Proceedings of the Sixth (1996) -International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference (1996)
Los Angeles, USA May 26-31, 1996 .
Copyright © 1996 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engmeers
ISBN 1-880653-22-2 (Set); ISBN 1-880653-23-0 (Vol. I)
Exploratory-Developmental Engineering Method's Suggestion
for the Oil-Gas Rich Zones in the Extreme Shallow-Water Area of
Zhangjuhe in Bohai Bay, China
Changming Zheng and Fushan Zhang
Dagang Petroleum Administration Bureau
Tianjin, China
ABSTRACT
The extreme shallow water area of Zhangjuhe is a portion of the complex -
forms oil - gas rich area in the rifted basin of Bohai Bay. The Zhangxi
Structure in this area is a rollover anticline and the Zhangdong Structure is
a large - scale faulted anticline zone controlled by the basement swell. There
are good source rock and reservoir conditions with rich oil-gas resources.
And boring on both Zhangxi and Zhangdong structures has got
commercial oil-gas flows with an optimistic exploratory -,developmental
prospect. Because the sea-state condition in this area is complex, such as the
wide - flat seabed consisting of silted clay with very low bearing capacity
and intensive back- silting, with high tide, much wind, rough sea, serious
ice situation in winter, developed fish - prawn aquiculture with disposed
and spreaded fishnets extending all over the sea surface, the exploratory -
developmental works must be by the suitable measures to the local
conditions. By three - dimensional seismic survey accurately determining the
structural configuration and making the lateral reservoir prognosis select the
rich and high - production blocks to adopt progressive exploration and
development methods; Based on the different sea-state condition the boring
and oil - producing works adopt built seawall, artificial island, deviated
well, drilling platform, etc, separately; For middle - lower production
blocks can adopt drilling horizontal well method to increase production
and to raise economic benefits; Oil - producing engineeJiing should fully
use the coastal advantage: the large - scale combining station for oil-gas
gathering, water - supplying and dewatering, oil - processing and
transporting etc. should be built onshore; For larger, rich and high producing
blocks' oil - producing should build fixed producing platform or artificial
island except fully using the seawall and platform; For other small and
dispersed oil - bearing blocks should build single well or well - group's oil -
producing and water - injecting platforms; For oil-gas-water pipelines'
laying should be along the seawall as close as possible.
KEY WORDS: Engineering methods, sea-state condition, extreme
shallow-water area, oil-gas rich zone
The oil-gas rich area, Zhangjuhe, is located in the extreme shallow- water,
o - 5 m depth, area of the eastern portion of Oagang Oil Area in Bohai
Bay Basin, that is, the northern latitude from 38° 31' to 38° 36' and the
eastern longitude from 117° 31' to 117° 50' with area 120 km 2. It is to
n,'I.b about 50 km from Tanggu Port of Tanjin and is to south about 20 km
from Huanghua Port of Hebei province, and the Jinqi Highway passes
337
along the seashore.
I. With good petroleum geological conditions and big hydrocarbon
potential.
This area is a portion of the complex - forms' oil-gas rich area in Bbhai
Bay Rift Basin with good petroleum - geological conditions and optimistic
prospect, for which mainly shown that:
( I ) With large - scale oil-bearing traps( Figure I and 2 ). Faults in this
area is very developed and with two groups mainly in NE - NEE and NW -
NWW directions. The Zhangbei and Zhangdong faults are the larger main
faults among them and they are crossed as "chevron" shaped. The structures
were cut by faults into many faulted block traps and the differences for oil
rich degree of each ones are very clear. The Zhangxi and Zhangdong
structures had been evolved along the Zangbei and Zhangdong faults. The
Zhangxi structure is a rollover anticline located on the downthrow side
of Zhangbei fault and it was cut by a small fault in NEE direction; The
Zhangdong structure is a large - scale faulted anticline - structure - zone
controlled by the basement swell and it was cut into two parts, northern and
southern, by Zhangdong Fault. Its northern limb on the downthrow side is
a wide - gentle faulted nosing -structure and the southern limb on the
upthrow side was cut by faults in NWW direction to form a faulted step
structure, and its southern -western end was cut by faults in NE direction to
form a complex - form graben structure. The multiple traps as above
constitute a large - scale faulted anticline structure.
