oil reserves in tight layers (less than 10 md) in a gas cap driven carbonate reservoir while delaying gas breakthrough. This design was employed to push the MRC application to new limits of more than 16 kilometers to deliver more production at reduced well requirements while honoring best-in-class reservoir management practices. In the design phase, a very high resolution reservoir simulation model was used to model the performance of this producer. Several sensitivity cases were conducted testing various well designs in terms of lateral spacing and completion depths. Subsequently, this producer was drilled with smallest lateral spacing (62 meter) closer to the oil-water contact (OWC). The drilling of five laterals in 6 ⅛” slimhole was a challenging task that posed hole cleaning threats across the horizontal sections and risked tight hole turning to stuck pipe. Through careful planning and team collaboration between various departments, the well was completed successfully with minor problems. In addition, the well was completed with two permanent downhole monitoring system (PDHMS) gauges and inflow control valves (ICVs) to manage water/gas movement and to ensure lateral clean-up.