DEVELOPMENT OF OIL AND GAS FIELDS: AN OVERVIEW

Dr.Vikas Mahto

Professor

Department of Petroleum Engineering

Indian school of Mines, Dhanbad-826004

The objectives of the development of an oil and gas fields are to identify the structure and

properties of underground hydrocarbons accumulation (oil or gas), proper exploitation strategy

and accommodate them in the surface facilities to enable the production of hydrocarbons from the

reservoirs over a period of time. It involves drilling production wells (also injection wells during

later stage) to establish an effective spacing pattern for efficiently and economically producing oil

or gas. It also involves simultaneous development of surface production facilities such as group

gathering station (GGS), central tank farm (CTF) and flow lines to enable processing of oil to meet

refinery or consumer specifications and transportation of oil from wells to the central point of

dispatch. In case of gas fields, the surface facilities include gas collection stations (GCS), special

gas processing facilities and gas compressor stations

OILFIELD DEVELOPMENT

A rational system of oilfield development involves deciding well spacing (i.e. number of wells)

for developing the oilfield and the schedule and sequence of drilling wells. Development plan are

made with different options of well spacing (number of wells), schedule of drilling, production

schedule, projection of ultimate oil recovery, schedule of developing production facilities, etc.

A reservoir may be developed by a variety of plans due to its inherent geological and physical

features (technical factors) differing in respect of the number of wells, the order in which they are
brought into production, including their spacing patterns and operating conditions. Preparation of

development plan requires estimation of reserves, identification of reservoir drive mechanism,

performance prediction of reservoir under assumed production schedule etc. The performance of

reservoir and ultimate recovery are compared for different development plans prepared with

different options of well spacing and a particular development plan is selected for oilfield

development which ensures development with minimum number of wells ensuring the envisaged

rates of oil production with a high ultimate recovery with lowest possible capital investment and

minimum cost of production.

The wider well spacing should be adopted and tried first, unless the closer spacing becomes must

due to geological factors such as faults, joints, low permeability and its variations, and other

conditions. The displacement of reservoir oil should be such that trapped oil or by-passed oil is

minimum. The plan of development should be such that reservoir energy is kept under control and

utilized properly to achieve maximum recovery factor. To get higher recoveries, denser spacing

and pressure maintenance techniques are useful. The number of wells on production or injection

affect the overall cost of oil produced, smaller number of wells also keep the cost lower.

GAS FIELD DEVELOPMENT

Gas fields are also developed by drilling development wells and making surface facilities for

separation treatment etc. Compressor plant may also be required in many cases. Well spacing may

be larger in comparison to oilfield spacing. Since the gas pressure is higher compared to that for

the oilfields, greater attention needs to be paid to the type, number and location of the development

wells, the location of gas processing facilities and planning of gas processing methods.