SPE 116528

Horizontal Well Best Practices to Reverse Production Decline in Mature

Fields in South China Sea
You Hongqing, Wei Ping, Tian Xiang, Xu Xiang Dong, Lian JiHong, Thanh Tran, Yoseph J. Partono : CACT,
Jeffrey Kok, Liu Yang, Sarfraz Balka: Schlumberger

Copyright 2008, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2008 SPE Asia Pacific Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition held in Perth, Australia, 2022 October 2008.
This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been
reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its
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reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract
The Huizhou 6S and 3S oil fields in the Pearl River Basin,
Offshore South China Sea are mature fields which have
produced 40% to 60% of their original oil in place since
1991. Currently the field production is rapidly declining
and water production is increasing. However, through
reservoir surveillance data, geologic and reservoir
modeling, significant recoverable oil was identified in
shaly sandstone reservoirs and attic structural locations of
clean sandstone reservoirs. As a result, a comprehensive
portfolio of prospects has been built for a robust
development program. Horizontal wells were utilized to
improve oil recovery in shaly sands and to reduce water
coning in thin remaining oil columns. Horizontal drilling
best practices were applied during well planning and
drilling executions, such as optimum well designs,
specific LWD/MWD tool selections, low fluid loss
drilling fluids, real-time geosteering data monitoring and
the cleaning of the pay zone during completions were
applied to maximize reserve recovery and successfully
reverse the fields production decline.
Introduction
The Huizhou Oil Fields are located in the Pearl River
Mouth Basin, South China Sea approximately 190 km
southeast of Hong Kong (Figures 1). Agip, Chevron and
Texaco signed the contract in 1983 and they discovered
nine prolific oil fields by the year of 1989. First
production in this area was from the Huizhou 1S field in
1990 followed by Huizou 6S field in 1991 and Huizhou
3S field in 1995. There are currently 7 platforms and an
FPSO which are producing oil and gas from 10 fields.
New efforts were put in the exploration activity with the
drilling of exploration and appraisal wells in the period of
2002-5 resulting in another significant discovery and the
commercialization of two previously discovered fields.

Geological Overview
Huizhou 6S and 3S oil fields are located in Pearl River
Mouth basin, South China Sea, which is a continental
margin sedimentary basin formed during the rifting of the
South China Sea in the Late Mesozoic to early Tertiary.
The main pay zones where CACT deploys horizontal and
multilateral well technology were deposited as delta front
bar and coalesced, stacked fluvial-deltaic channel sands in
early Miocene time. Oil accumulations with low gas
saturation and no gas cap are mostly found in 4-way-dip
closures, which are associated with basement highs. In
some cases the traps are also associated with sand layer
pinch-outs.
The reasons for drilling horizontal wells are
predominantly based on the following two considerations:
Firstly, after over 15 years of high rate oil production,
these fields have gradually entered into a mature and
high-water-cut phase. Oil to water contacts (OWCs) have
significantly encroached upward leaving thin remaining
oil columns and causing high water production from all of
the existing wells. Due to reservoir heterogeneity, some
of the reservoirs exhibit uneven strength of aquifer
support causing OWCs to tilt after years of production.
To reduce and reverse the rapidly declining oil production
rate is a challenge CACT needs to confront. To
significantly improve production efficiency of the
remaining potential attic oil locations, horizontal well is
the first priority among various alternatives.
In addition, the poor petrophysical properties of shaly
layers did not effectively produce oil from vertical wells.
The recent horizontal and multilateral wells in these shaly
zones have greatly improved production performance and
field recovery. The petrophysics and depositional
environment of the reservoirs are briefly described as
follows.

