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IPA09-E-016

PROCEEDINGS, INDONESIAN PETROLEUM ASSOCIATION

Thirty-Third Annual Convention & Exhibition, May 2009

IMPROVED SUBSURFACE ANALYTICAL METHODS TO IDENTIFY BY-PASSED ZONES

IN A MATURE GAS FIELD

Ari Wibowo*
Budi Srisantoso*
William F. Turnbull*

ABSTRACT significantly to sustaining the production from the

The Badak Field, operated by VICO Indonesia is
one of the worlds giant gas fields. Located in East
Kalimantan, the field lies in the northern part of the
80 kilometers long Badak Handil giant anticline.
Discovered in January 1972, production started in
October 1976 and reached a peak of 1,091 MMscfd
in December 1990. The Badak field today is a very
mature gas field. By August 2007 production had
declined to 80 MMscfd. Wellwork activities (also
known as rigless intervention) are the usual way to
maintain or increase production in VICO fields
including Badak. Like many other deltaic
environment reservoirs in the world, the Badak field
is extremely complicated, and consists of a large
number of reservoirs consisting of hundreds of
small lens reservoirs and giant stacked channels.
The complicated geometry is a serious challenge to
geologists who are responsible for determining
lateral and vertical communication between the
individual sand units. It is estimated that more than
90% of the Badak reservoir units have already been
identified and correctly mapped as a result of data
obtained during infill drilling and subsequent rigless
activities in the wells. Most of the reservoirs units,
especially the larger ones, have been intensively
drained over the life of the field, and only a few of
them are still producing today at a low rate due to
depletion. Finding zones with remaining production
potential that are candidates for rigless activity has
become much more of a challenge for the Base
Management Team. The analytical methods used in
the past by Production geologists and petroleum
engineers to find these potential rigless candidates
zones are no longer considered as applicable as they
once were due to the maturity of the field. This
paper describes the new analytical methods that are
in use today and are successful in identifying rigless
opportunities. These new methods have contributed
* VICO Indonesia
Badak field, which is today producing at around
100 MMscfd.
INTRODUCTION
Badak is a giant gas field consisting of more than
180 production layers with more than 530
reservoirs. The cumulative production has reached
more than 12 TCF since start up in October 1976.
The location of the field with respect to the
Mahakam Delta in East Kalimantan is shown in
Figure 1.
The entire Badak reservoir includes many different
separate reservoir units, varying from hundreds of
small lens reservoirs up to giant stacked channels of
sandstones with varying porosity and permeability.
These sands are interspersed with abundant coals
and marine shale deposits which are incidentally the
source of the abundant hydrocarbons. The thick
shale layers also act as seals and cap rocks. The
combination of the domed anticline structure and
the complex sedimentation mechanism of the
ancient Mahakam tidal-fluvial dominated delta,
has resulted in the perfect stratigraphic and
structural trap for the Badak Field as demonstrated
in Figure 2.
Generally the Badak reservoirs can be divided into
three groups by depth, each with different
petrophysical properties and drive mechanisms as
shown in Figure 3:
1) The shallow reservoirs (the A to C sands),
consist mostly of thick lenses of high porosity
and high permeability sand layers. These are
generally fresh water formations with strong
water drive mechanisms. The sand deposits are
Fluvial channel dominated but with a few tidal
channel deposits in some areas. Water coning
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and produced sand problems are an issue for
these reservoirs. Geologically, stacking sands
are also common in some areas, but not as
much as the Middle reservoirs. Strong pressure
support from the aquifer is found in these units,
and roughly original reservoir pressure is
maintained. Most of these sands have already
been produced to abandonment.
2) The middle reservoirs (from D to upper F
