1.
More than 15% of oil produced in the United States comes
from mature fields, many of which contain marginal wells.
One out of every six barrels of crude oil produced in the
United States comes from a marginal well - a well that is
producing less than 15 barrels of oil per day.
4 KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR
The key to maintaining production is maintaining
the reservoir drive. You may need to evaluate the
benefits of a waterflood or CO2 flood.
MATURE
FIELDS
MAINTAIN RESERVOIR DRIVE1
Understanding how and where gas, oil, and water
are flowing in your reservoir will help you
determine how and where to do in-fill drilling and
how to design a waterflood.
KNOW THE FLUID PATHWAYS2
Adopt technology and techniques from new plays.
As you develop your mature field, it is important to
identify hazards that can cause your production to decline
precipitously. First is a loss of drive, which can be due to
poor production planning (wrong size pump, need timer,
more injection wells). Second, is the managing the water,
both produced and the water within the reservoir. Finally,
a good oil field chemical program is important for
avoiding scale, H2S generation, paraffin, and corrosion.
Knowing the structure, stratigraphy, and lithology of
your reservoir will help you determine the best way to
recover additional oil and gas.
UNDERSTAND THE GEOLOGY
IDENTIFY THE HAZARDS
BOOST PRODUCTION
3
4
Infographic by Susan Smith Nash, 2015