Abstract
Mariner is a large heavy oil discovery in block UK-9/11, located 320 km north east of Aberdeen. The execution and development of the project will be from Statoil's new Aberdeen office. The discovery contains 1–2 Billion Barrels of Oil in Place in two reservoirs (Maureen and Heimdal). 19 appraisal wells have been drilled. The oil viscosities are 67 cp (Maureen) to 508 cp (Heimdal) at reservoir conditions. Production start is in February 2017. The reservoir development is based on use of re-injected produced water. ESP pumps are used for artificial lift. In total 100 wells are planned including multilateral slanted wells and horizontal wells. Two drilling rigs and one work-over rig will be active in parallel the first 4 years. Challenges to be met are related to high oil viscosity which gives early water breakthrough and mapping of remobilized Heimdal channel sands. The available seismic only allows for a stochastic Heimdal reservoir model. A full field broadband seismic survey will be available in 2013, applying the newest advances in technology to aim at better imaging the Heimdal sands. Current development strategy for the Heimdal reservoir is pattern drilling using an inverted 9-spot pattern. The work going forward will focus on use of the new seismic data to establish a deterministic reservoir model to be used for well planning. Work is on-going to significantly optimize the Heimdal development. Active geosteering will be important to limit the use of pilot holes and improve Heimdal reservoir sand mapping. The reservoir simulation model is very computer time consuming. Coupled segment models have been constructed that replicates the full field simulation but with significant reduction in simulation time. A polymer flooding study has been initiated to realize the EOR potential.
