SPE-179812-MS

Challenges and Learnings from Thermal Development of Thick Heavy Oil

Reservoirs in Southern Oman
Abdesslam Belghache, Suleiman Al-Hinai, Abdulsalaam Rabaani, Mohammed Manhali, JP Tromp, Steve Holyak,
Kevin DAmours, Sameh Afifi, and Ahmed Ajmi

Copyright 2016, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE EOR Conference at Oil and Gas West Asia held in Muscat, Oman, 2123 March 2016.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents
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consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may
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Abstract
The A Steam Project in Southern Oman is a large scale Thermal EOR project currently being executed
by PDO. It comprises the re-development of the A West Field, which has a significant cold oil
development history, and the new development of the nearby A East Field.
The heavy viscous oil is contained in high net-to-gross braided river, aeolian and alluvial fan
sandstones of the Cambrian Haima Group. Both fields were discovered in the 1970s. The A West Field
has lower oil viscosity and was first produced in 1976. A East oil is significantly more viscous than A
West oil and was historically assessed to be too viscous for cold production. For this reason A East Field
was not initially developed. In contrast, by 2008, after some 30 years of cold oil production, an estimated
18% of the STOIIP had been recovered from A West and the water cut had steadily increased to 90%.
A field study was initiated in 2008 to evaluate re-development options based on EOR technologies. For
A West the selected Phase I (re-) development concept comprised a steam flood with inverted 7-spot
patterns. For A East the plan was for initial cyclic steam soak (CSS) on a regularly spaced 92 92 m
grid, with later conversion to a 8 acre / 9 spot steam flood. The two sub-surface developments were to be
managed as an integrated project with shared surface facilities and operations. The project received Final
Investment Decision for Phase I in 2009 and came on stream in 2013.
The paper will provide an overview of the project development phases & its execution strategy, current
status of field performance, and specifically the innovative way the development challenges are addressed.

Introduction
The A Thermal EOR project remains a key strategic demonstrator project for PDO and Oman, required
to eventually unlock significant contingent resource volumes associated with other heavy oil accumula-
tions in PDO by means of Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS) and/or Vertical Steam Drive (VSD) concepts.
Following its discovery in 1972, the A West field was put on intermittent beam pump oil production
in 1976. Continuous production started in 1987 through vertical wells drilled in the crestal part of
reservoir. Subsequently, development was switched to horizontal wells with a first horizontal well being
drilled in 1992. A East was discovered in 1976 and it represents a significantly thick accumulation of
Haradh (sandstone) formation.
2 SPE-179812-MS

The A field development plan has evolved in the past 35 years taking into account the following
particularities:
the reservoir depth (~1000 m);
the heavy nature of the oil (17-25 API);
the reservoir thickness (~200m);
the aquifer support; and
the steam conformance.
The Final Investment Decision (FID) was taken in 2009. Since the 2009 FID, several major changes
were made to the original Field Development Plan:
2014: A West In-fill decision to reduce the 10 acre 7 spot pattern size to to 3.3 acre 7-spot and
increase the steam flux (unit rate of steam injection per unit reservoir volume).
2015: A West decision taken to expand the existing 3.3 acre Phase 1 area by adding an additional
32 inverted 7-spot patterns to fill ullage in the existing AW facilities.
2015: A East expansion decision, taken to extend the existing 84 well AE development by drilling
and hooking up a further 34 CSS wells to existing facilities.
This paper will provide an overview of the project development phases & its execution strategy, current
status of field performance, and specifically the innovative way the development challenges are addressed.

Background
The A East & West heavy oil fields are located on the Eastern Flank of the South Oman Salt Basin. The
fields were discovered in the seventies and the relatively less viscous A West was brought on stream in
the eighties. The heavy oil of the fields is contained in two separate dome shaped unconformity traps (Fig.
1) that were formed by the deep erosive incision into a more than 800m thick sequence of high
net-to-gross sandy braided river, aeolian and alluvial fan sandstones belonging to the Cambrian Haradh,
Amin and Mahwis formations. This erosive palaeo-relief was subsequently sealed by an on-lapping infill
of mudrock dominated deposits belonging to the Carboniferous - Permian Al Khlata and Gharif
formations and Nahr Umr mudstones at the base of the overburden.
SPE-179812-MS 3