sands), consist of sand layers with various
thickness, porosity and permeability.
Predominantly fluvial channel sands dominate,
but with some mouth bar deposits and more
tidal channels than the shallow reservoirs.
Generally saline formation water is found.
Depletion drive is the usual production
mechanism, but in some cases weak water drive
can be found. The low productivity of some the
low permeability layers is a challenge, but the
biggest difficulty is identifying connectivity
between the layers and the much depleted
reservoir pressures. Some remaining reserves
exist in these sands.
3) The deepest reservoirs (lower F to H sands)
consist of sands with varying thickness,
deposited mainly in the delta plain as fluvial
channel deposits and also, in a few areas, tidal
channel deposits. Saline formation water is
found in these sands and depletion drive is the
production mechanism. There are fewer
reservoir units when compared with the
shallower intervals. There are fewer
connectivity prediction issues among these
stacking sands. The main challenges with these
reservoirs are the low productivity due to the
low permeability, and well accessibility due to
the depth.
Geologically and in summary, the Badak field is
very complex and challenging. The Mahakam delta
is a fluvial tidal dominated delta, where the
impact of fluvial channel deposition and tidal
processes can be seen and continues today. Massive
deposition in the past has resulted in huge amounts
of deposits and channels. The changing directions
of the channels which finally formed thick stacked
reservoir sands have resulted in the connectivity
identification and correlation puzzles for reservoir
engineers and geologists to solve. Another
consequence of this is that reservoirs unidentified
by previous analysis also exist, and are still
encountered routinely in the development wells
being drilled today.
Rigless intervention activity has always been
considered the most effective and efficient solution
to maintain and increase production from all of the
VICO fields including Badak. Rigless jobs typically
change production zones without pulling the
existing tubing completion, and do not require a rig
to accomplish. Activities such as zonal isolation
using mechanical plugs or cement, the addition of
new perforation or re-perforating, etc, are handled
by slickline, electric wireline and coiled tubing
units. Rigless costs are much less than the cost of a
workover requiring a rig, and usually only take less
than two weeks to complete from conception to
completion.
THE ANALYTICAL METHODS
The correct analytical method to optimize reservoir
production and to reveal the unidentified
opportunities in such a complicated reservoir
system are very important. The following discusses
the historic means that were used to do this:
a. The Reservoir and Well Review (R&W
Review)
This analytical method was performed to identify
remaining potential in the reservoirs. The basic idea
was to find reservoirs with high potential for
remaining reserves by estimating the Gas Liquid
Contact from reservoir modeling or the dynamic
data, predicting the reservoir pressure and then
determining the best well to produce from, based on
petrophysical properties, structural position and the
mechanical condition of the well. This method also
found bypassed zones (unidentified pay zones based
on previous analysis) from geological re-
correlation, petrophysical and reservoir re-analysis.
This method was very successful in the past in
maximizing production from almost all reservoirs.
The limitation of this method was its lower
effectiveness in supporting and maintaining
production compared with other methods. The
difficulty was the impossibility of making a
complete and detailed analysis of the geological re-
correlation, petrophysical and reservoir re-analysis
for all 530 reservoirs in a short time. The process is
shown diagrammatically in Figure 4.
b. Well System Performance Update (WSPU)
This method was also known as the well by well
review. Whereas the R&W review was performed
to maximized remaining potential reserves from
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reservoirs, the WSPU was performed to maximize
the production from the individual wells in the field.
