Elaboration of a
Giant Fractured Carbonate Field Development Based on Long Multilateral Wells
and New Reservoir Characterization Model for Haradh
Increment Three Field, Ghawar, Saudi
Arabia
Le Maux, Thierry1, Sylvain Sarda1, Tony
R. Pham2, Nabeel Al Afaleg2 (1)
Beicip-Franlab, Rueil Malmaison, France (2) Saudi Aramco,
Dharan, Saudi Arabia
Haradh Increment 3 is the Southern part of Ghawar, the world largest oil field located in Saudi Arabia.
The reservoir is 30 km long with several billions barrels of initial oil in
place in the Arab-D formation. It includes a few wells producing since 1964 and
was not further developed so far. The field is characterized by the presence of
major heterogeneities such as long fracture corridors, super-permeability
bodies and a tar barrier, that have a large impact on its dynamic behavior. A
full field reservoir study was conducted to elaborate a Master Development Plan
that maximizes both the plateau duration and the long term recovery. This
Master Development is based on the use of long multilateral wells. This paper
presents: „h The reservoir characterization mainly
focused on super-permeability bodies and fracture corridors. „h The construction of the dual media simulation model and
the history matching of the field from 1964 up to now. „h
The Master Development Plan study including phenomenological studies on sector
models to determine the 
optimum
strategy for the use of multilateral wells in
terms of type of wells, location, drilling schedule, water shut off
strategies. The optimization of the master development plan took into account
not only the plateau duration and long term recovery but also the overall
reservoir sweep efficiency and the associated costs. Moreover, the impact of
super-permeability bodies and fractures on field performance was assessed in
terms of pressure maintenance, water fingering and well productivity.
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