IATMI 2006-TS-22

PROSIDING, Simposium Nasional & Kongres IX Ikatan Ahli Teknik Perminyakan Indonesia (IATMI) 2006
Hotel The Ritz Carlton Jakarta, 15-17 November 2006

KEY ELEMENTS TO REVIVE THE MATURE HANDIL FIELD: LIGHT WORK OVER,
INFILL WELL AND EOR
Henricus Herwin, Hotma Yusuf, Iswahyuni Fifthana, Habib Alfian Tafsiri, Total E&P Indonsie

ABSTRACT
The future of Handil Field, a large mature oilfield,
relies on the successful application of Light Work
Over and Infill Well to recover by-passed oil and
un-drained areas, supported by EOR techniques to
maintain the reservoir pressure and sweep the tertiary
oil. This presentation discusses the most useful
concept and practices that are applicable to optimize
oil recovery in a multi-layer water-flooded field.
The Handil field, discovered in 1974, is a giant
mature oilfield located in the Mahakam Delta,
Indonesia. The field consists of 555 accumulations
and was developed using conventional oil recovery
methods: natural depletion and peripheral water
injection. After many reservoirs have been waterflooded, EOR lean gas injection project was started in
November 1995 on five reservoirs and following its
positive result, the project was extended to other six
reservoirs in 2000. However, the field production
continued to decline from 200,000 BOPD in the late
seventies to 12,500 BOPD in 2003.
An integrated study on the largest EOR reservoir was
performed to assess the projects performance,
including 3D geo-modeling, reservoir simulation and
chemical tracer injection. The study permitted to
track the main effects of the gas injection and define
reservoir management guidelines for the other lean
gas injection reservoirs. In the same year, dynamic
synthesis has been performed in all accumulation in
Handil Field with objective to identify potential oil
spots to be recovered by Light Work Over or/and
Infill Well.
Following the study, an intensive Light Work Over
campaign has been launched and three pilot wells,
each with different completion type, have been
successfully put on production; horizontal well
equipped by gas lift to recover viscous sandy
reservoir in very shallow zone, gravel pack +
swelling packer multi-target well equipped by ESP to
recover sandy reservoirs in shallow zone and
monobore multi-target well equipped by gas lift to
recover reservoirs in main zone.

The result was encouraging and Light Work Over,

Infill Well and EOR Injection are becoming the key
elements to revive the Mature Handil Field and have
been able to increase the oil production from 12,500
BOPD in 2003 to 21,000 BOPD today.

INTRODUCTION
The Handil field, located in the Mahakam Delta,
comprises of 555 hydrocarbon accumulations in
structurally stacked and compartmentalized deltaic
sands. The accumulations are trapped along Handil
Anticline which is cut by a major impermeable fault
dividing the field into two compartments, North and
South.
Lying 10 km long and 4 km wide in the surface,
hydrocarbon accumulations are found at depths as
shallow as 200 mSS and continue down as deep as
3500 mSS.

Figure. 1. Handil Cross Section

Three different reservoir characteristics distinguish
the field:
1. Shallow zone down to 1500 mSS, has
excellent permeability ranging from 200 mD
to 2000 mD with very strong aquifers that
maintains the reservoirs pressure at their
initial condition. However, the sands are
poorly consolidated which require special

2.

3.

sand control technique, prior to the

production development.
Main zone, between 1500 mSS to 2200
mSS, has permeability between 10 mD and
500 mD. The reservoirs are mostly having
initial gas caps which have been preserved
to maintain the reservoir pressure, especially
since the aquifers are not as strong as the
shallows. The sands are normally wellconsolidated, therefore sand production is
not an issue.
Deep zone, below 2200 mSS, contains
mostly gas and decrease in quality with
depth to permeability of several mDs.

PRODUCTION HISTORY
The Handil field was discovered in 1974 and the
production started up one year later under natural
depletion. The production peak was reached in 1977
with production of around 200,000 BOPD.
In order to maintain the production plateau as well as
the reservoir pressure, water injection was started in
1978 and it had helped to maintain the 160.000
BOPD of production up to 1985, except for one year
drop due to OPEC restriction. As addition to optimize
the lifting system, gas lift has been introduced in
1979 and has been implemented in field scale in 1991
by using a dedicated compressor.

