Workshop 07

Stimulation as a Field Development Tool
Convenors: Liz Morris (Schlumberger) & Dario Stemberger (Maersk Oil)

Monday 4 June, 9:00 - 16:00 hrs

Workshop description
Stimulation is a necessity for optimum production in many fields; increasingly so in recent years as the trend is toward lower quality and more challenging reservoirs. Too often, however, stimulation is not adequately considered during the field development planning process. The impact of stimulation can range from simply improving the project economics due to accelerated production, to being the one critical aspect of the field development plan which allows an otherwise uneconomic field to be brought to production with a positive NPV.

Drilling may focus on delivering the safest and least expensive wells without consideration of stimulation requirements, possibly limiting early production from the field. Completion engineers consider the forces and stresses imposed during stimulation in a new well design but may not recognize that these forces can change significantly over the life of the well. Reservoir engineers may focus only on the aspects of primary stimulation (immediately after well completion) with a limited understanding on how to improve future treatments.

It is critical to fully integrate stimulation treatment design with geological, petrophysical, and geomechanical models along with drilling/completion design, well tests and production forecasting. This will ensure stimulation programs which are optimized and flexible allowing better field development strategies to be implemented. A comprehensive workflow combined with knowledge and contribution from all geosciences and engineering disciplines forms a powerful tool to deliver the economic benefits that technology and engineering can bring to a field development project.

Several examples of how utilizing a number of independent technologies and integrating their results can lead to a much better understanding of stimulation and overall field performance will be presented. As a comparison, case histories illustrating the drawbacks of focusing solely on one aspect of the workflow (e.g. stimulation), leading to costly changes in the field development plan will be presented.

Workshop objectives and deliverables
The aim of our workshop is to encourage cross-discipline understanding and discussion of the economic benefits of including stimulation as part of the field development plan. The goal is to avoid cases where a field is developed - then later it becomes apparent that well stimulation could optimise production - yet stimulation efficiency is compromised.

During the workshop, the following questions will be raised and openly debated:
• Why should stimulation be part of the planning of field development from the start?
• What data should be collected and what is the value of the data?
• What should be included in field development workflows to ensure stimulation
requirements (both primary and re-stimulation) are adequately addressed?
• Who should be involved and understand the benefit of stimulation?
• How can we capture the value of integrating stimulation into the overall field
development plan?
• How can the utilization of technologies lead to a better understanding of
stimulation effects?

Workshop format
Presentations followed by proactive audience discussion

Who should attend
The workshop will be of particular value to those who are interested in identifying all the tools, including stimulation, required to produce an integrated workflow to develop the full production potential of an asset from the start. Geologists, petrophysicists, well engineers, production engineers, reservoir engineers, production technologist.

Contact
For questions about the workshop please contact the convenors.

 

Programme