Abstract
Traditionally it has been difficult and or very time
consuming to visualize or build complex subsurface interpretations. The
3D visualization world has also been dominated by geophysical software,
leaving a gap for other disciplines. Using creative workflows and
advanced subsurface modeling tools, 3D interpretations now blur the
lines between time and depth, which are now interchangeable, and easily
updateable. Drillers, petroleum and reservoir engineers and
geoscientists are all working from the same 3D subsurface description,
displaying and analyzing diverse types of information in multidiscipline
visualization environments.
Novel subsurface workflow practices were applied to the
giant Milne Point field on the North Slope of Alaska. The field is
structurally complex, aerially covering over 100 square miles. Its area
has coverage in part by up to five 3D seismic surveys and contains
several hundred well penetrations. Onlapping stacked shallow marine
sands characterize the lowest portion of the oil column, with a regional
unconformity down cutting the section. Syn-depostional relationships
affect the upper most portion of the stratigraphy above the regional unconformity. Due to
the structural, stratigraphic and fluid filling history, the field is
highly compartmentalized, with over 50 known pressure compartments and
multiple oil water contacts identified. Reservoir pressure is managed
with a combination of water and WAG flood. Recently EOR has been
implemented in portions of the field.
Streamlined data flows and robust data management
practices have allowed the creation of transferable workflows across projects that
tap into the best of several commercially available software products
for 3D interpretations and visualization. Models are constructed using
raw data extracted from databases, reducing cycle time, intermediate
products, and making updates easy. Many of the complexities of this
field are being unveiled through the use of 3D visualization of time and
depth reservoir interpretations. These models have been developed to be
highly flexible and scalable with updates from time to depth to
simulation model in some cases in a matter of hours. Simulation models
are built from a single base case reservoir description that on a full
field basis contains over 300 non-vertical faults modeled directly from the seismic and 11 stratigraphic layers.
Subsets of this field wide description are easily "cut" from
this base case and can be refined with more detail both structurally and
internally by various layering schemes and property descriptions.
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BIOGRAPHY
Rob Miller is a Senior Development Geologist with
BP Alaska currently working in the Milne Point field. Have worked major
development projects in the North Sea and Alaska as well as frontier
exploration. Primary interests are in reservoir modeling and
characterization.
Dennis Urban is a Staff Geophysicist with BP.
Dennis received his M.S. Geology from Wright State Univ, Dayton Ohio.
Since 1989 he has worked for BP in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Wyoming, and the
North Slope. His North Slope experience includes Prudhoe Bay Field development
and developing the
Schrader Bluff and Kuparuk reservoirs in the Milne Pt.
Field.
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