Figure.2. Handil Production Profile

Since the field started to experience water
breakthrough, and reservoir pressure, especially in
the main zone, had also been depleting, infill drilling
has regularly been performed to maintain the
production. Today a total number of 385 wells have
been drilled in the field with an average spacing
coming down to 300 m. However the decline seemed
to be inevitable, therefore in November 2005, lean
gas injection project in five reservoirs was started as
first tertiary recovery project in Handil Field. The
project boosted the production of the 5 large
reservoirs and altered the overall decline rate of the
field. Due to its performance, the project was
extended in 2000 with other 6 large reservoirs which

resulted in over 25% of the fields OIIP being under a

tertiary recovery mechanism.

Figure. 3. Handil EOR Phase 1 Prod Profile

After all the efforts that have been done in the Handil
field, the decline was still inevitable. In 2003, the
field was producing at its lowest of 12,500 bopd. This
presentation describes the strategies and the
methodology that have been applied to increase the
production to the level of 21,000 BOPD today.

GEOLOGICAL OVERVIEW AND STUDY

The Handil field is located in the internal axis of the
Mahakam delta. The main pay zone is Middle to
Upper Miocene in age. The reservoirs are sandstones
which have been deposited in distributary channels or
as mouth bars. The average orientation of the
channels is N130E. The thickness corresponding to
one deltaic cycle is of the order of about 30 to 50
meters.
The field is a four way dip structure. The trapping is
structural and stratigraphic. Reservoir quality can be
said as good with variation of porosity from 5% to
36% and with permeability values up to several
thousands mD. As a multilayer field, the most
continuous and reliable markers correspond generally
to transgressive shales associated with lignite,
organic shale or limestones.
When studying mature fields, it is essential to
understand reservoir behavior. In the case of the
Handil field, there are two major difficulties present.
The first is the geological context. The fluvio-deltaic
environment comprises multi-layered sedimentary
series; therefore each layer can hold different
accumulations, often with different fluid contacts and
dynamic behavior. The second is the lack of
interpretable seismic data: only poor 2D lines are
available, no 3D has been acquired, due to numerous
coal beds, which tend to interfere with and eventually
hide any amplitude effect expected from gas-bearing
reservoirs.

Therefore, the only usable data for structures,

stratigraphy and reservoir analysis is the well data.
DYNAMIC SYNTHESIS
Simple dynamic synthesis and material balance have
been performed in all reservoirs in the shallow and
main zone as a compromise between the huge
number of reservoirs in Handil and the time
constraint. The final product of the study is a set of
reservoir monitoring maps showing the production
performance and status of each well, the fluid data
from recent log and the prediction of actual fluid
contact. The map also indicates the location of the
remaining oil rim, by-passed oil or/and un-drained
area.
It is worth to mention that the log data brought by the
new wells give valuable information about the actual
fluid status, not only in the wells themselves, but also
in area around the wells or even farther.

Figure. 5. Example of Black Oil Reservoir Model to

Optimize the Future Horizontal Well

SWEET SPOT MAPPING

In order to determine and map the area in
Handil Oil Pool not yet produced by current
wells and with an associated potential, a
Sweet spot study has been performed.
The work takes into account the static data
(geological map, log data) and the dynamic
data. The maps resulting from this work, are
enable to position certain number of wells that
are expected to be good oil producers.

HANDIL SWEET SPOTS MAPPING

METHODOLOGY

Figure. 4. Example of Reservoir Monitoring Map

Black Oil reservoir simulation models have been
built in several reservoirs where high potentials are
expected as well as to reservoirs where horizontal
wells are planned. The models help to determine the
remaining oil area, define the optimum production
strategy and forecast the production.