( 2 ) With rich oil resources. This area is located in the abdomen of the
oil-generating sag of Qikou in Oagang Oil Area. Shahejie Units 1 to 3 in
Tertiary system are good source rock with thickness 1000 - 2000 m. It has
high organic richDess with organic carbon content 1.49 - 3.68 % and the
converting condition is very well with chloroform bitumen "A" content 0.1 -
0.25 % and total hydrocarbon content 1000 - 2000 PPM. The parent matter
type belongs to II-II2 Types of kerogen. The oil-gas resources in this area
are very rich.
( 3 ) With multiple reservoir strata series and favourable source -
reservoir - seal assemblages. The main reservoir type in this area is
sandstone. The southern - western side of the reservoir in this area was
controlled by the sedimentary derivation of Chengning Uplift, the northern -
eastern side was controlled by the sedimentary derivation of Shaleitian
Salience and its northern side was controlled by the sedimentary
derivation of Yanshan Mountain. In Paleogene Shahejie Units I to 3 had
formed near - shore subwater fan and turbidite fan sandstone bodies
Because these sandstone bodies were influenced by three sedimentar}
derivations with different detrical materials ( as carbonate rock and
 Well ZH2-1 Well ZCI
Flgl. Zbanadona Oil-Pools' SectJon
granite ) and they were buried in more than 3000 m depth with bigger
compaction effort, the reservoir petrophysical properties have bigaer
changes, porosities 8 - 21 % and permeabilities 0.13 - 584 md. In Paleogene
Dongying formation had formed fluviodelta sandstone bodies. In Neogene
Guanto and Minghuazhen formations had formed braided sb'ealll and
meandering sb'ealll sandstone bodies. Because these sandstone bodies
were burried shallow with smaller compaction effort, generally they have
good petrophysical properties, porosities 20- 36 % and permeabilities up to
several hundreds mel, to be good reservoirs. AcIcIitionally, the Mesozoic
sandstone and Paleozoic limestone in burried hills all can form good
reservoirs. The source rocks with these reservoirs as above in closed
coordination had formed the good source - reservoir - seal assemblages.
( 4 ) With large oil - reserves potential. Its southern side's onshore rich
and high - producing oil field, Yangerzhuang, extended to the seashore. Its
eastern side's oil fields, Hai 1 and Hai 4, "all have got high productions: in
Hai 4 for 6 beds of oil-bearing sandstone with thickness 73.8 m in Neogene
Guanto FM were tested to have got excellent oil with production 1025 t and
natural gas 60338 m3 I d. And its southern neighbouring extreme slianow-
water area of Zhaojiapu, the favorable oil-bearing structures have been
found: in first drilled two wells C1 and C2 for Neogene Minghuazhen FM
were tested to have got 80 - 184 tid. For 7 wells in this area have got
commercial oil flows, such as Well Zhang 2-2 in Paleogene Shahejie Unit 2
FM has got crude oil production 51 t and natural gas 2931 m3 I eI, and Well
Zhang 19-1 in Paleogene Dongying Unit I FM has got oil production 48 t
and natural gas 4900 m3 I d.
II. The special sea-state enviroament and surface engineering condition
influence the oil-gas exploratory - developmental works.
A large quantity of clay - sand carried by the continental marginal water
systems flowed into Bohai Bay has formed a large number of modern
deposits on the seabed under the tidal action. The macrograined clay-sand has
deposited nearby the sea-mouth for each water systems flowed into the sea and
the micrograined clay- sand with organic matter have deposited in the
extreme shallow water area between each water systems. The main
characteristic in sea-state of this area is the wide - flat silting -type's seabed.
