SPE-175800-MS

Challenging Field Management of Thin Oil Rim Reservoir in Nile Delta of

Egypt
Ahmed Rabie, and Saad Ghoneim, Petroceltic; Mahmoud T. Ali, Mansoura Pet. Co

Copyright 2015, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE North Africa Technical Conference and Exhibition held in Cairo, Egypt, 14 16 September 2015.

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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Abstract
West Dikirnis field is located in the Nile delta of Egypt. It contains a thin oil rim with a thick gas cap and
strong water aquifer. It is considered the second oil discovery in the Nile delta after El Tamad Field
(Operated by Petroceltic & El Mansoura Pet Co). The development of this thin oil rim is very challenging
due to: 1) complexity of the fluid system (volatile oil, retrograde condensate gas cap gas), 2) complexity
of the geology of the field (compartmentalization, fracturing, and rapid lithological variation), 3) high
heterogeneity in reservoir properties (permeability ranges from 200 mD to 11 D), and 4) strong water
drive.
This paper represents a case history of developing WD field. It presents a complete development plan
of this thin oil rim and its rich gas cap and how to maximize liquid (oil & condensate and LPG) recovery
through different stages by optimizing drilling/completion strategy, reservoir management, and produc-
tion processing.
The production strategy of this field was put into phases. In the first phase, the thin oil rim reservoir
was developed through vertical and deviated wells for the purpose of collecting geological and reservoir
engineering data required for full field development. In this phase the simulation studies showed positive
effects of recycling the produced gas into the reservoir gas cap for the purpose of maintaining the reservoir
pressure and decreasing the liquid losses due to the expected retrograde condensation in the gas cap gas.
This first phase has shown strong, but variable, aquifer effects on the production wells. It also showed a
great deal of lithological variations within very short distances in the field. In the second phase, and to
overcome the geological and aquifer heterogeneities, it was decided to develop the field with horizontal
wells completed with ICDs (Inflow Control Devices). This type of development helped achieve the
following: (i) overcome the geological complexity, and (ii) to keep the well away from the water table,
(iii) control the water rise by gas cap gas recycling, and iv) normalize the water moving front towards the
well bore by the use of ICDs. The studies have shown that the above strategy increases the oil recovery
factor by about 50%.
In the third phase an LPG & Refrigeration project was constructed in order to maximize the liquid
production from this field.
Currently, an EOR project is put in focus for further increasing of the liquid recovery from this field
partly through vaporizing the remaining oil.
2 SPE-175800-MS

Introduction
W.Dikirnis field is located in the Nile delta of Egypt, the field was discovered in 2005 as a gas field based
on the results of the first drilled well in the field. The second drilled well in the field showed that the field
consists of a thin oil rim (70 ft) lies between a big gas cap (160 ft) and a strong water aquifer.
The drilling and logging results especially those gathered from the horizontal wells proved the presence
of many minor faults in the field, which are below seismic resolution. These faults add more complexity
to the field structure/ lithology which negatively impacts the field development plan. Further, the core data
and pressure transient analyses showed a wide range of permeability from hundreds of milli-Darcys to
10 Darcy which reflect the high level of rock matrix heterogeneity in the field.
In developing this field, fifteen wells were drilled through the life of the field encompassing vertical,
deviated, and horizontal wells. The field was put on production in December 2007 with initial rates of
about 10,000 BOPD, but the oil production rate declined rapidly due to the thin oil rim, strong water drive,
structure complexity, and water and sand production problems.
The PVT analyses of the reservoir fluids showed very light oil (API 50) and a gas condensate in the
gas cap with a condensate gas ratio initially of about 60 STB/MMscf. These reservoir fluid properties
encouraged the company to plan to maximize the liquid recovery through gas cycling, LPG project, and
considering EOR techniques.
The estimated liquid reserves of the field are about 15 MMSTB of oil, while the gas and condensate
estimated reserves are about 60 Bscf, and 2 MMSTB respectively.
Arresting the decline in the oil production rate is a big challenge to the company due to the fact that
the oil reserve is spread over the reservoir area in the form of a thin layer with the presence of a big
overlaying gas cap and strong underlying aquifer drive.
The development of West Dikirnis field was, therefore, put through three main phases, in order to learn
from each phase in proper planning the next phase. This has led to a proper reservoir management scheme.