The approach is pragmatic and is aiming at

giving a qualitative indication on the most
likely productive behaviour of a reservoir or
part of a reservoir. The three grades are: 1likely productive, 2- possible productive, 3likely non productive. Although, the approach
is simple, the study use of geomodelling
fundamental to maintain 3D data consistency.
The following steps have been applied to
achieve this objective:
Step 1: Sweet Spots Mapping Static

For each reservoir on the logs, from

the netsand thickness and the porosity
response, discriminate as follows:

o Likely-Productive:
If porosity 13.5%
2m

and netsand

o Possibly-Productive:
If-porosity- 13.5%-and-netsand<-2m--or
If 11% porosity < 13.5% and
netsand > 2m
o Likely-Non-Productive:
If_11%--porosity-<-13.5%-andnetsand-<-2m--or
If porosity < 11%

Proximity to fluid contact

(water); a cut-off at 10m
above water contacts (OWC
or WR) is used to retain an
area of interest which should
not be subject to quick water
flooding or coning

This approach is conservative, the

purpose is to avoid as much as
possible any bad surprise during
drilling/production.

The empirical cut off of porosity

>13.5% is based on dynamic results
(productivity of perforated intervals)
where Porosity > 13.5% corresponds
to Kh > 5mD.

A colour code for each category

enables to transpose this information
on the reservoir netsand maps. The
manual extrapolation of the log
discretisation will be based on the
sedimentological interpretation, i.e.
on the way sand body continuity and
facies homogeneity are understood.
In geomodeling, polygons are
digitized for each category based on
the manual extrapolation result. A
code value is given to all point inside
the polygon (0 for likely nonproductive, 1 for possibly productive
or 2 for likely productive).

Step 2: Sweet Spots Mapping Dynamic

In order to determine the sweet spot
area which has not yet been produced
by current wells, the dynamic data
and drainage areas of existing
producers for each reservoir is
integrated.
The wells and their production data
are positioned on the Sweet spot
map. The limits of the Sweet spot
boundaries are re-determined based
on dynamic criteria:

Proximity
to
producer
(drainage area excluded)

Exclusion of flooded wells

and drainage area

Figure. 6.
A. Static cutoffs
For each reservoir on the logs, from the netsand
thickness and the porosity response.
Note : The empirical cut off of porosity >13.5% is
based on dynamic results (productivity of perforated
intervals) where Porosity > 13.5% corresponds to Kh
> 5mD.
B. Apply Dynamic Cut off
Areas 10m above water contacts (GWC-init or GWCwr), with expected good permeability and away from
producing wells
C. Final sweet spot to transfer as 3D grid parameter
SWEET SPOT GRID PARAMETER &
PROPOSAL TARGET
As the purpose of this study is to enable to
position a certain number of wells that are
expected to be good producers, Sweet spot
maps have been produced per layer.
These sweet spots maps will be put as grid
parameter and visualised in 3D by assigning
filter on numeric code (0 for likely nonproductive, 1 for possibly productive or 2 for
likely productive).

not applicable due to poor well condition, such as;

tubing leaks, tubing parted, fish etc.

Based on these, preliminary trajectories are

proposed so far as the target for future Handil
Oil wells. The choice of a final well trajectory
for a Handil oil pool well lies in the difficulty
in meeting three major constraints:

Geology: chose main targets in the

Handil oil pool (the present study
gives the best possible solution today
for vertical section through the
Handil oil pool) and has to have an
optimum multi target.

Select one or more possible well

heads with appropriate pipelines.

Check drilling feasibility (well

departure of the trajectory, anti
collision constraints)

If more than one trajectory can

meet these three objectives, then
the final selection will be based on
the number of the secondary
objectives that can be encountered.

Figure. 8. Example of Handil Completion Diagram

Light Work Over is also not preferable in the high
producing wells since it can jeopardize the actual
production in the case the expected prospective
reservoirs produce water.

Figure. 7.

Beside the technical operation constraints, the main

issue of Light Work Over is on defining the actual
fluid status behind the casing. The dynamic synthesis
studies that have been performed are made to reduce
these uncertainties.
In 2005, 26 Light Work Overs have done in which 19
or 75 % are successful. It gives 1.7 MMstb of
cumulative production during the year and 4 MMstb
of incremental reserves. The total cost operation is
around 2 MM US$ which is far below the economical
cut-off. This result proved that the studies that have
been performed, simple dynamic synthesis and
material balance, are feasible to define the remaining
oil potential and have indeed helped to increase the
oil production of the Handil field.

