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170 comments on GHAWAR: an estimate of remaining oil reserves and production decline (Part 2 - results)
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Bunyonhead - I wasn't aware of the "Hawiyah" gas and NGL production described in this link you provided:
http://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/projects/saudi-aramco/
This gas is probably produced from the deeper / older Khuff Formation (Permian age) with prognosis for 300,000 bpd NGL production. This will not affect my prognosis for Arab D oil production - but it sure will assist the Saudis offset some declines in crude oil production else where in Ghawar.
THE PERMIAN KHUFF STRUCTURE OF GHAWAR
http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/documents/2004/afifi01/index.htm
Thanks Euan. So we can add a further 300 kbpd to the Total Liquids from Saudi by the end of 2007.
Three supplemntal questions:
- Is it right to say that the Ghawar oil fields sit "on top" of the Khuff structure you have shown above?
- What is KSA doing with all this NG production?
- Why have we heard nothing about plans for Hawiyah Megprojects?
If we need these as soon as you think, then I am surprised that I cannot google any information at all about plans for Hawiyah GOSPs....
Sorry bunyonhead, I don’t have the source but I read a long time ago that NG in Saudi is mostly spent in water desalinization. They don’t have any other source of water than the sea…
It is shocking to see in the CIA World Factbook that the Saudi NG production of 65.68 billion cu m (2004 est.) equals their domestic consumption!
Actually Saudi Arabia has two huge aquifers underlying much of the country. In fact they have been farming wheat there and watering it with aquifer water.
There are many oasis in the country where the aquifers reach the surface. Date palms surround the oasis.
However all the aquifer water is not potable but much of it is. They do have desal plants all along the coast and pipe water all the way to Riyadh from desal plants near Ras Tanura. When I was there in the early 80s, I saw the completion of a huge desal plant just north of Ras Tanura. The pipelines were the largest I have ever seen lain overland.
Since I was there another, even larger, desal plant has been built very near that one.
Saudi also uses natural gas to generate electrical power. Gazlan power plant, near Ras Tanura was a hydro (boiler) plant that burned natural gas but could also burn crude oil or naphtha. Of course the desal plants can also burn crude or naphtha but mostly they burn natural gas.
Ron Patterson
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0016-7398%28199207%29158%3A2%3C215%3ADG...
We know from Voelker's thesis that Hawiyah has been on production since the mid 70s. Some wells, but not all, were rested during the period of low demand in the early eighties. We also know (from Croft tables, and from the relative perm graphs in the "50 years of wettability" paper) that the rock properties are much worse, so both rates of production and ultimate recovery will be lower, especially the former. I think Euan and I broadly agree that South Ghawar has a lot of oil left, and will produce for a long time, but is unlikely to substitute for the North Ghawar production that is being/will be lost.
Stuart, I have been trying to understand the grpah from the "50 years of wettability" paper.
I don't understand the implications of the relative permeability changes when Sw>50%. Does the water co-mingle with the oil or simply leave it behind as it rises to the crest?
Either way, the suggestion is that waterflood is not a good technology to increase production rates.
Is it possible therefore that Aramco is going to reinject the 5.20 bcf/day of dry gas from the Khuff into the Hawiyah Arab-D Formation in an effort to enhance oil recovery?