The intention was to revive idle wells and to
increase production from low productivity zones by
changing production intervals. The inactive zones in
each well were analyzed carefully including a
review of their petrophysical properties, current
estimated Gas Liquid Contact, structural position,
remaining reserves, current reservoir pressure, and
mechanical accessibility.
A limitation of this kind of method was its
ineffectiveness in finding bypassed zones. Despite
using the most up to date dynamic data, this method
also relied on the maps which were less frequently
updated. There was less geological control, and
almost no re-correlation or revised petrophysical
analysis was engaged in. Despite the original
success of this method in maintaining production,
with time even this became less effective. The
process is shown diagrammatically in Figure 5.
Both of the previous methods, whether R&W
review or WSPU, used the same main analytical
data source, the maps, which were rarely updated.
Beside their high dependency to the maps, previous
methods were basically single discipline analysis -
the R&W review predominantly a geological
analysis, and the WSPU generally an engineering
analysis.
NEW ANALYTICAL METHOD
The new analytical method is a geological
modification of WSPU method. Unlike previous
WSPU methods, it attempts to think out of box.
In this method, the maps are only used as a general
guide for the analysis, and allow challenge to the
implied connectivity shown by the maps. Similar to
the WSPU method, this method is also a well by
well review.
It starts by checking the idle zones in low
productivity wells and those wells mechanical
accessibility. The next step is to identify the drive
mechanism of the zone within its reservoir. The
drive mechanism of each reservoir can be
determined from the pressure trend analysis. In
strong water drive reservoirs, the reservoir pressure
will tend to return to its original pressure due to
natural pressure recharge from the aquifer. In
depletion drive reservoirs the reservoir pressure
continues to drop following production.
Since the reservoir pressure remains close to
original in strong water drive reservoirs, the
challenge is to predict the movement of the gas-
liquid contact with time. This is done by combining
information derived from new wells (including well
logs and RFT data); RST log data; material balance
calculations; and dynamic data from producing
wells. When the results are superimposed on the
geological cross section, a complete picture of the
reservoir condition is obtained.
In depletion drive reservoirs, connectivity among
tanks is generally easy to determine from pressure
trend analysis relative to time. However, in some
cases, even with cased-hole RFT and sidetrack
information, we see a big discrepancy in pressures
which may be due to incorrect mapping and
correlation of sand bodies.
Some new pools have been successfully identified
from this new method. Target zones which had
been previously identified as being part of adjacent
depleted big tanks were found to be completely
separate reservoirs after some re-correlation and
dynamic data re-analysis. The main challenge from
this method is how to justify the lack of
connectivity with the original interpretation and to
conclude that the zone has remaining gas potential
with very limited current data.
The new method attempts to analyze the lack of
connectivity among those zones by utilizing every
single piece data on a time basis right up until the
most recent item of data in a zone was obtained.
For example, if an RST log that had been run across
an interval indicated gas, and in wells drilled updip
and prior to this there had been indication that the
zone was wet, then the possibility of a by-passed
zone has been identified. A summary of the logic
used in this analysis is shown in Figure
RESULTS
Some Success Stories
a. BDK16 B12A Zone
B12A and B12B are stacked sands with strong
water drive. They had produced 197 BCF until 1995
and declared unproductive due to the suspicion that
they had already watered out. Both of them are
generally easy to recognize, the B12A sand is above
a thick coal layer, while the B12B sand is below it.
It was confirmed by RST in BDK109 on February
2000 that B12A tank 1, which had never been