Geological Description
West Dikirnis field was discovered in Qawasim sandstone formation which has been deposited in a deltaic
environment, where alluvial fans prograde into shallow water producing a system of fan-deltas as shown
in Figure-1 and 2 which have a 3-fold structure consisting of topset, foreset and bottomset beds:
SPE-175800-MS 3

Figure 1Example of Fan Deltas (Gulf of Suez, Egypt).

Figure 2Ancient analogue: Gulf of Corinth, Greece, shows 3-fold structure consisting of topset, foreset and bottomset beds.

1. Topset beds usually consists of high quality sub-horizontal beds deposited by the shifting of
streams
2. Foreset beds, consists of good quality steeply dipping, coarse grained beds formed by sediment
gravity flows.
3. Bottomset/Base of Slope beds consist of variable quality flat-lying, fine grained beds, deposited
from suspension or including mass-flow deposits
The structural configuration of W. Dikirnis field is controlled by two major faults, one of them trending
E-W direction parallel to the Hinge Line, throwing down to the north and the second fault trending N-S
direction (Baltim trend) throwing down to the west. These faults created a four way dip closure of W.
Dikirnis field which had been dissected by sets of minor faults trending E-W and NE-SW directions
(Figure-3).
4 SPE-175800-MS

Figure 3W. Dikirnis Amplitude Map overlaid by Depth Contours.

Phase I Development
The initial field development plan was to use the appraisal wells to achieve early production from the
field, whilst using the information gained during that period to optimize the development plan for the
remainder of field life.
Eight vertical and deviated wells were drilled in order to collect the data required to create the full
development plan of the field. The permeability values obtained from the pressure transient analyses of
each of the drilled wells and the collected core data in some wells gave evidence on the truth of the
depositional model of the field which suggests the presence of 3 main sand sets in the field. We have
observed permeabilities in the range from 7 to 11 Darcy in the topset depositional environment, 1 to 4
Darcy in the foreset depositional environment, and 200 to 500 milli-Darcy in the bottomset depositional
environment, as shown in Figure-4.
SPE-175800-MS 5

Figure 4 Depositional model of West Dikirnis field, overlaid by permeabilities values from pressure transient analyses.

An interference test was performed in order to evaluate the communication between the producing
wells in the field and to have a complete picture about the reservoir connectivity. This test showed a
conduit like communication between some wells as shown in Figure-5. This high communication between
some wells, added further complexities to control the high water production.

Figure 5Interference test analysis response.

6 SPE-175800-MS

It was found that the most likely explanation of the permeable corridors between wells is from
conductive faults (or fracture corridors).
In addition, the pressure transient analysis and the image log analysis showed the presence of fracture
system around some wells of the field which need to be taken into consideration during the design and
the placement of the new wells to be drilled in the next phases of development.
The reservoir oil PVT analysis showed that the oil API is about 50 with initial solution gas oil ratio
1700 SCF/STB, and a formation volume factor 1.9 RB/STB, which means that our oil is within the grey
area between black oils and volatile oils1. The analysis of the gas cap gas showed that we have a gas
condensate with a CGR of about 60 STB/MMscf, which directly means that this gas-cap gas needs a
special care during production by maintaining the reservoir pressure as high as possible to curtail the
negative effects of the retrograde condensation phenomenon. The production performance of the wells
showed that the main production problem is the early water production. This pre-matured water
breakthrough leaves bypassed oil reserves into the reservoir.
The analysis of the data collected in this phase showed that the main challenges in developing this field
are as follow:
1. Geological complexity and heterogeneity
2. Fluid system complexity
3. Water production
4. Sand production
These problems pushed the need of developing this field through unconventional solutions.
The simulation studies showed that the re-injection of the produced gas has two major benefits which
are:
1. Achieving the force balance into the reservoir by keeping the thin oil rim in contact with the
producing wells. This force balance is by pushing down the oil rim to equalize the upward
movement of the strong aquifer water.
2. Gas cycling into the reservoir gas cap for the purpose of maintaining the reservoir pressure and
decreasing the liquid losses due to the expected retrograde condensation in the gas cap.
The force balance in a thin oil rim reservoir is between the gas cap expansion, aquifer expansion and
viscous withdrawal. For the subject reservoir, it was concluded that the art of maximizing oil recovery of
a thin oil rim reservoir is to keep oil rim in contact with producing wells at all time and that this could
be achieved by balancing the WOC and GOC movement by re-injecting the produced gas again into the
reservoir to achieve the required force balance.
The reservoir management of this field is more complicated in light of the geological complexity and
heterogeneity. It was found from the simulation studies that horizontal wells are an optimum production
solution in this thin oil reservoir to overcome the outlined field problems.

