7mas Jornadas en Ciencias de la Tierra

23 – 25 de noviembre de 2011. EPN. Quito, Ecuador

HYDRODYNAMIC OILTRAPS IN THE LOWER CRETACEOUS HOLLIN

FORMATION IN THE ECUADORIAN WESTERN ORIENTE BASIN
Felix A. Ramirez; Enap Sipetrol, Quito, Ecuador
Jose A. Rodas; Petroamazonas, Quito, Ecuador
Agustin Paladines; Schlumberger; Quito, Ecuador

In the western Oriente Basin hydrodynamic oil traps are developed as a product of the OWC
tilting, which can be explained as a result of a fresh water aquifer working in the Main Hollin
Sandstone, which is constantly being recharged in the Andean Foothills, where the Hollin
reservoir is cropping out. According to Hubbert (1953), under hydrodynamic conditions a
buoyancy force and moving water exert major control over the distribution of water, oil and
gas in a reservoir, causing the oil/water and gas/water contact to be tilted. According to Z.
Ludwik (2004), to determine potential sites for hydrodynamic entrapment of hydrocarbon, it is
necessary to construct potentiometric maps for groundwater in terms of fresh water.

In the Western Oriente Basin, as of today, there are potentially five oilfields with reported
hydrodynamics traps - tilted oil-water contacts in the Hollin Formation. Those fields have
been discovered and identified in two different geographic locations; three oilfields Villano,
Yuralpa and Oso are located along the main Napo River valley as it came out the Pastaza
Depression on the Subandean Foothills. The other two Puerto Colon and Bermejo oilfields
are located on the Subandean Foothills close to the borderline between Ecuador and
Colombia.

1. Villano Field owc is tilted 1.34° due east (85°).

2. Yuralpa Field owc is tilted 0.67° due northeast (65°).
3. Oso Field owc is tilted 0.3 due northeast (65°).
4. Bermejo Field owc is tilted 1.26° due northeast (30°). A new model proposed faulted
blocks with different owc’s in each compartment.
5. Puerto Colon Field (Putumayo-Colombia) owc is tilted to the east (90°).

Based on available data a brief summary about each of those hydrodynamic oil traps-fields
follow:

Villano Field is located on the central western Oriente Basin, approximately 33 km from the
Sub-Andean Foothills. The field is currently producing about 17,500 BOPD from 13 wells
drilled into the Hollin Formation. The current field operator Hollin oil-water contact model is a
tilted one which direction is north 85° east and 1.34° tilt. In the original Villano Field POD the
most pessimistic model (456 MMBO) was the one proposing a due east OWC dip. The API
gravity ranges from 19.0 to 20.1 and the oil viscosity at reservoir pressure ranges from 13.0
to 16.3 cp.

The Yuralpa Field is located in western central Ecuadorian Oriente Basin, about 18 kms due
east from the Andean Foothill area. It is a hydrodynamic oil trap in the Cretaceous Hollin
Formation discovered by Oryx Ecuador Energy Company on 1997. The Yuralpa Centro-1A
well penetrated the Main Hollin Sandstone and encountered a gross oil column of 139 feet,
and tested 2,350 BOPD (jet pumping) of 18 API.

Since the Main Hollin Sandstone reservoir unit has good horizontal and vertical permeability
and porosity therefore no barriers for stratigraphic oil trapping has been anticipated. Then,
the observed differences of OWC in subsea depths are inferred to be caused by
hydrodynamics of the underlying aquifer. The MDT data from wells drilled in the Yuralpa Field
shows pressure differences consistent with a hydrodynamic tilt. A tilted OWC dipping N65E
 7mas Jornadas en Ciencias de la Tierra
23 – 25 de noviembre de 2011. EPN. Quito, Ecuador

at an angle of 0.7 degrees has been considered in the geological model. DST and MDT
pressure data from Yuralpa Centro-1A, Yuralpa Centro-2, Chonta-1 and Sumino-1 wells
indicates pressure differences in hydrodynamic potential among them.

Yuralpa Oilfield Hollin Formation Schematic Well log Correlation

Pressure data from exploratory wells and other nearby wells in the Western Oriente Basin
were also analyzed to determine the regional potentiometric tilt. Those data support that the
regional potentiometric heads are generally oriented north-northeast to south-southwest. As
of today and based on development drilling the oil in place estimate for the Yuralpa
hydrodynamic oil trap is about 362 million barrels.

The Oso Field is a hydrodynamic oil trap in the Cretaceous Hollin Formation discovered by
Perenco Ecuador Energy Company on 2003. The Oso-3 well, located at 2,1 kms due NE
from Oso-1, penetrated the Main Hollin Sandstone and encountered a gross oil column of
70ft, and tested 1,400 BOPD (jet pumping) of 25.2 API. The oilfield is located in western
central Ecuadorian Oriente Basin, about 40 kms due east from the Andean Foothill area.

BP Petroleum Development Limited drilled Oso-1 well in 1988 into the Main Hollin Sandstone,
the primary target. Oil shows and log analysis indicated the Main Hollin Sandstone has 27
feet of oil saturated sandstone. The well tested 100% water from Main Hollin at a rate of 222
BWPD. Based on geosciences evaluation indicating that most of the Oso structural closure
was created on Andean times, BP concluded that the Main Hollin Sandstone has a "flushed"
residual oil column.