produced before, was already wet (according the
RST result). It was predicted that these two sands
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contacted each other around BDK81, BDK137 or
BDK31 wells. The B12A sand extends to the north
and B12B to the south as shown in Figure 7.
A Gap in sedimentation of both sands was found in
the BDK16 well area, in the middle of this zone.
Stratigraphic correlation showed that this sand was
geologically sedimented directly above the coal. It
did not appear to be chronostratigraphically
correlated with the common B12A sand tank 1
which was separated by the thick shale above the
coal, and it also seemed isolated in the middle of the
undeveloped zone by geometrical analysis (as
shown in Figure 8).
An RST log was then run on Nov 2007 which
confirmed that this zone was a Gas zone. It was
perforated on Dec 2nd 2007, and produced at an
initial rate of 8.4 MMSCFD, 0 BCPD and 0
BWPD. This zone now has a cumulative production
of 3.074 BCF, and is still producing today.
b. BDK7 E8B Zone
The E8B zone in the BDK7 well was previously
interpreted as being part of the big E8B tank 2. This
tank had been depleted and has an estimated
reservoir pressure of 400 psig. It was also
interpreted as having no more potential due to its
structural position as the most down dip well in
E8B tank 2 (Figure 9).
Production history showed that E8B started
production in October 1987. The closest up-dip
wells containing the E8B sand tank2 (BDK78
drilled in September 1982, and BDK110 drilled in
October 1987) were originally wet.
The new analytical method helped us determine that
BDK7 had a different gas-liquid contact to the E8B
tank2, which also mean that the sand in BDK7 was
potentially an isolated virgin tank (Figure 10).
Following a perforation campaign run on January
30th 2008, the initial production rate was 3.3
MMSCFD, 0 BCPD and 30 BWPD. This zone had
cumulatively produced 0.721 BCF until today.
c. BDK66 B8A Zone
No previous analysis ever considered the B8A sand
in the BDK66 well as pay, and no wells were ever
produced from this zone in the entire Badak field.
We discovered that this zone was only found in the
BDK66 well and to a small extent (2 ft) in the
adjacent down-dip well BDK124. An RST in
BDK66 run in October 1996 and another in May
1999 in BDK124 showed a high possibility of gas
from this zone. The mud log in BDK124 also
showed high gas reading in this sand when it was
drilled in March 1981. The conclusion was that the
B8A zone was a by-passed zone (Figure 11).
The next concern was the connectivity of this zone
with surrounding reservoirs. The sands above it (B8
tank1) and below it (B9 tank1) were both proven to
be watered out using the latest dynamic data, and
both were strong water drive reservoirs which
meant the pressure trend analysis was not useful.
A shale break and a continuous coal layer between
the B8B and B9 reservoirs (found across the entire
Badak field) indicated that B8B and B9 were
geologically separated. The B8 tank 1 production
period was from December 1989 to December
1993, and after that no wells were produced from
this tank. RST logs were run in BDK66 in October
1996 and in BDK124 in May 1999; and both logs
showed indication of gas in zone in B8B. This
proved lack of connectivity between B8 and B8B,
and the conclusion that B8B in BDK66 and
BDK124 was an unidentified pay zone (Figure 12).
The perforation campaign run on April 26th 2008
resulted in an initial rate of 6.386 MMSCFD, 0
BCPD and 0 BWPD. This zone has produced a
cumulative volume of 0.296 BCF and is still
producing today.
d. BDK62 E9X Zone
BDK62 was an idle well, and when last producing
consisted of the commingled flow from 7 depleted
zones. It was suspended in March 2006 due to very
low rate production, and classified as having no
further potential. This well is one of the eastern
most Badak wells, and the pay zones are on the
down dip part of east Badak flank (Figure 13).
The new analytical method found that previous
geological analysis had resulted in the possibility of
a misscorrelation. A proven high-rate gas bearing
sand which was previously determined to be the
E9A sand in BDK62 was likely to have been
miscorrelated with the adjacent surrounding E9A