Phase II Development
Horizontal wells can achieve significant reductions in gas cusping and/or water coning compared to
vertical wells. The relative benefit of using horizontal instead of vertical wells is greater when the oil zone
is thin and has a gas cap and/or associated with a strong aquifer26.
Due to the results of the vertical/deviated wells and their accompanied severe water production
problems, the next stage development of the field relied on the horizontal well.
The horizontal well drilling was necessary for the following reasons:
1. Recovery of additional reserves by increasing drainage area and improving sweep efficiency
through completing the wells with inflow control devices which will regulate the movement of the
SPE-175800-MS 7

WOC and GOC

2. Thin Oil rim with active water drive and big gas cap makes water and gas coning likely to happen.
3. Control gas production for reservoir energy conservation.
4. Account for the high degree of rock heterogeneity.
5. Account for the higher production rate by contacting more reservoir and increasing well produc-
tivity.
6. Lower unit development cost for areas with thin remaining oil column as it will reduce the
numbers of the wells to be drilled to develop the field due to possible reservoir compartmental-
ization, which increase the number of vertical wells needed to drain the reservoir.
The simulation study showed that if we drilled 6 horizontal wells and applied a gas re-injection project
to the field the oil recovery would increase from about 22% to about 37 % (Figure-6).

Figure 6 Simulation study development Options shows the effect of horizontal drilling and the gas re-injection on the field recovery.

Before the beginning of the horizontal well drilling campaign, a well bore stability study was conducted
in order to understand the stress direction in the formation and to know the well operating envelop to
minimize/prevent the sand production or the crash of the perforations tunnels (Figure-7). The study
showed that the maximum stress is in the vertical direction, and recommended to perforate in this direction
to prevent sand production and to reduce the chances of perforation tunnels break down as only minimum
stresses will be applied on the perforation tunnel.
8 SPE-175800-MS

Figure 7Well Operating Envelope.

The results of this study had a significant impact on changing the company strategy from conventional
perforations to the strategy of perforating the horizontal wells in the vertical direction only, utilizing the
technology of oriented perforation.
The first horizontal well drilled in the field, and Nile delta of Egypt as well, was WD-7 HW, and it was
placed in a high preamble and homogenous zone in the reservoir. The length of the horizontal section of
this well was about 1000 ft. this well was completed with cemented linear and oriented perforations based
on the wellbore stability study results. The well was completed through three separated perforation
intervals.
In order to evaluate our new strategy of developing the field using horizontal well drilling, A
production log was performed in wellWD-7 HW (according to the services company, this production
logging job was the second to be performed in Egypt) and the results showed that the first two perforations
accounted for most of the production, while the last perforation (at the toe of the well) contributed with
less than 12% of the well production as shown in Figure-8.
SPE-175800-MS 9

Figure 8 this figure shows the results of the production logging job in Well W.D-7 HW.