Figure 1Top Reservoir Depth Structure Map and! Geological Cross Section

Most of the combined A East & West STOIIP is contained in the braided river sandstones of the
Haradh Formation. Porosity and permeability ranges from 23 - 27 % and 10 5,000 mD in A West and
22 26 % and 10 2,800 mD in A East. Compared to A West the oil in A East is heavier (970 vs
930 kg/m3) and more viscous (Fig. 2). The OOWC at the highly viscous base of the 287m maximum A
East oil column is tilted 1 degree to the NNW.
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Figure 2Viscosity Data for A West and East, based on produced fluid samples and Gushor analysis of core data

A schematic surface facilities diagram for the A Thermal EOR project is shown in Figure 3. The
produced oil and water from A East & West is cooled and exported via a multi-phase pipeline to the N
field Production Station (NRPS) for separation. The produced Aquifer Pump Off (APO) water is gathered
in the APO tank and used, after treatment in the water plant, as the feed water source for the OTSG steam
generators. Excess APO water is diverted to the J water disposal site some 23 km to the southeast of A.

Figure 3Schematic Facilities Diagram

The layout of the A West and East wells and associated production gathering and steam distribution
facilities are arranged in an Urban Development Plans with dedicated rig/hoist access and steam injection
and production manifolds & header corridors.
By the end of 2015 a total of 201 new thermal EOR project wells were drilled in A West comprising
25 steam injectors, 147 thermal producers, 16 APO wells and 14 observation wells. Hundred and
seventy-three (173) of these wells were completed and 140 wells were hooked-up and commissioned.
SPE-179812-MS 5

The A project continued on its excellent HSE performance with 21.5 mln Man-hours LTI free in April
2015.

A East CSS Challenges

The A East crude viscosity varies from 300cp at the reservoir top to 400,000cp at the OWC due to
biodegradation (Figure 2). Ten wells were drilled historically in the Field and 8 wells produced using
beam pumps as an artificial lift. The cold production rates were marginal and the pumps struggled to
produce due to the high oil viscosity. CSS trials took place in the mid-1990s and between 2008-2010. The
trials proved the viability of thermal EOR development for the Eastern field.
The A East steam injection started on the 2nd of March 2014, a year after the cold production start-up.
CSS started in the flank and mid-flank wells since the crestal wells were still in cold production at the
time. Figure 3a shows A East well categories based on top of the reservoir depth cut-off and they reflect
the oil viscosity gradient with depth (Ref. 1).

Figure 3aA East well categories and pressure depletion map as of December 2013 (prior to CSS start-up)

The CSS start-up was controlled by wells readiness and initially high injectivity was achieved due to
the lower reservoir pressure (Figure 3a). However, the reservoir pressure increased with time (Figure 4)
due to injection in adjacent wells and challenges in wells conversion from injectors to producers. As a
result, the field injection rate was reduced to maintain a lower reservoir pressure and a CSS philosophy
of even distribution of steam (injectors) in the reservoir was implemented. The aim was to ensure that
steam injectors were surrounded by producers, which enhanced the injectivity and provided better means
to manage the reservoir pressure. This also resulted in pressure support to the adjacent producers and led
to incremental production gains.
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Figure 4 Steam injection and reservoir pressure since the start of CSS

Currently, the field steam injection is in a ramp up phase while improving the off take to ensure
reservoir pressure reduction. The ultimate objective is to bring the reservoir pressure to the level that
vertical steam flood can be started notionally as inverted 9-spot patterns. Figure 5 shows the A East
production/injection and the active number of producers.