tank 3 reservoir. Based on stratigraphic correlation,
this zone had the potential to be a new isolated tank.
The zone was perforated on June 24th 2008, and the
initial production rate was 9.0 MMSCFD, 0 BCPD
and 23 BWPD. This zone has produced 1.141 BCF
and is still producing today.
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e. BDK102 E6E Zone
The E6E zone in the BDK102 well was previously
considered one of the most down dip penetrations of
the big depleted sand E6E tank 1, and declared as
having no potential. Geological correlation,
geometrical analysis and pressure trend analysis
showed an indication of discontinuity between E6E
tank1 and the same sand layer in the BDK108,
BDK157 and BDK102 wells (Figure 15).
In the most down dip well, BDK108, E6E had
already produced in single completion mode from
July 1988 to Jan 1994 with a cumulative production
of 11.9 BCF, 149.8 MBO and 115.4 MBW. The
well was then suspended due to lack of flow caused
by watering out. However, the pressure trend
analysis on this zone had shown a tendency of
pressure recharge in this well from an unknown
source which could not be identified. It was
concluded that the E6E sand in BDK102 still had
remaining potential since it could be part of the
recharged high pressure zone and was 40 ft up dip
from the same produced zone in BDK108 (Figure
16).
Following the initial perforation campaign run on
Oct 3rd 2008, the initial rate was 10.6 MMSCFD, 0
BCPD and 30 BWPD. This zone had cumulatively
produced 0.691 BCF until today. Additionally,
Nodal analysis also showed a high possibility of
connectivity between this zone and the same zone in
BDK108, with the possibility of a strong water
drive reservoir, uncommon in E reservoirs.
IMPACT ON PRODUCTION
The new analytical method was found through a
process of continual development. Badak
production reached a low point of 75 MMSCFD in
mid 2007, and the need for a new analytical method
was very high. During the refinement of the new
method we discovered the B12A zone in the
BDK16 well, with its high production rate
contributing in early December 2007. This was
followed by discovery of the E8B zone in the
BDK7 well. Before these discoveries, high rates
such as these were only experienced in new wells.
These results alerted us to the fact that we still had
opportunities in untapped zones in the Badak field,
and that our development of the new analytical
method was on the right track.
The subsequent discoveries of the unidentified pay
zone B8A in the BDK66 well, the unidentified E9X
pool in the BDK62 well and the finding of the
remaining thick potential gas zone in BDK102
convinced us that the method was working.
Badak field production has gradually increased to
100 MMSCFD and remains stable at that rate today.
In addition, the number of idle wells has decreased,
as the new analysis method has enabled idle wells
to be returned to production
CONCLUSIONS
Many analytical methods have been applied to
optimize the depletion of the Badak Field. These
have, over time, been very successful in draining
the gas and have provided much understanding of
the field geometry and reservoir behavior. As the
field depleted it has been necessary to modify the
analytical methods to account for the changing
conditions in the reservoir. The current evolution of
analytical method, the modification of the well by
well review, has proven very successful in
generating rigless opportunities which will allow
VICO to optimally deplete the Badak Field well
into the future.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank VICO Indonesia,
BP, ENI, OPIC Oil, Universe, and BP Migas for
permission to publish this paper.
REFERENCES
Allen, G.P., and Chambers, John L.C.:
Sedimentation in the Modern and Miocene
Mahakam Delta, Indonesian Petroleum
Association, 1998.
VICO Indonesia, Kutai Basin Study, Internal
Study, Unpublished, 1995.
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Figure 1 - Badak Situation Map, red area in left most picture are gas fields, the green one are oil fields,
VICO fields are on the onshore of Delta Mahakam, offshore area on east direction are Total and
Chevrons fields. Badak lies on fish ponds (orange), coconut plantations (yellow), swamps
(green) and villages (white and pink) areas.