Middle Zhujiang Reservoirs. In the Middle Zhujiang

formation (Figure 2) reservoirs consist of a coarsening
upward sandstone layers which was probably deposited
during a delta progradation over a shallow marine
environment in early Miocene time. Sands are loose
quartz and feldspars with dispersed silt and shale. Thin
shale inter-beds are found intercalated within the
reservoir. The average net porosity ranges between 10%
and 24% and permeability ranges between 50 and 2000
MD.
Lower Zhujiang Reservoirs. Lower Zhujiang pays
consist of coarsening upward sandstone reservoir which
was probably deposited in delta front to shallow marine
environments in early Miocene time. These zones are
shaly sands with a range of porosity between 13 and 20%
and a range of permeability between 20 and 200
miliDarcies.
Sands are quartz and feldspars with
dispersed silt and shale. Thin shale interbeds are found
intercalated within the reservoirs and therefore the net
gross ratio of this reservoir is only about 36.5%. This type
of reservoir requires horizontal wells to cross the layers in
the reservoir to break internal vertical barriers.
Upper Zhuhai Reservoirs. Upper Zhuhai reservoirs
consist of fining upward to blocky sandstone layers which
were probably deposited as coalesced and stacked fluviodeltaic channel sands in early Miocene time. Sands are
loose quartz and feldspars with minor amount of
dispersed silt and shale. Thin shale interbeds are found
intercalated within the reservoirs. Overall, the reservoir is
thick and continuous across the field. This sandstone layer
exhibits a very high reservoir quality with porosity range
from 20 to 30% and permeability more than 1 Darcy.
Production History
HZ fields comprise 10 oil and gas fields. The first field
was put on line in 1990 and by the end of 1995, the daily
production reached to 120,000 BOPD. In 2000 the
production started to decline rapidly and a sidetrack
campaign was initiated to arrest the decline.
HZ fields started sidetrack operation in 1997 using
conventional wells. The sidetrack operations in the period
from 1999 to 2002 were successful as the reservoirs were
still in their original conditions and the geological risks of
sidetracks were low. The annual decline rate in that period
was approximately 15%. However, with the maturity of
fields, the conventional well sidetrack between 2002 and
2005 did not result in good production rates causing rapid
production decline rate of 25% (Fig 3). The sidetrack
failures at that time were because the remaining oil had
been reduced to thin oil columns in the reservoirs.
With this understanding, sidetrack programs since 2006
using horizontal well best practices has been successful to
reduce the production decline rate and to improve
recovery factors for the reservoirs.
Reservoir Characterization and Modeling
The success of the Huizhou fields revitalization started
from a thorough and comprehensive reservoir

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characterization and modeling to locate the current

remaining oil accumulations. A three-dimensional
geologic model of each reservoir in each field was build
based on a comprehensive concept of the regional
tectonics, basin history and sedimentary depositional
sequences. Detailed reservoir geometry, reservoir quality
and hydrocarbon distribution were modeled based on 3-D
seismic data, well logs and core samples. Distribution of
grain sizes, dispersed clay, carbonate streaks, and shale
laminae within each reservoir are analyzed in detailed
fashion to provide sound basis for dynamic fluid
modeling and development well planning. Volumetrics
based on original and current fluid contacts are compared
to cumulative hydrocarbon production to validate the
static reservoir model.
3-D dynamic reservoir models are set up based on the
static model combined with production data and PVT data
to simulate fluid movement within the reservoirs into the
wellbores while the fields are on production. The
production histories are matched to ensure validity of the
reservoir models.
Reservoir surveillance data including cased-hole neutron,
carbon to oxygen ratio, cased hole resistivity and
production logging, are collected periodically in the
producing wells. They are used to understand the
production behavior in terms of fluid contact movements
through time and to further validate reservoir models.
Surveillance data have revealed that, after 15 years of
production, the reservoirs have thin (5m or less)
remaining oil columns. Some current OWCs are tilted
(Figure 4) due to heterogeneous property of the reservoir
which has caused uneven sweep of the oil reserves.
Existing conventional wells cannot optimally produce
these remaining reserves because of severe aquifer
coning. In addition, significant untapped oil reserves were
also discovered in shaly reservoirs.
Due to low
permeability, these reserves cannot be effectively
produced using conventional wells either.
The 3-D static and dynamic reservoir models have
resulted in a robust portfolio of prospects for infill wells
in thin oil columns and shaly reservoirs.
Horizontal Well Planning and Drilling
After reservoir models are finalized, new wells and
sidetracks were planned and simulated to ensure optimum
recovery of the hydrocarbons. To maximize oil
production and recovery in the thin oil column and shaly
sands CACT employed horizontal and multilateral wells.
In thin oil columns with strong bottom water, horizontal
wells reduce pressure drawdown thereby reduces water
coning. In a shaly, low permeability sandstone reservoir, a
horizontal well exposes a long section of the productive
zone in the reservoir to allow high liquid rate for the same
drawdown pressure.
There are 2 main risks associated in the planning and
drilling horizontal development wells in these mature
fields:
- In the area of insufficient well controls, the
seismically interpreted structure top of a
reservoir may inherit an uncertainty of up to 10m