In order to maximize the benefit from the horizontal well drilling, different completion techniques that
would be applied in each well and the criteria on which selecting this completion were studied. The target
of the completion design is to maximize the oil recovery, minimize pressure drawdown, and to prevent/
minimize sand production. The main problem of the horizontal well is the heel to toe effect (the heel of
the horizontal section is contributing in the production of the well more than the toe of the well), this
problem is exacerbated as the heterogeneity in the reservoir increases what leads to more by-passed oil
within the reservoir.
According to the study and well WD-7 HW results, we decided to complete the horizontal wells with
cemented liner and oriented perforation if the open hole logging results showed a permeable homogeneous
area. On the other hand, if the open hole logging results showed a heterogeneous area, it was decided to
complete the well using Inflow Control Devices (ICDs) to homogenize the production along the
horizontal section7.
Installing the ICDs in the horizontal wells will regulate the production through the following:
1. Balances the inflow profile
2. Delays early gas/water breakthrough
3. Decreases the rate of high mobile fluids to improve the production profile.
Our first horizontal well completed with ICDs was WD-10 HW (first well in Egypt as well). This well
had a horizontal section of about 2200 ft which is a very challenging drilling record in the Nile Delta.
Despite the formation heterogeneity and the high water saturation in this well, it produced initially about
2300 STB/D of oil and 4.6 MMscfd of gas.
The Five horizontal wells drilled in the field have contributed with more than 45% of the cumulative
oil production of the field, while the rest was produced from ten vertical/deviated wells. These results
prove the success of our development strategy regarding the horizontal well drilling.
The logging while drilling results (RNS) showed the presence of many minor faults within the field
below seismic resolution which make the geological model of the field more complicated than originally
expected and increases the possibility of compartmentalization in the field (Figure-9).
10 SPE-175800-MS

Figure 9 Image log (RNS) showing the presence a lot of small faults within the field below seismic frequency

Along with the horizontal well drilling campaign, a Gas Re-Injection (GRI) project were launched in
WD field in the year 2010 for the purposes of 1) pressure maintenance, 2) arrest or at least control the rise
of water in this field due to the strong nature of its aquifer, and 3) maximize hydrocarbon liquid recovery.
This project called for injecting all the produced gases back into the gas cap of the field after extracting
the liquid from the produced gas stream.
The Implementation of the GRI project showed an immediate effect on holding back the oil decline rate
of the field (Figure-10). The gas re-injection was applied in Well W.Dikirnis-1 which is located in the
most crystal and central part, of the reservoir.
SPE-175800-MS 11

Figure 10 W.Dikirnis Production showing the positive immediate effect of the GRI on the field oil production decline

The horizontal wells drilling in conjunction with the gas re-injection succeeded in minimizing the
decline in the oil production rate. The next challenge in this field was how to maximize the extracted
liquid from the field production in the processing phase.

Phase III Development

Studies have been carried out into the partitioning of the C3 & C4 fractions of West Dikirnis field fluids,
and have ascertained, that based upon the expected well stream composition, it will not be possible to
export the entire volumes of these fractions in the gas and crude oil stream and allow both of these
products to meet the current export specifications.
A FEED (Front End Engineering Design) study has been carried out to define the facilities required to
achieve a separate LPG stream, enabling all export specifications to be met and to establish a control cost
and schedule estimate for the project. The LPG could emanate from two sources; the rich gas evolving
from the crude stabilization train will form one feed stream and the refrigeration of the injection gas
stream will provide a further LPG stream.
The LPG was processed to meet export specifications in two fractionation columns. The first will
remove the light ends in the rich feed stream, and return them to the gas export stream; the second will
split the heavy ends to provide an on-spec LPG stream and a stabilized crude oil stream. The resultant
LPG stream from the top of the second fractionation tower will be stored on site and exported on a batch
basis to a local export line. The bottoms product will co-mingle with the crude oil from West Dikirnis
Separation train and be stored in the existing storage tanks.
The aim of constructing the LPG plant is to maximize the liquid recovery from the feed gas and to
improve the economics of the field. In order to maximize the benefits from the LPG plant, it was decided
to take the benefit from processing the gas of some other fields in the company, producing rich gases.
12 SPE-175800-MS

