Ekofisk field

Name: Faris Alkhalidi

Number:
Date: 13/5/2010
Location and geological context
Ekofisk in an offshore oil field located in the northern part of the North Sea. The North
Sea is located in the western part of the Northwest European Basin. It is neighbored by
England and Scotland from the west and by Norway, Denmark, Germany, Holland,
Belgium and France from the east to the south. The North Sea receives freshwater from
a number of European continental rivers (Elbe, Rhine...), as well as British rivers. A large
part of the European fluvial transported sediments are deposited in the North Sea. The
Northwest European Basin is divided in to two sub basins which are the southern North
Sea and the northern North Sea basins. The ekofisk field lies in the Norwegian sector of
the northern North Sea basin; in the Central Graben which is in the southern part of the
basin. The location of the Ekofisk field on the map is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Ekofisk in the North Sea

(http://ugamp.nerc.ac.uk/~pete/current_wx/radiosonde/map.jpg)

Discovery and history

Exploration in the North Sea started in the United Kingdom between 1956 and 1962.
The discoveries of the giant Groningen gas field in 1959 and oil in the Rotliegndes
sandstone in 1965 led the other countries including Norway to explore more in the
North Sea in the hope of finding commercial quantities of hydrocarbons. The
exploration in Norway resulted in the discovery of the Vikings field in 1968 and the
Ekofisk chalk field in 1969; in the following years five other chalk fields were discovered
in the greater Ekofisk area. After the successful discoveries, a series of offshore
 platforms were constructed in the area and production from the Ekofisk fields began in
1971.

Geological back ground of the area

The Ekofisk field produces from two formations which are the Ekofisk formation and the
Tor formation. Both formations have the same composition. The ekofisk formation is
cretaceous in age and sits on top of the Tor formation that is Lower Paleocene in age.
The Ekofisk formation thickness ranges from 100 to 150 m and the thickness of the Tor
formation ranges from 75 to 150 m. The reservoir in ekofisk field is elliptical in shape
and is a salt induced dome structure. It is composed of chalk (soft porous white
limestone) and has an average porosity of 30%- 40%. Chalk usually has very low
permeability but in this case the extensive natural fracturing caused by the salt rising up
increased the permeability in this reservoir to an average of 12 mD. Above the reservoir
sits a seal that is made of clays and shales and is about 2800 m thick. The permeability
of the seal is very low and ranges from 10-6 to 10-9, the low permeability prevents the
hydrocarbons from escaping the reservoir. The source of the oil in the Central graben
(which the ekofisk field produces from) is the Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous
Kimmeridge clay formation. The oil in the ekofisk field reservoir have the properties
shown in (Table 1)
Table 1: Ekofisk reservoir data (after Snyder, 1971)

Temperature (oF) 268

Solution GOR (ft3/bbl) 1707
API Gravity (o) 35.6
Initial BHP (psia) 4135
Bubble point pressure (psia) 5560

Production and Development History

The ekofisk field was discovered in 1969 and the production started in 1971. The time
between the discovery and the production was short and that meant that as the
production started exploration was still underway. That is way the Ekofisk field was
developed in different phases.

In the first phase a discovery well and three appraisal wells were completed. In this
phase 28 million barrels were produced; the production took place with a jackup
platform. In the second phase a terminal platform, three drilling platforms, living
quarters, subsea lines and a storage tank (one million barrels capacity) were
constructed. In the third phase the fields West Ekofisk, Edda, Tor, Eldfisk, Albuskjell and
Cod were developed. As well as a 350 km oil pipe line to England and a 440 km gas
pipeline to Germany. There were 25 platforms in the greater Ekofisk area by the year
1988. Figure 2 shows some of the Ekofisk platforms.

Figure 2: Some of Ekofisks platforms

(http://www.npd.no/engelsk/cwi/pbl/field_jpgs/43506_Ekofisk.jpg)

In the year 1987 an Enhanced Oil Recovery project was introduced in the area.
Waterflooding, gas injection and Nitrogen injection were the methods used to enhance
the oil recovery. The project succeeded in steadily increasing the production, and two-
thirds of the increase came from the response to waterflooding.

In 1993, another field was developed in the area. The development of Embla field
brought up the total number of fields in the greater Ekofisk area to eight producing
fields. Today there are 51 active oil and gas fields on the Norwegian continental shelf,
and the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate believes that Ekofisk still has the largest
reserves. In total, the Petroleum Directorate estimates that the undiscovered resources
alone amount to 21.4 billion barrels of oil equvialent (i.e. oil and gas), of which 7.9
billion barrels are assumed to be oil (Market observatory for energy. 2009). The production
from Ekofisk field in 2008 was 95 MB of crude oil, 100 MMCF of natural gas and 4 MB of
NGL. The proven reserves of Ekofisk field in 1975 where 18 billion barrels with estimated
reserves of 40 billion barrels.
Special Problems
After ten years of production it was noticed that the Ekofisk platforms were sinking. The
mater was studied in 1984 and it was found that the sea floor in the area has sunk by
more than 3 m as a result of the compaction of the reservoirs underneath due to the
production from them. As the pressure declined in the reservoirs, the stress on the
rocks grew which led to the subsidence (this is called pore collapse).

The problem was dealt with by temporary and permanent measures. The first
temporary measure was reservoir management by gas injection or waterflooding to
maintain the reservoir pressure. The other measure was structure modification. In 1985,
the platform beams were modified by welding semicircular frames around them to
reduce the stress that the waves cause. This measure reduced the stress caused by the
waves by 40%. The permanent measure that was taken was to raise the platforms with
hydraulic jacks and increase the length of the pillars by 7.5 meter, the project was also
designed to allow future elevation of the deck in case needed.

Conclusion
The ekofisk is one of the largest producing oil fields in Europe. It has been producing for
almost 40 years and will continue producing for many years to come. The problems in
production from the field can be dealt with by good planning and future anticipation. All
of the major facilities are available including sales pipelines. So I think this field is a
wining investment, and that you are taking no risks in investing in it.
References
 M. Zaman , A. Abdulraheem & Jean-Claude Rogers. Subsidence Due to Fluid Withdrawal.
Edited by: Chilingarian, G.V.; Donaldson, E.C.; Yen, T.F. © 1995 Elsevier. Chapter eight.
 Edwin Van Berk, Owen Thomas. Ekofisk: First of the giant oil fields in Western Europe.
AAPG Bulletin. Volume 65, Issue 11. (November), Pages 2341 - 2363 (1981).
 Bojoroy, M. Hall, P. A rich middle Triassic source rock in the Barents Sea area. 1983.
Offshore technology conference.
 WWW. CONOCOPHILIPS.COM

 WWW.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

 HTTP://UGAMP.NERC.AC.UK/~PETE/CURRENT_WX/RADIOSONDE/MAP.JPG

 HTTP://WWW.NPD.NO/ENGELSK/CWI/PBL/FIELD_JPGS/43506_EKOFISK.JPG

 Market observatory for energy. 2009