Field planning and development of Oil and Gas Reservoirs using GIS Technology
John E. Pierce II and Richard T. Hill
J P Kenny Inc
16340 Park Ten Place Drive
Suite 242
Houston, Texas 77084
Abstract
The activities in advancing a deepwater oil or gas field to production stage are
numerous and the interdependency of the activities, complex. Determining how
to best extract the discovered fluids from the reservoirs and deliver the products
to the market, while minimizing CAPEX, OPEX and risk of failure is critical. A
dynamic and time dependent costing and optimization system for field
development has been developed that allows flexibility in technical decision
revisions, commercial re-evaluation of options available and time value
assessment of money. The service combines the application of Geographical
Information System (GIS) technology to handle the spatial context of the
subsurface, surface and above water field components linked via a GIS Interface
to the Cost Model, to facilitate economic evaluation. The Cost Model is in
spreadsheet format producing a transparent costing system instead of the more
common “Black Box” model. Multiple field layout scenarios are developed using
the available reservoir simulation analysis, drilling constraints, production
concerns, facilities requirements and intra-field pipeline architecture. The Cost
Model generates costs for each scenario. The flexibility of the system allows
sensitivity analysis and “what-if” investigations to be carried out while evaluating
the economic viability of each scenario.
Introduction
The CAPEX cost for deepwater developments are projected to be in the billions
of dollars and as such are an order of magnitude increase in cost above most of
the field developments to date. The total planned CAPEX expenditure for
deepwater developments, over the next five years, is over $35 billion.
The efficient development of deepwater fields for each new development is
crucial in assuring the economic viability of these fields.
To date, the development of deepwater oil and gas reserves, to a large extend,
have employed many of the methodologies used for shallower water fields.
Project development for the shallow water fields have been based on sound
engineering judgment that relies heavily on a knowledge database built from
existing fields.
The application of existing technologies in deepwater developments no longer
applies. Commercial viability of the deepwater developments demands efficient
design philosophy and implementation of new technologies in materials,
construction, operation and management.
Depending on the size of the field, its complexity and its location, a team of
experts derives a number of feasible development scenarios. Each scenario has
input from disciplines such as reservoir, drilling, production and facilities. This
input is typically supplemented with the involvement of Business, Commercial and Operation Managers. During the execution of such work the volume of
information generated by the field development team and the inter-dependency
of the different sets of information is often the cause of difficulties in maintaining
the integrity of the project developed data, long project execution schedules and
high costs.
The integration of this information in a single system that provides a visual user
interface, coupled with a dynamic economic model that provides evaluation of
economic indicators and facilitates the ability to audit the decision-making
process, thus shortening the development time for each scenario was required.
A system for the integration of technical, commercial and managerial issues
related to the field development process has been developed. The system is
called FOCU$. Although developed for deepwater application, the system is
applicable to both offshore and onshore fields, new or existing, and can be
applied at all stages of field development from the initial coarse screening of
options, through the detailed engineering phase, as well as carrying on through
field maturity and eventual abandonment.