Figure 5A East production/ injection and active producers history

Cross Top Down Steam Drive (X-TDSD) Trial for A East Phase-2
Development
The current A East development (phase 1) is targeting the top half of the reservoir due to the high
viscosity oil, which includes 1/3 of the original volume in place (Figure 6).
SPE-179812-MS 7

Figure 6 Phase 2 targeted volume illustration

The vertical A East wells were drilled and perforated from top reservoir down to approximately 85
m above OWC at a fixed depth of 1010 m TVDss. The thermal development to the more viscous oil in
the flank and bottom parts of the reservoir (phase 2) needs to be considered to improve the ultimate
recovery from A East. Multiple options were assessed to evaluate the suitability to develop the phase 2
volume. Cross top down steam drive (X-TDSD) using horizontal wells has a potential to establish steam
injection in the deeper part of the field, after a near-wellbore warm up phase. The concept of X-TDSD is
to drill the injection wells above the production wells similar to the steam assisted gravity drainage
(SAGD), but unlike SAGD, the injectors are placed distant and perpendicular to the producers (Figure 7).
The wells will be designed to overcome the steam short circuiting after achieving thermal and hydraulic
communication between the injectors and the producers. The plan is to drill 8 wells as part of a pilot, two
horizontal steam injectors, three horizontal producers and 3 vertical observation wells.

Figure 7Top Down Steam Drive (TDSD) schematic

A West re-development history and status

The evolution of the A West thermal EOR re-development plan, described in the subsequent sections,
from the original plan to the Phase-1 FID in July 2009 via the additional pattern trials decision in
8 SPE-179812-MS

November 2012 and the 3.3 Acre In-fill / 1.1 Acre Trial / Additional APO Wells decisions in 2014 till the
current 3.3 Acre Expansion plan, endorsed in July 2015, is illustrated in Figure 8.

Figure 8 A West Field Re-development History and Status

SPE-179812-MS 9

Cold production development phase

Following the discovery of the A West field by the 1H1 exploration well in 1972 and a period of
appraisal and production testing, development of the A West Field started in 1984 with temporary cold
production facilities. After commissioning of the A Gathering station in 1987, full field cold
development took off with beam pump assisted vertical wells that were perforated in the upper half of the
oil column. Together with gross production arriving from fields further to the south, the gross liquid
production from the field was evacuated via a multi-phase export line to the main N Field Production
Station (NRPS). From 1995 onwards the vertical well concept was changed to beam pump assisted
horizontal wells, drilled close to the top of the reservoir to delay the water cut increase caused by the
bottoms up ingress of mobile water from the aquifer. By the end of 2004, after recovering ~ 14% of the
Haima Group expectation STOIIP, net oil production had come down and total water production from
the field had increased to approximately 90%. Figure 9 (below) summarizes the A West full field
production history and the major field development stages.

Figure 9 A West Field Production History

2009 decision for thermal development

Following a field review in 2003, an integrated EOR feasibility & field development study for the A
West and the adjacent A East fields was kicked-off in 2004 that ultimately resulted in the July 2009 FID
for the Phase-1 of a combined thermal field (re-)development plan to increase the UR from the A West
field by means of a vertical steam flood, and, at the same time, initiated the development of the higher
viscosity A East oil accumulation with Cyclic Steam Simulation (CSS) prior to conversion to a vertical
steam flood. In 2007, steam injection trials were conducted on three of the A West wells and confirmed
that steam could be injected at the required 400m3/d rates. In 2008, steam injection trial started in the first
10 acre-7 spot Vertical Steam Drive (VSD) pilot using a mobile steam generation facilities.
The Phase-1 sub-surface scope for A West Vertical Steam Drive (VSD) re-development comprised:
The phased drilling, logging and completion of fifty (50) 10 Acre 7 Spot VSD injection patterns
(125m injector producer spacing).
10 SPE-179812-MS

