Exceeding the Limits by an Integrated Workflow to Optimize Hydraulic Fracturing Treatments to Achieve Highest Sustained Oil Production Rate in Tight Carbonate Mauddud Reservoir, East Kuwait

Abstract Mauddud reservoir in Greater Burgan field is a thin, tight carbonate cretaceous reservoir. Sustaining the production has been always a challenge for the past few decades. Objective of this paper is to share the knowledge of a new innovative and integrated workflow which allowed to achieve the highest and the most sustainable production in the history of the reservoir. An integrated production enhancement study has broken the field historical production record for the tight Mauddud in East Kuwait. The integrated workflow and analysis among petrophysics, reservoir, well integrity, geology, and production and stimulation domains has proven success to achieve the best results for such a challenging reservoir. By running data gap analysis and identifying the right candidates through advanced characterization cased hole technologies like advanced cased hole Sonic log to map nearby open fractures and stresses magnitude and direction, acid fracturing treatments were designed and optimized accordingly utilizing a fit-for-purpose treatment fluid and diverter. Most of the wells perforated across Mauddud were originally completed for deeper reservoirs and are only transferred to Mauddud post sweeping out the deeper reservoirs. Therefore, the well placement, completion, trajectory, and logs are not optimized for the tight Mauddud reservoir since it was not the primary objective of drilling the well. Earlier multiple approaches were conducted utilizing different techniques such as matrix acidizing treatments, radial drilling, fishbone completion and many more to recover oil from this tight Mauddud reservoir. However, the results were unsustainable, and the wells ceased to flow in less than a month. In the new process, across 6 existing wells, oil production increased from nearly zero to over 6,000 BOPD after multiple victorious hydraulic fracturing treatments accurately engineered based on the cased hole evaluation study and results. Advanced cased hole Sonic log utilized for generating 1D geo-mechanical properties, and core lab data and analysis used for designing the optimum frac recipe. This paper demonstrates the capability of advanced technologies coupled with unique multi-domain integration to unlock the potential of complex tight carbonate and heterogenous reservoirs.