Applications of Horizontal Wells in the Greater Middle East Region, from Egypt to India

Roy D. Nurmi

Horizontal wells are no longer restricted to problematic reservoirs, such as thin zones of fractured reservoirs. Complex reef facies are being drilled in Oman and the Emirates but these heterogeneous facies are not as simple as shown on reservoir maps. However, horizontal wells do provide a unique opportunity to better understand reservoirs and their large scale heterogeneities, including by-passed oil and compartments with original oil saturations and pressures. Crestal attic oil was the first application for horizontal wells in Turkey, while attic fault-block crestal oil was the application for the first horizontal well in the Gulf of Suez. Best of all, horizontal wells are stimulating a lot of lateral thinking, such as using a horizontal well to assess a vertical well iscovery. New applications continue to increase for this petroleum industry technique, although its use in solving ground water problems was used thousands of years ago in Persia and the Middle East.

In nearly every country, horizontal wells are showing that there are more faults and fractures than have previously been mapped. In Syria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman horizontal wells have revealed the presence of unknown faults and fractures, some of which are being shown to be the source of supposed coning. In fact, fractures and faults are being much better defined and modelled, using data from horizontal wells and 3-d seismic in Oman, the Emirates and Qatar. Long horizontal wells, including the world record horizontal wells in Qatar, provide the opportunity to detect and map the reservoir fracture intensity and distribution.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91020©1995 AAPG Annual Convention, Houston, Texas, May 5-8, 1995