The drilling, logging and completion of 12 Base Plan Aquifer pump-off (APO) wells at 100m
below the OOWC.
The drilling and completion of 7 excess APO water relocation wells at the shallow Dammam
Formation water re-location site to the SE of the A West field.
To facilitate project execution, Phase 1 of the A Thermal EOR project sanctioned at the FID was
divided into three engineering sub-phases 1A, 1B and 1C (Figure 8).
2012 decision for additional patterns trial
In 2012, approximately 3 years after FID for Phase 1 of the A West and East thermal EOR (re-)
development, a follow-up integrated reservoir modeling and field re-development study was carried out
for the A West and A East fields by a dedicated study team. The study was supported by additional
wire line log and conventional core data, production/injection and surveillance data from the 1P pattern
- the first 10 Acre trial pattern that had been receiving steam since the FID in July 2009 - and initial cold
production data from the next nine (9) 10 Acre patterns that had been drilled, hooked-up and
commissioned during 2010 and 2011 (a.k.a Phase 1A). The study was concluded with an integrated
technical review. An in-depth integrated reservoir simulation study was part of the 2012 follow-up field
development study.
Based on the 2012 study recommendations, the project decision board endorsed the proposal for further
pattern size / configuration trials to compare the recovery economics from these alternative trial patterns
with the implemented 10 Acre 7 Spot patterns (Ref. 2). The proposed trials are illustrated in the upper
right-hand corner of Figure 8.
2014 decision for 7 Spot patterns size reduction
Analysis of production & surveillance data (Ref. 3) together with reservoir simulation work suggested that
the steam flooding process in A West can be further optimized by addressing:
The low steam flux ratio i.e. the steam injection rate per unit volume of oil bearing rock in
the relatively large 10 Acre 7 Spot injection patterns (125 m average targeted oil column
thickness).
The slower than expected depletion of the reservoir pressure caused by the lower than expected
liquid off-take in the producers and aquifer pump-off wells.
The slow steam chest development in the reservoir due to aquifer water influx.

To increase the effectiveness of the injected steam and ramp-up thermal net oil production, the
following changes were proposed, the last remaining sub-phase of the A West Phase 1 vertical steam
drive project:
Reduce the patterns size to 3.3 Acre: Following an integrated technical review, this tactical
decision has been endorsed to reduce the size of the injection patterns in the central 17P steam
flood area from 10 Acre 7 Spot (125m injector producer spacing) to 3.3 Acre 7 Spot (72m
injector producer spacing) through the in-fill drilling of the 17P area with 82 new producers,
the conversion of 4 existing observation wells to producers and the conversion of the 22 exiting
producers to injectors.
Implement a 1.1 Acre Trial; The implementation of a 1.1 Acre Trial was to accelerate reservoir
management learnings and calibrate reservoir simulation models. It comprises the drilling of two
additional steam injectors in two triangular shaped 1.1 Acre unit cells (43m injector-producer
spacing) on the edge of the Phase 1C1 area (Fig. 8; lower left-hand corner). The two additional
steam injectors associated with this trial, were drilled in 2015.
Install Additional Aquifer Pump-Off (APO) Capacity; To accelerate the pressure depletion of
the aquifer, it was decided in January 2015 to drill 7 Additional APO Wells to raise the total
SPE-179812-MS 11

average off-take to the 46,000 m3/d off-take. Four of the eight approved additional APO wells
were drilled in 2015 and the remaining three are planned to be drilled in 2016.
2015 A West decision for the 3.3 Acre expansion
In July 2015 the project decision board endorsed the proposal to expand the 3.3 Acre in-filled central
17P steam injection area to the south and east with 38 additional 3.3 Acre patterns by drilling 18
additional injectors and 84 additional producers. This strategic decision was taken to: 1) ensure full
utilization of the implemented and planned steam generation capacity and 2) recover additional undevel-
oped reserves. The Phase 1C2 Expansion sub-surface locations shown in Figure 8.
Implemented Trials to address Key A West Development Challenges
Cyclic Steam Stimulation:
With the confirmed delays in heat response from the producers and the low off-take rates from the
producers, CSS has been considered in 2011 to achieve the following goals:
1. Mechanically Stimulate the wells with low productivity index.
2. Speed up the steam chamber growth.
3. Improve the lateral steam conformance.
CSS has been executed on 14 production wells in A West since October 2011. Introducing steam
resulted in up to 33 m3/Cd peak oil production rate from wells, which were cold producing less than 10
m3/Cd. The oil production rate exhibited a fast decline after steam stimulation. However, the gross
production rate was maintained for an extended period suggesting that a permanent well inflow improve-
ment has been achieved. These positive results, from the conducted CSS cycles, supported the decision
for a permanent hook-up of the future producers to steam facilities. This flexibility will help accelerating
production, stimulating problematic producers and managing the lateral steam conformance in the
reservoir (Ref. 4).
Sand Control Trials
Due to very high sand production, NW corner wells of the 17P area had to be closed-in shortly after
start-up (Fig. 313; Upper right-hand corner). Figures 10 below shows that the closed-in wells are located
in a part of the field where a north-westerly thickening wedge of oil bearing Amin & Mahwis formation
reservoir is overlying the Haradh Formation reservoir. A review identified that the sand was sourced from
perforations across the higher porosity / relatively un-consolidated Amin and Mahwis Formations.

