Exploration focus on low unit technical cost opportunities: PDO

30/05/2017 02:03 AST

Majority government-owned oil and gas producer Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) is harnessing cutting-edge seismic data acquisition technology to explore and build a portfolio of oil and gas assets designed to help sustain production over the long-term.

In its sights are “low unit technical cost opportunities” that will help the company meet its production targets over the coming 10 years, PDO said in its 2016 Sustainability Report. The strategy, spearheaded by the Exploration Directorate, helped uncover a total of 86.4 million barrels of oil, 0.45 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of non-associated gas (NAG) and 24.3 million barrels of condensate in Commercial Contingent Resources (CCR) in 2016.

A notable highlight of PDO’s oil maturation programme was a project targeting the Shammar play in the north of its Block 6 licence. It helped unlock 40 million barrels of CCR volumes from the shallow reservoir in the Lekhwair field.

A development plan due to commence this year calls for the drilling of four wells in the area. Also significant was the Qarn Alam-Raba discovery that was appraised last year, according to PDO. “Exploration wells drilled showed initial production flow rates of up to 560 barrels per day (bpd) and a total volume of 27 million barrels of CCR was booked,” it noted in its Sustainability Report.

On the gas maturation front, the accent is on “balancing short-term demand with long-term growth”. Key to this goal has been the use of high quality 3D Wide Azimuth (WAz) seismic data to explore various plays and thereby support the creation of a diversified portfolio, says PDO.

Noteworthy was the Tayseer-Ara discovery leading to 0.45 Tcf of non-associated gas and 24.3 million barrels of booked condensate CCR reserves. “The opportunity was unlocked on the basis of newly acquired seismic data that targeted the South Oman Salt Basin as part of the portfolio diversification efforts,” said PDO.

Production is planned via the implementation of an Early Development Facility (EDF) involving an additional well with a capacity of one million m3/day of gas, due to come on stream in 2019.

A key factor in the success of PDO’s oil and gas maturation efforts has been the deployment of superior seismic data gathering technology in the exploration of new resources, as well as development of production assets.

Leading the effort is the Exploration Directorate which has been operating a ‘mega’ seismic crew complement of around 700 staff and more than 200 vehicles to gather seismic data using high-end 3D Wide Azimuth seismic gathering technology.

“The quality of the seismic data has also made possible quantitative interpretation of the data. All these factors facilitated the mapping of opportunities, some of which have not been seen before,” said the report.

This year, the main focus for the Exploration Directorate will be to “deliver more for less”. “Early monetisation will continue to be pursued where possible along with any value creation opportunities. Efforts will mainly target rebuilding the portfolio to generate attractive drill-worthy segments that could support PDO’s growth and stability,” the report added.

Oman Daily Observer