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in vertical depth which could be detrimental to

the success of a horizontal well drilling and
completion. This risk may be mitigated by
drilling a pilot hole prior to drilling the
horizontal well.
In May 2008, CACT
reprocessed the 3-D seismic data using a prestacked depth migration (PSDM) technique to
reduce the structural risk.
The risk of not finding sufficient oil
accumulation because the current OWC have
moved higher than expected leaving too thin oil
column to produce. If there is no recent
information on the current fluid contact within
the radii of 1000m, it is important to acquire data
to locate the current OWC. Cased hole logging
in nearby wells is a low cost option to survey the
current fluid contact. If reliable cased-hole data
cannot be acquired, a pilot hole is to be drilled
prior to drilling a horizontal well.

To anticipate the possibility that the pilot hole does not

proof sufficient reserves in the target reservoir due to the
above risks a backup target (Figure 5) is prepared as a
contingency against drilling an uneconomic horizontal
well.
Pre-drilling Preparation
Once a horizontal target is selected a detailed well course
is planned to ensure successful placement of the
horizontal section in the reservoir, casing run, casing
cementation and installation of completion.
1. Optimum Well Plan
The design of the well plan requires close collaboration
between geologist and drilling engineer in order to ensure
that the well trajectory is drillable and to reduce risks to
the lowest level and to achieve the best performing well.
The direction of the existing well to be sidetracked does
not usually following the simplest route to reach the target
location because of proximity with other existing wells.
This condition causes difficulty in achieving low well
tortuosity and dogleg severity, where iterative target
adjustments are required to optimize the well plan and
ensure the modeled torque and drag are within allowable
limits.
A tangent section of 5m true vertical depth (TVD) above
the target is generally planned to accommodate
uncertainties in the geologic structure interpretation and
directional survey. (Fig 6)
Landing point of the horizontal section is typically
planned 1m or less below the top of the reservoir to allow
maximum displacement from the current OWC. The
angle along the horizontal section should not exceed 90
degrees to avoid a goose-neck trajectory that could
cause water blockage during production. Depending on
the quality of the reservoir and the simulation results a
horizontal section of 300 to 1000m are planned.
To accommodate difficult well drilling operations the
following upgrades were done on the platform and
drilling equipment:

1- 225 tons pipe deck and 3500 m new derrick

2- Hoisting rating: 350 klbs
3- Hydraulic TDS: 37,000 ft-lb
4- Mud pumps: 2 x P-750 + 1 x 3NB-800
5- Mud tank: 900 bbls including one removable
tank
6- Shale Shakers: 3 X Derrick Hydrill2000 with
0.47 cubic feet per min for each
7- Centrifuge: 1 X Swaco518FVS
Well Profile
All the well profiles were designed in 3-D, (Fig 7). In
order to conventionally hit the planned target TVD,
medium to high doglegs from 3.5 to 4.5 are required.
But it was possible to limit doglegs to the minimum by
dropping the inclination with a turn first and then building
in the other direction. While designing the well profile, a
tangent section for ESP and holding of inclination from
85-87 for a soft landing were also key requirements.
The average open hole length for the sidetrack well varies
between 2000 to 2500m. The 3-D profile designs produce
high tortuosity and high Directional Difficulty Index (Fig
8 and Fig 9), where the average tortuosity can vary
between 220-250. Using a water base mud system
further increased the torque and drag issues. To overcome this, basic drilling surface parameters such as RPM,
WOB, mud pump flow rates are controlled. In addition,
well bore improvement techniques such as adding
lubricants to lower friction factors and the usage of rotary
steerable system (RSS) were employed. The application
of RSS tool delivered excellent drilling results in all the
wells, with the exception of one case where the tortuosity
increases above 250 deg that created some issues when
running a 7 liner.
Depending on the reservoir properties, multilateral wells
were also planned. The side track point selection was a
key element of success that required detail planning and
execution by the drilling and reservoir teams. In total,
three multilateral wells were successfully drilled and
completed with the combined teamwork and proper BHA
selection.
2. Technology Selection
Whipstock and milling Window: In many occasions there
is little cement behind the casing where a sidetrack
window is milled. This leaves a sharp, off-sized window
that causes problems when a drilling BHA or casing
packer is passed through. As a remedy, a cement squeeze
around the window is performed, giving very positive
results. Experiences from other parts of the world showed
that after the milling operation, the drilling BHAs had the
tendency to track the casing. To address this problem, the
whipstock on CACT wells are set either left or right of the
high side.
Bit Selection: Historically in CACT, drilling with water
base mud (WBM) in abrasive formation with the presence
of hard and interbedded stringers greatly reduces a PDC
bits performance with bit balling and premature broken