D. Sweet spots distribution in 3D with optimum well

trajectory
E. Well trajectory in model geology intersection
showing reservoir targets

LIGHT WORK OVER

The most economical method to recover the oil in
Handil is by performing Light Work Over (LWO),
which means to do well intervention without pulling
the completion or in other word to isolate the water
out reservoirs and perforate the prospective
reservoirs. However, Light Work Over is sometime

INFILL WELL
Although Light Work Over is the most economical
way to recover the remaining oil, the well condition
is sometime difficult to technical intervention. In this
case, the only way to recover the potential is by using
new well or what a so-called, infill well.
In general there are three cases where infill wells are
preferred and it would effect the well design and
architecture.

1.

In the very shallow zone where the

reservoirs are less developed and having
high viscous oil are, horizontal wells are
proposed with sand screen to prevent the
excessive sand production. Gas lift was used
as activation lift with option to convert to
ESP when the BSW is getting higher.

Figure. 10. Multi-Target Well completed with Gravel

Pack and Swelling Packer
3.

Figure. 9. Horizontal Well Completion Diagram

2.

In the shallow zone where the reservoirs are

already well developed and the reserves of
each reservoir are not justified for dedicated
wells, multi-target wells are proposed.

In the main zone where the reservoirs are

already quite mature, multi-target wells are
the best solution. Sand control completion is
not necessary since the sand is well
consolidated.
Gas lift is used as activation lift in a
monobore completion. ESP is not preferable
in this zone since the reservoirs containing a
significant gas cap volume that can generate
high GLR which is not suitable for ESP.

The wells are activated by ESP to anticipate

the quick water breakthrough and gravel
pack was used to prevent sand problem since
the sand down to 1500 mSS is poorly
consolidated.
In the first multi-target well, a completion
trial has been tested. Two zones have been
completed by Gravel pack and three zones
have been completed by Swelling Packer.
The latest was cheaper, less time consuming
and simpler in term of the operational work.
Two out of the three zones under swelling
packer are later fail and giving excessive
sand production, making Gravel Pack the
only option for the next multi-target wells.
However, swelling packer completion
reminds interesting in marginal reserves
reservoir with high precaution should be
addressed during clean up and production.

Figure. 11. Monobore Multi-Target Well

ENCHANCED OIL RECOVERY (EOR)
The lean gas injection in an oil reservoir is primarily
an immiscible displacement process which, when the
reservoir has already undergone waterflooding,
becomes a Double Displacement Process (DDP), also
called Gravity Assisted Tertiary Gas injection. The

remaining oil in these reservoirs is located in: oil rim

trapped above the structurally highest production
row, as bypassed oil down dip in the reservoir and as
residual oil (Sorw) trapped after the water flooding.

Gas Injection

OIL

The crestal injection of gas intends to sweep back the

remaining mobile oil towards the producer wells
(gasflooding) and secondly, re-mobilize part of the
capillary trapped oil (at Sorw).

GOR

After Gas Injection

After Water-flooded

Oil-rim

BSW
WHFP

Gravity drainage
Sorw
Sorw

Sorw

Sorw ~ 25%

Figure .14. Typical EOR Response in the Well

Sorwg = 10 20

EOR OPTIMIZATION
Figure .12. Gravity Drainage Mechanism
All reservoirs are divided into several production
rows with row one being the closest production row
to the gas injector (Fig. 13)

North-South
Section

Cross

GAS INJ.
Production Row 3

Production Row 2

Production Row 1

In 2003, an integrated study consisting of complete

review of geological correlation based on facies
recognition on the logs and using the geometries of
the sand-bodies, 3D Geomodel, dynamic synthesis,
reservoir model and chemical tracer injection was
performed in the largest EOR reservoir.
The study confirmed the efficacy of the gas injection
mechanism where very low residual oil saturation are
found in the first row area which has been swept by
the gas. The study is also able to predict the location
of the actual oil rim where oil potential is remaining.
Tracer injection helped to trace the gas injection
pattern and this information has been used to
calibrate the reservoir model. The tracer has also
identified poorly connected areas in the north-east of
the reservoir and a disconnected area in the southern
area of the reservoir.

