Implication of Structural Analysis in the Development and Management of a Maturing Field – The Akpo Case Study

Regional studies are known to show major compartmentalization in an oil field, while observations during development and production often highlight local structural connectivity issues that require fault characterization at field-scale to mitigate uncertainty in reserve or stakes. The Akpo field, located in the deep offshore Niger Delta, exemplifies a maturing field where these structural connectivity issues are dominant and play significant roles in field development. Structural discrepancies in the crest and flanks of the anticline result in varying water contacts and overpressure differences, affecting connected volumes and sweep efficiency. Qualitative fault throw analysis, aided by 4-D monitoring results, show that same faults may be sealing and communicating at difference areas, across reservoir fairways in the deep offshore turbiditic channel complexes, delineated as architectural elements. Shale Gouge Ratio (SGR) helps in further constraining the sealing/leaking impact of fault gouge at a log-scale, such that adjacent well data can be used quantitatively to assess preferential flow paths across and within faults zones. This revealed an along-fault, up-fault and across-fault connectivity anisotropy. This work addresses how the fault characterization was used to assess the following: Reservoir compartmentalization, leading to panel separated as fault blocks.Communication across fault, shown by throw map and SGR.The varying water contacts, which tend to result from upwelling of fluid within panel.Sweep across panels, from injectors to producers.The well in real-time operational situation, where well trajectory traverses a fault. The study resulted in an improved infill well planning and placement, targeting unswept hydrocarbon, where well trajectories were determined by knowledge of fault compartmentalization, initial static connectivity shown by virgin pressures and present dynamic communication across injector-producer pairs. Post-mortem analysis of these infill wells was helpful in understanding the dynamic role of the crestal-collapse faults offsetting the reservoirs in the Akpo anticline, leading to optimization and increased productivity.