Regional studies performed by Oryx Ecuador and Kerr-McGee geosciences teams about
hydrodynamic traps and potential oil accumulation on the nearby area to the Andean foothills
led to the proposal to drill into the Hollin Formation in the northern part of the Oso structure.
Analogue fields, Yuralpa & Villano, have tilted oil/water contacts due to Andean
hydrodynamics. Plio-Pleistocene to Recent hydrodynamic flow results in a northeast-tilted oil-
water contacts within the Main Hollin reservoir in those oilfields. It is unknown if those
anticlines were filled to its structural spill points at the time of the oil migration and
entrapment. Since key wells verify flushed zones within structural closure in the Yuralpa field,
then the Oso-1 well Hollin Sandstone residual oil column was interpreted as potential
 7mas Jornadas en Ciencias de la Tierra
23 – 25 de noviembre de 2011. EPN. Quito, Ecuador

indicator that hydrodynamic flow was operating in the Oso structural closure. Regional
potentiometric maps generated helped to delineate the main flow direction of the Hollin fresh
water aquifer.

The Oso structure is a large, NE-SW reverse fault-controlled, hanging wall anticline. At the
Hollin Sandstone level, it is approximately 10 km long and 7.5 km wide and it has a vertical
closure up to 150ft. As of April 2011, there are 40 wells drilled into the Hollin Sandstone
reservoir. The OWC has been drilled by 38 wells which are defining a tilt due N65°E and a
dip of 0.3°. The oil leg varies from 27 ft. of residual oil in Oso-1 (southern part) to 120 ft. in
Oso-26 (northern part) and it has a subsea depth difference of 80 ft. between them.

Bermejo Field is located on the northern Andean foothills. The field has 27 wells and the
average production is 3,100 BOPD, 32°API and the field has a CO2 cap. The high API
gravity at a relatively shallow depth is thought to be due to stratigraphic barriers that have
reduced biodegradation.

The Bermejo Field is on the Andean Foothills and the other ones are nearby to the foothills.
The amount of tilt depends on the API gravity and oil viscosities. It has been reported that
the heavy oil tilts more than light oils; however in the Bermejo Field case the stratigraphic
facies could control the owc tilt as well. A revised Bermejo mapping with 3D seismic
proposes a faulted blocks model with different oil-water contacts in each compartment.

The Hollin Formation on the northwestern Oriente Basin area is mainly composes of tidal
sandstone channel. Kummert P. (1990) stated that through the Bermejo development drilling
it was found out that the oil-water contact was at different depth, which along the pressure
data was used to generate a potentiometric map, which indicates the aquifer as entering into
the field from the southeast and the northwest, which resulted on a final component to the
northeast that correlates to the oil-water contact deepening.

Bermejo Oilfield Schematic Cross-section (After Kummert P. 1990)

Tecpecuador, current field operator, acquired 3D seismic over the Bermejo Field, which
interpretation has been used to propose that the oil-water contact deepening to the northeast
 7mas Jornadas en Ciencias de la Tierra
23 – 25 de noviembre de 2011. EPN. Quito, Ecuador

is due to faulting which creates compartmentalization with different OWC´s in each faulted
block. No additional information is available to reconcile pressure data and OWC depths.

Puerto Colon Field is located in the Colombian Province of Putumayo close to the border
with Ecuador and about 30 km from the Sub-Andean Foothills. The Caballos reservoir is in
average 10,500 ft. deep (md). The initial reservoir pressure was 4,705 psia at 9,000 ft.
subsea. Thirty years after the start of productive life of the reservoir, 28 MMB of 30.5 API oil
have been produced and due to the strong bottom water drive, the current static pressure is
only 350 psi below the original pressure. As of today, 18 oil wells have been drilled and
tested in the Caballos. After three attempts in the last 6 years to fully characterize the
reservoir in the Caballos Formation in the Puerto Colon Field, different approaches to explain
the reservoir heterogeneity have been suggested, each of which involves a great deal of
uncertainty. Of particular importance is the fact that the oil-water-contact has been found at
varying depth from well to well. This variation could not be satisfactorily explained structurally
or stratigraphically.

Two major models have been proposed to characterize the static and dynamic properties of
the Caballos accumulation. One important feature that has to be accounted for in the models
is the deepening of the fluid contact from west to east. Then, a tilted oil-water-contact is the
accepted approach as the best representation of the reservoir for the available information
and the water surface tilting is attributed to tectonic deformation (Estrada C. and Mantilla C.,
2000). No information about the tilting angle is available.

References
Arco Oriente (1994) Villano Field, Ecuador, Block 10, Plan of Development.
Canfield R. W., Bonilla G. and Robbins K. (1982) Sacha Oil Field of Ecuadorian Oriente.
AAPG Bulletin V.66 No8. P. 1076-1090.
Canfield R. W. (1988) Sacha Field - Ecuador, Oriente Basin. No additional references.
Estrada C. and Mantilla C. (2000) Tilted oil water contact in the Cretaceous Caballos
Formation, Puerto Colon Field, Putumayo Basin, Colombia. SPE paper number 59429).
Hubbert M. K. (1953) Entrapment of Petroleum Under Hydrodynamic Conditions. AAPG
Bulletin. Volume 37.
Kummert P. (1990) Modelo Geológico del Campo Bermejo - Formación Hollin, Nororiente
Ecuatoriano. Tercer Congreso Andino de la Industria del Petróleo. Memorias Tomo II. Quito -
Ecuador.
Ludwik Z.. (2004) SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, 26-29 September 2004,
Houston, Texas.
Ramirez F. A. (2006) Hollin Formation Hydrodynamics Oil Traps in the Oriente Basin.
Perenco. Internal Memorandum. 12 pages.