Figure .13. Production Row Distribution

Gradually, gas will sweep the oil which formed as an
oil rim above the highest initial oil producer to the
wells located in the first row. After certain time the
gas will breakthrough and well should be SI
whenever oil is going down below the economical
limit and let the gas push down the remaining oil to
the next production rows.
Typical gas injection response can be seen in the Fig.
14, the plot is taken from one of the first row wells in
which the oil production has stabilized, the BSW
decreases and the GOR and the WHFP gradually
increase.

GAS INJ.

GAS INJ.
So ~ Sorg
Poor connected

Disconnected

1995
Water Flooded Condition / GI Project Start Up

2003
End of History Matching

Figure .15. Saturation Map After Waterflooding and

after 8 Years GI

One of the most interesting learning from the study is

the optimum gas cycling rate, which is the ratio
between the produced gas and the injected gas over
the gas injection period. The average gascycling
throughout the project was 60%.

CONCLUSION
An integrated geosciences and reservoir study can
help to redefine the remaining potential in a mature
field. However, when the huge number of reservoirs,
wells and long production history are concerned,
simple dynamic synthesis and material balance can
be a good compromise to identify the potential, thus
optimize the production.
In the Handil field, the study was followed up by
three operations, Light Work Over, Infill Well and
EOR that become the key elements to increase the
production from 12,500 BOPD in 2003 to 21,000
BOPD today.

Figure .16. Gas Cycling History

This relatively high cycling is coming from the first
row wells which although producing with significant
oil rate also have high GORs. The simulation model
indicated that the gas would be used more efficiently
by closing these high GOR wells at an earlier stage in
the project. This would have allowed more gas to
reach the regions around the second and third row
producers in order to sweep the remaining mobile oil
and allow remobilization and oil production by
gravity drainage from these areas. The small gravity
drainage oil still being produced by the first row
producers will continue and in time also be displaced
towards the second row.

Figure .19. Production Profile in the Past 5 years

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Close

The authors thank Total E&P Indonesie, INPEX and

BPMIGAS for the permission to present this paper.

GASINJECTOR
ROW 1 PROD.
ROW 2 PROD.

Special thanks to Mr. M.W. Duiveman and Mr. B.

Bernadi for their contribution in the reservoir
engineering works, Mr. Ph. Ruelland and Mr.
Hermawan for their contribution in the geological
works, Mr. M.Sofyan for his contribution in the
completion work, Mr. R.Agusta, Mr. H. Setiawan and
F. Hadiaman for their contribution in well servicing
works, Mr. W. Sudradjat, Mr. I. Saleh and Mr. B.
Radjab for their contribution in the well performance
works.

ROW 3. PROD.

Figure .17. Reduced Cycling by Closing High GOR

Wells
The application of the optimized cycling ration has
already been rewarded by a substantial improvement
of the reservoirs production.
No Injection
Period

Injection
2000

35

1800

Reduced
Cycling

actual

1600

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Figure .18 Production After New Strategy Applied

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The paper is a result of a multi-disciplinary

teamwork, the authors thank all the team members
and all the concerning parties who have been
involved in the project.
REFERENCES
Duiveman, M. W., Herwin, H and Grivot, P. (2005),
" Integrated Management of Water, Lean Gas and Air
Injection: The Successful Ingredients to EOR
Projects on the Mature Handil Field, SPE-93858PP, Asia Pacific Oil & Gas Conference and
Exhibition, Jakarta, April 2005

Gunawan, S., Caie, D. (1999), Handil Field: Three

years of Lean Gas Injection into Waterflooded
Reservoirs. SPE 57289, SPE Asia Pacific Improved
Oil Recovery Conference, Kuala Lumpur, October
1999
Yusuf, H.S. Willuweit, M. Ruelland, Ph (2005),
3D Software Application to Mature Fields of the
Internal Axis of the Mahakam Delta
PROCEEDINGS, INDONESIAN PETROLEUM
ASSOCIATION
Thirtieth Annual Convention & Exhibition, Jakarta,
August 2005.