Figure 10 Wells Requiring Sand Control Cross Section

In 2015 a series of trials were initiated to address the sand production problem and restore the closed-in
thermal producers. Cement squeeze into the perforated interval in the Amin Formation was successfully
12 SPE-179812-MS

executed in 2015 resulting in the production restoration from four (4) wells. Internal Gravel Packs (IGP
using slotted liner and a proppant gravel pack) were also installed in 4 planned trial wells and currently
await re-connection to the production system. Four thermal producers of the 3rd 3.3 Acre In-fill Drilling
Campaign are planned to be drilled as non-standard Fat wells to assess different sand control design.

DAS/VSP 4D Seismic Areal Surveillance

After investigating feasibility of a range of areal surveillance technologies it was decided at FID to
continue with the 4DVSP and Cross Well seismic trials (A West 1P pattern base lines acquired in Q2
2009) and also continue to evaluate the use of conventional 4D seismic, INSAR satellite observation, and
micro-seismic observation techniques.
Following a period of 3D VSP and cross-well seismic trials between 2009 and 2012, repeat 3D Vertical
Seismic Profiling using Distributed Acoustic Sensor fibre technology (a.k.a. 4D DAS/VSP) was selected
as the main aerial surveillance tool in A West to monitor steam conformance over time. A DAS/VSP
4D seismic Baseline Survey was acquired in Q1 2014 (Ref. 5). A 4D DAS/VSP workshop was held in
April 2015 during which it was decided to delay the 1St Monitor Survey post the HRSG start-up. The
following considerations underpin the decision:
Steam injection is expected to increase following the planned commissioning of the 1ST Heat
Recovery Steam Generator.
In the run-up to the 1ST Monitor Survey acquisition, reservoir pressure is expected to drop further
with the planned addition of the Phase 1C1 production wells and the increase of APO off-take.
The need to acquire new Baseline data across the Flower Pattern following the installation of the
DAS/VSP equipment in a Flower Project well in 2015.

Micro-seismic Monitoring
Top seal integrity and well bore failure due to fault re-activation caused by extensional stresses in the
over-burden in reaction to thermal expansion of the reservoir has been identified as a Low Likelihood /
High Impact risk in the risk register of the A Steam project. Following a comprehensive geo-mechanical
study in 2014, and the identification of a collapsed graben like faulted structure in the northern part of the
17P steam injection area based on cut-outs in the over burden, a micro-seismic feasibility study was
carried out in 2015.
The micro-seismic feasibility study shows that it is possible to detect and locate thermally induced
micro-seismic events (new shear fractures, hydraulic fractures or reactivated faults) inside and above the
A West and East reservoirs by installing arrays of geo-phones in 6 - 8 vertical observation wells (Fig.
11). In the case of A West, 5 cold phase production wells with high water cuts have been identified as
notional candidates for the installation of geophones as part of their planned abandonment. In the case of
A East new wells will be required to install the geo-phone arrays.
SPE-179812-MS 13

Figure 11Graben Faults that Off-set the Nahr Umr Top Seal (blue ellipses) in A West and Vertical Micro-seismic Detectability

Conclusion
The field development strategy for A fields provides flexibility and adaptability over field life time. It
continues to allow taking on board outcomes from the performance of the existing patterns and offering
exit points and fall back options. A flexible urban plan was put in place to go for smaller pattern size if
required. This flexibility enabled to overcome the challenges and helped in the decision to optimizing the
pattern size and improve steam conformance to maximize the sweep efficiency.

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the management of Petroleum Development Oman and Sultanate of
Omans Ministry of Oil and Gas (MOG) for their kind permission to publish the paper. The authors also
acknowledge the many contributions from PDO related to this project.

References
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14 SPE-179812-MS

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