New Petrophysical Workflow Helps Improving Fluid Forecasts and Production Rates in the Estancia Cholita Field, Argentina

The project focuses on the optimization of the completion stage of wells of the Estancia Cholita Field, San Jorge Basin, Argentina. Its principal objective was to develop a workflow to improve identification of oil reservoirs and increase the current primary recovery factor of the field. During the study, a reservoir characterization methodology was developed to select the intervals of major potential of the well and to identify the water zones. The methodology leads to a calculation of a variable RW profile for every well. The petrophysical model was designed to use the RW profiles to guide the evaluation. Preliminary results of this work show an increase in oil production and of the primary recovery factor of the field; this was achieved by increasing the number of intervals that tested oil, decreasing the number of water, gas and dry tests, hydraulic fracturing of damaged intervals, detection of bypassed oil zones, and by an indirect identification of formation damage. Likewise, as a result of a better understanding of the reservoir behavior, the methodology has allowed optimizing completion costs and equipment time thanks to the reduction of perforating water and gas intervals and the decrease in the number of remedial cementing operations.