Field Study of South Pass 60 Field - OCS: An Integrated Multidisciplinary Approach

Craig Davis¹, John Tubb¹, Cecil H. Truss Jr¹, Robert Ostrander¹, M. Drayton Prator III², Gary Janik³, Ed Langhetee³, Dennis Giovannetti³, and Steve Buckert^4
1Inexs, Houston, TX
²Prator Bett, L.L.C, Houston, TX
³Dynamic Offshore Resources L.L.C, Houston, TX
⁴Petro-Hunt L.L.C, Houston, TX

Dynamic Offshore Resources (then SPN) acquired the north, west, and east flanks of forty year old South Pass 60 Field in 2004. The north area of the field has 121 wells which have a cumulative production of 48.5 MMBO and 77.5 BCFG. Nine horizons have produced with an additional four pay-zones unproduced.

The future successful development of the field by Dynamic depends upon a comprehensive process of carefully organizing the previous work, recreating complete wellbore utilization and correlation charts, and 3D seismic mapping to resolving the complex structure and stratigraphy to match the known production within each fault block and reservoir.

Unstable bottom conditions have dictated that platforms be set on top of the salt dome which has resulted in highly deviated long reach well bores that intersect bedding planes at very low angles making well log correlations between the 121 wells very difficult. Dynamic commissioned a field study in the north area with a goal of integrating well logs, paleontology, 3D seismic, and engineering data to identify and quantify new drill and sidetrack opportunities.

Measured Depth (MD) logs were digitized and used with 3D seismic depth maps to create True Vertical Thickness (TVT) logs. TVT factor and True Stratigaraphic Thickness (TST) were calculated. Arbitrary seismic lines were created along each deviated wellbore to correlate faulting and interpret horizons accurately.

This multidisciplinary field study has yielded many additional exploration and re-completion opportunities for Dynamic, and has resolved countless inconsistencies between production data and previous well correlations.

AAPG Search and Discover Article #90085 © 2008 GCAGS 58th Annual Meeting, Houston, Texas