The LPG plant started to operate in March 2010 with about 30 ton/day. The maximum daily LPG
production reached about 90 ton/day and the cumulative production till mid 2015 is about 90 thousand ton
of LPG. The main important concept here is that maximizing the liquid recovery from the feed gas is
important as maximizing the oil recovery from the reservoir in order to have an integrated reservoir
management system.
Future Plan
From the continuous monitoring/surveillance and analysis of the production performance of the producing
wells, it was noticed that all the wells are not benefiting from the gas injection to the same extent. This
may be due to lithological and stratigraphic barriers and semi-barriers all over the field. As a result, WD
field was divided based on the reservoir pressure into three regions: northern region, central region (where
the injection well W.Dikirnis-1 is located), and southern region where most of the produced oil came from
(the lowest pressure) as shown in Figure-11. It is therefore expected that the rise of the WOC in southern
area of the field may be relatively faster than other areas of the field, due to the high withdrawal rate from
the wells producing from this area and also because of the high vertical permeability, in addition to the
fact that this area is relatively far from the injection well WD-1.

Figure 11This figure shows the three main pressure regions in WD field due to the gas re-injection into the crystal part of reservoir
only.

In order to arrest the deterioration in the oil rate of the field and to increase the recovery factor of the
field, the results of reservoir compositional modeling study had shown that it is crucial to:
1. Inject all the produced gases from this field in multiple injection points, instead of the current
single well injection, in order to get direct and immediate support to affected areas.
SPE-175800-MS 13

2. Inject the produced gases in the oil zone (EOR technique).

Injecting the GRI gas in the oil interval in different wells will result into the following:
1. Displacing the By-passed oil.
2. Vaporizing part of the residual oil.
3. Swelling and mobilizing another part of the residual oil.
A vaporization test was performed and showed that gas re-injection, particularly with lean hydrocarbon
gas, can vaporize remaining oil to very low levels. Notably, the higher the volume of injected gas the
greater the reduction in the remaining oil. The Lab tests placed WD oil in contact with reinjection gas and
observed how much of the oil was vaporized. The experiment is meant to represent gas injected into the
reservoir passing over residual / remaining oil in the reservoir (Figure-12).

Figure 12This Curve shows the results of injecting the reservoir gas into the oil zone and its effect increasing the oil recovery from
the reservoir.

A several sensitivity runs was performed by the compositional model to decide the best candidate wells
to be used in the multi point gas injection into the oil zone. The results of these runs showed that this
project will add about 1.1 MMSTB of hydrocarbon liquids to the recoverable reserves of the field as
shown in Figure-13.
14 SPE-175800-MS

Figure 13This curve shows the oil production incremental increase due to the Multi-point gas injection.

Conclusion
1. A deep understanding of the reservoir fluid properties, lithological and structure features and
descriptions are required for optimal development of thin oil rim.
2. Horizontal wells drilling is an optimum solution to develop this field as it will increase the
recovery factor and at low overall field development cost.
3. Applying new technologies in the completion (oriented perforations and ICDs) of the horizontal
wells maximize the oil recovery from these wells.
4. The gas cycling/re-injection in the field is very important as it was found to be able to impede
bottom aquifer advancement, improve sweep efficiency, and further enhance the thin oil rim
recovery.
5. The gas cycling improves the condensate recovery from the gas cap as it will mitigate the negative
effects of the retrograde condensate phenomenon from happening into the reservoir and conse-
quently losing reserves.
6. Applying an LPG project of the field maximize the liquid recovery from the feed gas of the field
instead of flaring these rich gases.
7. Multiple gas injection points will maximize the oil recovery as it will provide an immediate
support to affected areas.
8. Injecting the gas into the oil zone as an EOR technique is expected to increase the hydrocarbon
liquid recovery of the field by about 1 MMSTB.
SPE-175800-MS 15

Acknowledgments
The authors thank the management of Petroceltic and El-Mansoura Petroleum Company for the permis-
sion to publish this paper. The authors would also like to thank the entire team past and present for their
contributions to this work.

Nomenclature
EOR Enhanced Oil Recovery
FEED Front End Engineering Design
GOC Gas Oil Contact
GRI Gas Re-injection
ICD Inflow Control Devices
LPG Liquefied Petroleum Gas
RNS Reservoir Navigation System
WD West Dikirnis
WOC Water Oil Contact

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