Using a real-time 3D-reservoir-mapping tool to image a complex deep-water reservoir in a producing oil field

The Laverda Field is a deep-water slope canyon on the North-West margin of Australia operated by Woodside Energy Ltd. with Mitsui E&P Australia Pty Ltd as a Joint Venture Participant. Development drilling in 2018–2019 comprised five long producer and injector wells that were geo-steered in thin high quality oil bearing reservoirs. The field successfully came on stream in July 2019 but a re-drill of one production well, located 30 metres downdip and parallel to the original well, was required in June 2020. The re-drill offered the chance to use new real-time 3D reservoir mapping tool technology. This new technology significantly improved the imaging of the reservoir in both a vertical sense and up to 30 metres laterally either side of the wellbore including the original well. Its greater depth of investigation and higher resolution enabled an optimised well path and a successful completion programme in a geologically complex reservoir.