The seabed is lightly down toward eastern direction. In modern time, the
regression phenomenon has been clear, the coast line has backed to the sea
about 100 - 2000 m in recent 60 years. The sea~ slope is 0.73 % and the
wideness for 0 - 2 m water depth area is 8 Ian with slope 0.42 %, and the
wideness for 2 - 5 m water depth area is 10 Ian with slope 0.23 %. The
average tide cIifference is 2.4 m and the biggest one is 4.2 m high. The
clay-sand content in tidal water is up to 11 kg I m3 usually, but as storm
338
Flg2. The Structural Map of Zban&lUhe ExlTeme SbaIlow-water Area
happening it is up to 18 - 19 kg I m3. As DOrmal tide, a ,great quantity of
clay-sand has deposited out with tidal current speed decreasing to form the
seabed silted clay up to 11 - 19 m thick and its surface in plastic state for 0.5
m thick. In such thick silted clay only intercalated 0.8 - 1 m thick sand-
layer locally. So thin and small sand - layer has not much bearing
capacity. The seabed surface silted clay's bearing capacity is 0, at 3.2 m depth
it is 3.92 Pa, and at 12 m depth it is only 6.8 Pa. Only below 20 m depth has
thicker sand - layers that can be as the bearing capacity layers. There is no
deep water channel in this area , only there are tidal channels and the best
one with water depth 2 - 3.5 m and water wideness 10 - 30 m, the boats
are sailing durins rising tide but as ebbtide they are suspended.
The natural environment properties in this area.are much wind, high tide,
and serious ice situation in winter. The wind from south in summer is about
60 % and the greatest wind speed is 31 m I s. The sea-current direction is in
2600 :I: 45 0 with flow speed 84 em Is, and for 12S cm/ s has occurred for
once in SO years. The sea-wave direction is in E -NEE with average wave
highness O. 4 - 0.6 m and the highest one is 2.5 m. The highest wave of 3.4 m
( with the extremely high wave 7 m and periodicity 13 s ) has occurred for
once in SO years. In normal ice year, the sea-ice thick in winter has IS - 20
em, but under the tidal water action the floated ice piled up on the sea-shore
to form a ice dike with 1 - 3 m high and 2 - S m wide that can't be penetrated
by sea-water. In the mean time, it gives a larger influence to the shallow-
water area's operating. The thunderstorm is in June to September and it has
occurred for once in 2.4 - 3.8 days. Usually the sea-fog is happened in
January and December. It has occurred for 10 - 14 days I year and the
strongest one lasts 1 - 2 days.
The aquicu1ture in this area is quite developed. There are many prawn
ponds except bittern ponds and salterns on the seabeach area. Because of
the thick silt with high content of organic matter in the extreme shallow-
water area, it is quite favourable to fish, prawn and other biocenosis'
living' and propagation, so Ibat this area becomes an important fishman's
operating zoneI. In the busy season of fishery, the disposed and spreaded
fishnets extended all over the sea-surface and with over 300 fishing boats
pass in and out. That makes a certain influence to the exploration and
development works.
W. Oil-gas exploratory - developmental engineering method's suggestions:
( 1 ) correctly selecting the boring obj~ve. The oil-gas resources in this
area is very rich and.with big oil potential, however, the oil structures were
cut by faults into complex faulted blocks and the sandstone reservoirs
belongs to continental facies deposition with big changes in vertically and
laterally, also the exploratory - developmental cost in the seabeach to
shallow-water area is very expensive, so correctly selecting the exploratory
-developmental objective areas and well locations are very important. For that,
 ~-------------------------------------------~9m-------------------------------------------·~1
Fi&3. SeawaU ConstruCTion section
in the fust engineering stage it is need to perform three-dimensional seismic
survey accurately to cIeterm!ne the structural configuration and to make the
lateral reservoir prognosis.
( 2 ) preferentially developing high-producing blocks and performing
progressive development To raising the exploratory- developmental
economic benefits, at the same time of continuously prospecting the new
blocks should preferentially select the rich and high - producing blocks to put
in development for recouping the capital ouday as soon as possible and
obtaining a good economic benefits. For other blocks based on the oil-gas
rich degree, they will be progressively prospected and developed one by one.