diamond cutters often experienced. As a result, rock bits

were always preferred.
Studies using the available data by bit vendors for PDC
bits resulted in improvements such as the reduction in the
number of blades, increase of cutter density, upgrading
cutter quality, enhancing bit stability and compatibility
with RSS BHAs. For the sidetrack wells drilled recently
and average ROP of 18m/hr in the 8-1/2 section was
achieved using the improved PDCs. While this is almost
double compared to rock bits, PDC bits also met the
requirements for well positioning directional control. This
resulted in PDC bits displacing rock bits on the sidetrack
drilling campaign.
On well HZ6S-12SbMa&Mb, the PDC bit drilled 1213 m
in 66.8 hrs delivering an outstanding average ROP of 18.2
m/hr in one run.
Tools Selection: A combination of tools were selected ,
such as RSS tool with near Bit Gamma Ray, Inclination
and Azimuth; Resistivity tool with Propagation
Resistivity and Gamma Ray; Nuclear tool with Azimuthal
Density, Neutron Porosity and Density Images. These
LWD measurements were necessary to provide accurate
formation evaluations for critical real time well placement
interpretation, modeling and timely steering decisions.
3. Low Fluid Loss System
To ensure minimum filtrate invasion into the reservoir, a
low fluid-loss drilling mud system was utilized while
drilling the horizontal production section. This system
provided an instant composition of mudcake along the
wellbore surface, thus avoiding excessive fluid invasion
in to the reservoir.
The rule of thumb being the square root of the
permeability in miliDarcy was applied to determine the
pore throat opening. Tests were performed on the DIF for
selecting the optimum CaCo3 particle sizes. The
following criteria were used: Maximum API fluid loss
should be below 4.0 ml; maximum Spurt Loss below 6.0
ml, lift off pressure below 10 psi; return perm above 90%
(un-stimulated, just use 10 psi to break down the filter
cake). Upon TD and prior to running screen, the lateral is
displaced with fresh solid free mud to prevent the
plugging of the screen while in production.
Real Time Well Placement
Detail well placement design and strategies were carried
out after studying all available field data with clear
objectives defined. Field data including 3-D geologic
model, offset well logs and well profiles, production data,
surveillance history and well plans were integrated to
generate a synthetic structure model on the real time
geosteering software, RTGS, based on which, detailed
well placement strategies and contingencies were defined
for landing and horizontal placement of the well (Fig 10).
The synthetic model is populated in real time with LWD
data and trajectory surveys through a real time data feed
and is dynamically updated to provide structural dip
behavioral information that is used for directional control
or BHA steering decisions.

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Real Time Monitoring

Well operations are remotely monitored from the CACT
office in real time to optimize drilling while increasing
safety and reducing risks. Not only does this reduce POB
to the rig it also increases efficiency in decision making
where important decisions can be made collectively and
upper management can be clearly briefed and directly
involved with critical operational decisions.
Real Time Density Image and Structural Dip
Azimuthal measurements of rock and fluid properties
around the borehole provides more accurate formation
evaluation, better identification of reserves, and new
diagnostic capabilities. These especially contribute to
evaluating the relative position of borehole in the target
layer. (Fig 11) Decision to build or drop angle are made
according to this information with higher confidence.
The 3-D borehole data viewer allows visualizing and
analyzing high-resolution images from density images. 3D interactive display of the borehole along the well
trajectory eases the interpretation of various log responses
for spatial trajectory positioning.
Landing and Horizontal Sections
Important near bit measurements such as Gamma Ray,
Direction and Inclination, Resistivity, Azimuthal Density,
Neutron Porosity and RT Image are used for real time
interpretation to provide structural information for
correlations on well placement dynamic models, has
consistently lead to very successful landings and
horizontal steering (Fig 12). The real time trajectory is
accurately defined using continuous directional and
inclination, CD&I, measurements from MWD and RSS
tool. In ultra thin sands of 1m or less, the CD&I trajectory
provides a more accurate and smoother structure model to
facilitate with extremely fine steering decisions. The
integrity of this measurement was proven on a dual lateral
well, where the second lateral was positioned below the
other with precise correlations between the two
horizontals. After mapping the structure using CD&I from
the first lateral, the second lateral was accurately steered
very close to the roof in the sand layer below. The well
placement structure model generated at the end of the first
lateral was not adjusted when it was used to steer the
second lateral, located just under an isolating continuous
carbonate layer. (Fig 13)
Completion 7 Liner Run
All the wells had been drilled 3-D in 8-1/2 hole with
high DLS. The swelling of shale formations due to the use
of WBM turned out to be a real challenge when running
7 liners. Very low hoisting capacity of the drilling rig
would make it impossible to free a liner once it gets stuck
without sufficient over-pull to apply.
Great efforts were employed to ensure the success of liner
run, including maximizing the use of RSS to create a
smooth hole, separate wiper trips before the liner run with
a stiffer BHA to take out any hidden dog-legs in the hole,
optimizing on drilling parameters and mud rheology to
ensure that drilled cuttings had been circulated out of the

