Time Lapse Monitoring of the Elgin HPHT Field

Monitoring is essential in understanding HPHT fields and extending their life. The high cost of infill drilling requires minimising risks of well failure, improving understanding of compartmentalisation, flow connectivity and reservoir quality away from control wells. Time lapse seismic when fully integrated with other geosciences disciplines can bring essential information to help achieving these aims. Using a dedicated warping inversion, a new and more stable 4D signal has been inverted at the reservoir level. This signal is well correlated with compaction patterns predicted by the reservoir model and brings essential information on compartmentalisation and vertical connectivity within the reservoir. Both 4D attributes and the 4D-calibrated geomechanical model are used in various operational studies targetting the reservoir and the overburden, confirming 4D as a key source of information to improve the understanding of the Elgin Field.