For the framework engineering or whole project should be overall
considered and designed but performed in different stages to avoid duplicated
building in large-scale producing system and waste in capital outlay.
( 3 ) Performing boring - producing works should be based on the sea-state.
Because at present onshore and offshore drilling - producing equipments
. couldn't come into shallow-water area, there is no a set of equipments Ibat can
completely suit this wide-flat soft-clay-seabed's shallow-water area to
perform operating works. This area can be divided into several different belts
to perform boring -producing works ( Figure 2 ) : ( A) For seabeach area
adopts drilling deviated weD method to perform developing work, and the
engineering construction's methods are same as onshore.( B) For 0- 2 m
water depth mainly adopts buiding sea-wall and drilling deviated weD
methods to perform developing works. The sea-wall generally crosses the
seashore at right angles and it extended to the sea about 2.!i Ian with bottom
wideness 4!i m, top wideness 10 m and highness 6 m. The producing
platforms were built along the seawall as a string ofbeads' form. Building
seawall can be got soil froiD nearby seabeach and the soil was piled up and
rammed down, then using nylon waterproof sacks filled in soil with stone
blocks together had piled up its surface proCecting slope and around the
oudine of it had built the concrete wave - wall and wave posts (Figure 3 ).
( C ) For more than 2.!i m water depth area adopts drilling platform and
artificial island to perform boring and developing works, and the drilling
platform can be moved into the shallow-water area's weD locations during
rising tide.
( 4 ) Developing middle-lower production blocks should actively adopt
the new technology for driUing horizontal weD. Because of oil-gas boring -
developing in offshore requiring more cost- ouday, the exploratory-
developmental work for middle-lower production blocks in offshore has
become a big problem. Drilling horizontal weD penetrated into the oil-gas
reservoir can get high oil-gas production to obtain a higher economic
benefits and make the hard moving oil- gas resources to get a effective use.
For multiple oil-reservoirs can adopt multiple horizontal weDs' method to
perform developing. At present for horizontal weD's production is three to
four times as high as the vertical weD's production. For the multiple
horizontal weDs' project must be indicated that based on the oil-gas pools'
structural configurations and reservoirs' dislributions being clear will be
able to design the horizontal wells' extencIiDg directions, lengths,
separations, and their arrangement patterns etc. and even need to consider
the combining relations IUIIOIII the oil-producers and water-injectors.
339
( !i ) Producing engineering construction should also base on the sea-state
to separate into different belts to perform. The general principle for it is
simple, economic, suitable, and safe. Its favourable advantage, coastal,
should be fully used. The simple port and large-scale combined station
for oil-gas gathering, water-supplying and dewatering, oil-processing and
transporting etc. should be built onshore. For 0 - 2.!i m water depth area,
the station for oil-gathering and water-injecting (including produced water
injection) should be mainly built on the sea-waD platform. For more than
2.!i m water depth, the large -scale, rich and high-production blocks should
build larger and fIXed producing - platform or artificial island. Other small
and dispersed oil-bearing blocks should mainly build single weD or weD
group's oil-producing and water-injecting platforms and by sea-bed pipelines
they are connected with fixed platform or artificial island to concentrate
and transport the oil-gas-water to onshore combined stations. The main
oil-gas-water pipelines' laying should be along the seawall as close as
possible. It is not only convenient but also economic.
The new exploratory - developmental results for the extreme shallow
water area of Zhangjuhe have further shown that the Dagang extreme
shallow-water area in Huanghua Depression ofBohai Bay Basin has very rich
oil-gas resources and very high economic value. Following the oil-gas
resources' developing, not only a large quantity of oil-gas has been
produced but also a set of methods in oil-gas exploration - development
and boring - producing - transporting technologies and equipments of
suitable this area would be created out in it It is more important due to it
can supply a valuable experiences for overaD developing the oil-gas fields
in the extreme shallow-water area ofBohai Bay, China.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank the Seabeach Company, Geophysical Prospecting Company, and
. Geological Research Institute of Dagang Oil Field to supply a large
number of data for this paper.
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