Abstract
Umm Gudair is the second largest field of West Kuwait Directorate. The majority of production in comes from Oolite reservoir. The production from the field began in early 1950's and as maturing of this field, the associated water production has significantly increased which has resulted in an environmental hazard in handling and disposing of the large volume of produced water.
West Kuwait Asset has two major producing fields which are Umm Gudair and Minagish. Water management in West Kuwait was designed to integrate all effluent water from gathering centers in West Kuwait through the Effluent Water Transfer System and the Minagish Water Injection Plant (MNWIP). All effluent water is transferred from the gathering centers through the Effluent Water Transfer System to the MNWIP for re-injection into the Minagish Oolite (MO) reservoir in the Minagish field (MN) for pressure maintenance. The re-injection of effluent water produced from WK fields into the Minagish Oolite reservoir of MN field has significant impact. Also, Mega disposal wells completed in the karsted Shuaiba formation as a back-up plan in case of any planned or unplanned shutdown of the MNWIP.
The success of many oilfields depends upon efficient disposal of produced water. A number of standard approaches were taken to obtain injection rates up to +20,000 BWPD per well on gravity feed. A multi-disciplinary team was formed to review the practical and theoretical aspects of formation damage and water quality. Successful injection at rates exceeding 60,000 BWPD per well were subsequently achieved by a proper completion design for the mega disposal wells and improving water quality.
This paper deals with the learning curve and dead ends that led to the successful subsurface disposal capacity of over 400,000 BWPD in High Karst Shuaiba Formation and achieving zero discharge to the pit. A holistic approach for monitoring and surveillance plan for wells with periodic review of current condition is adopted keeping cost effectiveness as an important parameter.
