Abstract
The Groningen Field is the largest on-shore gas field in North West Europe (100 Tcf). It was discovered in 1959 by well Slochteren-1 and started production in late 1963. The gas is contained in a high quality sandstone reservoir at approximately 2900 meters below the surface. The initial field development took some 15 years during which 29 production locations (clusters) were built and over 300 wells were drilled and completed.
The field development was geared towards the generation of production capacity in order to provide this service for North West Europe. Swing capacity is the ability to accommodate high winter demand in a market which relies on high load-factor domestic production and long-haul imports. In the initial phase of development the production locations were concentrated in the southern part of the field. By doing so, cost of surface facilities and pipelines were kept to a minimum. In the seventies additional clusters were drilled in the central and northern part of the field to equalize the north to south pressure differential. By the late eighties to early nineties, with 50% of the gas resources recovered, the first stage compression project was kicked-off. In total 20 first stage compressors will be installed by 2010.
Over the past fifty years the Groningen Field has been a test bed for Technology. Advancements on seismic processing and interpretation, geological and dynamic modelling, well and tubing design, depletion compressor technology and field automation have greatly improved the ability to manage the field efficiently.
The implementation and planning of future investments on the Groningen Field are underpinned by state-of-the-art geological, dynamic simulation and planning tools supported by an effective Well & Reservoir Management strategy. This enables the generation of an integrated view and results in optimal investment, capacity and volume planning. The integration of data from the field with state of the art modelling allows us to operate the Groningen system as a smart field. On a cold day a handful of operators are needed to produce up to 9Bscf/day.
