Line Drive or Not? Lessons Learned From Waterflood Field Case in Middle East Carbonate Reservoirs

Field X is situated onshore in the southwestern part of the Abu Dhabi Emirate. Historically, five appraisal wells were drilled between 1961 and 1995. Drilling activities resumed in 2006 to further appraise additional reservoirs identified within the Field X structure. The field has been producing since 2007 for testing purposes. It was officially commissioned and commenced production in Q1 2013, peaking at 22 MBOPD from the A and B reservoirs. In 2020, the C reservoir was brought to production, providing promising oil in place to offset the decline in the A and B reservoirs. All wells are currently flowing naturally. The target field is an elongated, low-relief structure with a NNE-SSW strike direction. During the Late Permian to Middle Cretaceous, the Arabian Plate was positioned along the passive margin of the Neo-Tethys (Murris, 1980). The reservoir rocks were deposited on an extensive shallow-marine ‘mega-platform’ several hundred kilometers wide on the southern Tethys margin. These formations are characterized by alternating porous and dense carbonate units, indicative of deposition in transgressive and regressive cycles. The formation is subdivided into seven reservoir zones, with contacts between intervals typically marked by very tight or low-permeability carbonates that hydraulically isolate these reservoirs. Each porous reservoir zone is separated by a dense carbonate zone.