Demonstration of the Use of Cost-effective Tools to Analyze Core, Log, and Production Data to Develop a Reservoir Model for Minneola Field, Clark County, Kansas, and to Evaluate its Performance under Waterflood.

Introduction

The Minneola Unit is located in Clark County, Kansas, and is part of the Norcan East Field which is approximately one mile north and two miles west of Minneola, Kansas. The other fields located in the general vicinity are Norcan and Fager fields. Initial development started in this area with the drilling of Norton #1-8 in Section 8 of 30s-25w. This well was completed in September 1980 and upon testing it flowed 157 bopd and 120 mcfd. Murfin Drilling Co. began active drilling in this area since 1983. Effective July 1993, Murfin Drilling purchased all of Swift Energy's (successor to Ladd Petroleum) interest in the general area.

Figure 1 is a map showing the locations of wells in the general area that includes the Minneola unit. The figure also shows the boundary of the Minneola unit along with the well locations, well names, and corresponding unit numbers. The producing horizon in the field is the Morrow sandstone. The reservoir drive mechanism is solution gas drive. The initial oil production varied from 38 to 164 bopd with many of the wells producing associated gas. DST analyses show that wells completed in early half of 1983 averaged an initial reservoir pressure of 1555 psi while those completed in 1985 averaged 817 psi. Production from a solution gas drive reservoir without any pressure support resulted in a rapid decline of reservoir pressure. By June 1993, the production from the Minneola unit had dropped to 26 bopd after a cumulative production of 555304 barrels of oil and 1087 MMcf of associated gas. By 1993, the wells in the unitized area were approaching economic limits under primary production.

In 1994, for the purposes of secondary recovery, 13 tracts, all operated by Murfin Drilling Co., were unitized to initiate a water-flooding program. The area unitized covers about 1040 acres and includes the W/2 of the NE/4, and the S/2 of section 3; the S/2 of section 4; and the N/2 of section 10; all in 30s-25w, Clark County, Kansas. Included in the unitized area are 12 producing wells and 2 water injection wells. The Patton #1-3 (unit # 3-1) and Goeller #1-4 (unit #7-1) were converted into injection wells.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of waterflooding in the Minneola Unit. As a part of this exercise, a geologic model has been constructed from the petrophysical logs. Available DST data were analyzed to determine the initial reservoir pressures and effective permeabilities. Data from the petrophysical logs were used to construct Super-Pickett plots to calculate average pay thickness, porosity and initial saturations. Laboratory measurements on core plug were used to generate permeability versus porosity correlation. This correlation was used to develop a permeability map, using log-derived porosity, for the unitized area. The available production data, since waterflooding, were analyzed at the unit level and also at the well level to understand the performance of the waterflooding.

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February 2000
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