Geosteering Center Has New Home
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Author: George A. Grover (Saudi Aramco News)
Released 1 January 2009
DHAHRAN, December 24, 2008 -- Imagine driving your family on a shopping trip. Your route takes many twists and turns. Stop-and-go-traffic, road construction and other unexpected hazards make the trip a test of your driving ability. But finally, you reach your destination.
Geologists direct well drilling from the Geosteering Center in Dhahran. In 2008 alone, the staff will have steered some 600 wells.(Photo by Faisal I. Al-Dossary) Every day, teams of geologists in the EXPEC Geosteering Operations Center (GOC) ensure that horizontal wells are steered correctly and safely to their final targets.
The center operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week in three shifts. Each geologist may be responsible for as many as five wells in different fields and different reservoirs. Like driving a car, geosteering requires constant attention and dedication. In 2008 alone, the GOC will have geosteered almost 610 kilometers of reservoir section in some 600 wells and in 50 active oil and deep-gas reservoirs.
The GOC recently moved into a new and expanded facility that is equipped with the latest in visualization, communication and computer technology in order to properly place and geologically navigate the company’s many complex horizontal wells. Amin H. Nasser, senior vice president of Exploration and Producing, and his E&P management team recently inaugurated the center in the EXPEC building.
Misfir A. AzZahrani, Reservoir Characterization Department manager, said in his opening remarks that the inauguration ceremony was really a tribute to the team responsible for making the new GOC a technology showcase for Saudi Aramco. Specifically he pointed out the indispensible roles that the EXPEC Computing Center, Office Services and Utilities played in making the new GOC a reality.
What’s remarkable about geosteering is that it is done remotely from the central command center in EXPEC, with data coming into the center from as many as 50 wells at any one time.
For every well, logging-while-drilling (LWD) sensors near the drill bit send information about the reservoir and the trajectory of the well up the hole to the drilling rig. From the rig, the data is then transmitted by satellite to the EXPEC building and the GOC. In the GOC, Saudi Aramco-developed software instantly loads the data so geologists can see on their workstations the LWD and trajectory data to determine where the drill bit is in relation to the drilling plan and the reservoir target.
This state-of-the-art computing and visualization technology enables geologists to make adjustments through direct satellite communication with the rig’s directional driller. As Ibraheem M. Assa‘adan, Exploration executive director, said, “The entire process of geosteering is interactive, using real-time data and requiring real-time decision making. The result is to mitigate inherent geologic risk in order to optimize the drilling results for every individual horizontal well and to ensure effective implementation of all new and ongoing field development plans.”
Amin H. Nasser cuts a cake celebrating the opening of the new center while, from right, Misfir A. AzZahrani, Mohammed Al-Hamad and Roger Sung look on.(Photo by Salah A. Al-Alwan) In many ways, that is what it is like to geosteer a well through one of Saudi Aramco’s oil and gas reservoirs. Both of Saudi Aramco’s latest and largest projects, Manifa and Khurais, are being developed using horizontal wells that must be geosteered. When completed, Manifa will provide 900,000 barrels per day of crude from two reservoirs, with 313 geosteered wells. Many of those wells have a total length exceeding 6.4 km with a few wells even reaching 9 km. At Khurais, the single largest oil field development project ever undertaken, 325 horizontal water injection and oil production wells will be geosteered, resulting in an initial production rate of 1.2 million bpd.
Geosteering and horizontal drilling have many advantages. For each of Saudi Aramco’s new oil development projects, starting with Shaybah in 1998, to Khurais and Manifa today, fewer wells are needed to reach the target injection and production rates. That significantly lowers field development costs.
In some fields, thin reservoirs can now be economically drilled and the hydrocarbon extracted using geosteered horizontal wells. Finally, reservoirs that have many tiny cracks (or fractures) are conducive to geosteering to maximize reservoir contact with the fractures and thus increasing overall oil recovery.
Saudi Aramco is the industry leader in geosteering and horizontal drilling, which is driving many technical advances. That leadership has led to improvements in drilling technology for achieving long-reach horizontal wells, new LWD sensors, advances in computer modeling and visualization of the subsurface, and state-of-the-art communication from the drill-bit to the geosteering center. Today, 85 percent of the company’s oil and gas development wells are drilled horizontally and require geosteering.
“I am very pleased to inaugurate this important center — a center critical to our continued success in reservoir development,” Nasser told the inauguration audience.
“Geosteering has come a long way and is now at the heart of our drilling activities … making the difference between an excellent well and a poor well. No matter what the future holds, we must strive to do our work smarter and better, to find ways to improve its quality, and to invent means of cutting our costs.
“I have no doubt that this geosteering center is an important element through which these objectives can be achieved. This is a remarkable avenue whereby the combination of technology and talent will ensure the best possible product.”
(Article by George A. Grover)