Figure 2 - Badak anticline from seismic, a relatively west east seismic section of Badak Anticline, the
upper most green line is the top of shallow sediments, the pink one is top A1 and the yellow line
is top of D5 zone, while the relatively blue dot vertical line are the unsealed faults.
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Figure 3 - Badak zonation system, lower A to C zones, the shallow reservoirs, consisted of thick high
perm and less consolidated sands, less stacked zones with strong water drive mechanism. D to
Upper F zones, the intermediate reservoirs, consisted of thick, consolidated, medium to high
permeability sands, highly stacked reservoirs with dominantly depletion drive mechanism.
Lower F to H zones, the deep reservoirs, thick to thin sands, highly consolidated, low
permeability and less stacked reservoirs with depletion drive mechanism.
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Figure 4 - Reservoir and Well Review (R&W review) schematic chart

Figure 5 - Well System Performances Up date (WSPU) schematic chart.

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Figure 6 - The new analytical method.

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Figure 7 - Logs and Maps of B12 zones, Upper most figure, yellow shaded area is B12A zone, the orange
one is B12B, both of them is separated by thick coal layer (black streak on logs). Lower figures,
previous B012A net sand map (left), previous B12B netsand map (right), yellow shaded area is
only northern B12A net sand, the brown one is only B12B net sand, both of them are stacked in
central to southern direction. The red area is undeveloped zone of both B12A and B12B
reservoirs. The small yellow dotted area in the middle of the red zone is the by passed zone of
B12A in BDK16.
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Figure 8 - Re-correlation, production history and dynamic data re-analysis. Stratigraphic correlation
of B12A B12B sands, yellow shaded area is B12A sand, the orange one is B012B, foot notes
on the wells are reliable production, reservoir and dynamic data. The potential by passed zone
is the yellow shaded area in BDK16 (red mark on the well name).

Figure 9 - Previous E8B Net sand Map and Gas proved by Logs, Left figure, Net sand map of E8B
tank1, green contour line is top structure of E8B zone, yellow shaded area is the by passed
zone of E8B in BDK7. Middle upper Figure, Elan petrophysical analysis shown gas zone.
Middle Upper figure shown high gas reading from mud log. Right most figure is permeability
log based on Elan analysis.
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Figure 10 - Re-correlation, production history and dynamic data re-analysis. Structural correlation of
E8B sands, foot notes on the wells are reliable production, reservoir and dynamic data. The
potential by passed zone is the yellow shaded area in BDK7 (red mark on the well name).

Figure 11 - B8A unidentified gas zone, Left most figure is Elan analysis of B8A in BDK66 and its RST log
(Oct 1996), Right figure is its adjacent and reference well logs and RST (May 1999) of BDK124
and also its mud log, red shaded area is the unidentified by passed zone B8A.
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Figure 12 - Re-correlation, production history and dynamic data re-analysis. Structural correlation of
B8A & well known B8 sands, yellow shaded area is B8A sand, the orange one is B8 zone,
foot notes on the wells are reliable production, reservoir and dynamic data. The potential by
passed zone is the yellow shaded area in BDK66 (red mark on the well name). Lower most
figure is PTA and cumulative production shown that no more production from adjacent tank
(B8) when RST were run on BDK66 and BDK124.
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Figure 13 - Previous E9A Net sand Map, green contour line is top structure of E9A zone, yellow shaded
area is the by passed zone of E9A tank3 in BDK62.

Figure 14 - Stratigraphic and structural re-correlation, Upper most figure, stratigraphic correlation
shown a potential miss-correlation on E9A between BDK62 and its adjacent up dip reservoir
of wellknown highly depleted E9A tank3. Lower figure shown E9A potential by passed
zone in BDK62 is structurally in the most down dip part of E9A tanks. Yellow shaded area
is potential by passed zone, the orange one is wellknown E9A tank3 sand.
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Figure 15 - Previous E6E Net sand Map, green contour line is top structure of E6E zone, yellow shaded
area is the by passed zone of E6E in BDK102, while light blue is the reference well
BDK108.
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Figure 16 - Re-correlation, production history and dynamic data re-analysis. Upper most figure shown
structural re-correlation of E6E. E6E in BDK102, BDK108 and BDK157 is potential to be
separated with its adjacent up dip and highly depleted tank of E6E tank1. Foot note on the
wells are reliable production, reservoir and dynamic data, the potential by passed zone is the
yellow shaded area in BDK102 (red mark on the well name).
Lower figures, pressure trend analysis and cumulative production of E6E, blue dashed line
shown pressure trend of adjacent highly depleted E6E tank1, red dashed line is the pressure
trend of E6E southern new tank (within BDK108, BDK102 and BDK157)

Figure 17 - Production contribution charts, showing contribution of all activities to Badak production
2007 2008. Rigless gave significant contribution after the implementation of the new method
from late 2007.
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2007 2008

Figure 18 - Rigless v/s budget chart, showing the effectiveness of the new method to the 2008 rigless
programs (The budget has been converted to expected monthly production rate).