SPE 116528

hole and modeling the liner run with various simulations

to determine the number and position of liner centralizers
required.
With this practice, all the wells except one underwent
very good results with the liner run arriving to bottom. In
that single case (well HZ6S-10Sb), the liner got
prematurely stuck leaving almost 400m of open hole
exposed. Further investigations identified the root cause
of such sticking to the liner hanger assembly. As a
remedial, a rotating liner hanger was implemented for
future liner designs to help break down the excessive
friction by liner rotation and push the liner to bottom.
Conclusions
Horizontal and multilateral wells have proven effective to
produce remaining oil in thin columns and shaly
formations in mature HZ3S and HZ6S oil fields.
Current surveillance data and pilot holes are essentials to
provide controls for drilling horizontal wells.
Vigilant team work between subsurface, well placement
and drilling teams during all phases of operations,
including reservoir modeling, well planning and well
drilling was necessary to provide strategic planning with
contingencies for the best and timely real time decisions.
The sidetrack campaign on the HZ3S and HZ6S fields in
2007 successfully reversed the production decline where
the cumulative oil in 2007 from four sidetrack wells
totaled around 1.5MMSTB. This accounted for 30% of
the total field production where the oil rates from these
four wells held 30% of the total field production.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank CACT, CNOOC, ENI
and Chevron for the permission to publish this
information.
Abbreviation
LWD: Logging while drilling
MWD: Measurement while drilling
FPSO: Floating Production Storage & Offloading
OWC: Oil Water Contact
BOPD: Barrels of Oil per Day
PVT: Pressure-Volume-Temperature
PSDM: Pre-Stacked Depth Migration
TVD: True Vertical Depth
TDS: Top Drive System
ESP: Electric Submersible Pump
RPM: Revolutions per Minute
WOB: Weight on Bit
RSS: Rotary Steerable System
PDM: Positive displacement mud motor
BHA: Bottom Hole Assembly
POB: Personnel On Board (Rig or Platform)
WBM: Water Based Mud
PDC: Polycrystalline Diamond Compact
ROP: Rate of Penetration
DIF: Drill in Fluid
API: American Petroleum Institute
TD: True Depth
RT: Real Time

RTGS: Real Time Geosteering Software

DLS: Dogleg Severity
CD&I: Continuous direction & inclination
MMSTB: Million Standard Barrels "oil"

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Figure 1: CACT oilfields location map

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Figure 2: Generalized stratigraphy of Pearl River Mouth Basin.

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10

PDOIL, bbl

10

Working Forecast
Phase
:
Case Name
:
b
:
Di
:

10

Parameters
Oil
Case1
0
0.227913 A.n.

10

10

1990

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

2000

Date

Fig 3 HZ 6S Field Decline Curve

Fig 4 K22 Structure Map

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

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Figure 5 Cross section showing a planned horizontal well with a pilot hole and a backup horizontal target

10

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Fig 6: Depth Uncertainties in Landing a Horizontal Well

Fig 7 Well Profile

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11

Fig 8 Torque and drag modeling, Tripping load analysis will be required

Fig 9 Torque and drag modeling, Tripping load analysis will be required

12

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Fig 10 Offset wells correlation

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13

Layer 1entry

Cuttingupstrata

ADN475 RTImageonInterAct
Fig11 Density Image Example

14

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Fig 12 Landing Model and Correlation Example

Fig 13 Horizontal Section