Abstract
PDVSA's light oilfields in Lake Maracaibo have been under exploitation for more than four decades. To date, the expected recovery factor is only 29% of the OOIP. As these resources approach maturity, it has been realized that improving recovery will demand the earliest use of many technologies, proven and new, in an integrated manner and tailored to solve specific regional problems. The Integrated Field Laboratory (IFL) philosophy is one of PDVSA's main technology strategies designed to accomplish these goals. Three Field Laboratories are being developed in the Maracaibo Lake Basin: one for heavy oils and two for light oils: shallow and deep reservoirs.
The VLA-6/9/21 area in Lagomar Field was selected to evaluate technologies with potential application to highly depleted, medium to light oil reservoirs, which are either under or have favorable conditions for waterflooding and at depths bellow 10000 feet. Venezuela has over 30000 MMSTB of oil currently in place in reservoirs with similar conditions. This huge volume of oil provides the incentive to conduct the work described in this paper.
The engineering management approach for technology evaluation being used is comprised of: 1)Advanced reservoir characterization, simulation and visualization, 2)Drainage strategies, including displacement processes and well architectures, 3)Well construction at minimum time, damage and cost, 4)Technologies to improve injectivity/productivity, 5)Advanced monitoring technologies aiming to intelligent reservoirs, 6)Technologies for handling produced and injected fluids and 7)Techniques to evaluate and quantify risk.
Multidiscisplinary multiparticipant virtual work teams have been structured in order to execute this project. These teams are being integrated with specialists from different disciplines within PDVSA, such as: Technology Department, Exploitation Units and Research Institute (Intevep), national and international universities, service companies, national and international consultants, etc.
This paper describes the main aspects of the design of Lagomar's Field Laboratory, the results obtained during the first year of operations, and the future plans. Some of the technologies currently under evaluation are: 1)High resolution reservoir characterization, simulation and visualization, 2)Well to well seismic, 3)Fluids for at balance drilling, 4)Foam cements, 5)Multiwell injectors, 6)Commingle production, 7)Massive fracturing and 8)Down-hole sensors.
