From Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin (www.beg.utexas.edu).
For more information, please contact the author.

Bureau Seminar, May 7, 2010

The Marlim Field: Incorporating 4D Seismic
in Reservoir Management Decisions

Link to streaming video TBA: available 05.07.2010 at 8:25am

Rildo Oliveira
Bureau of Economic Geology

Many brownfields have had 4D-seismic technology applied successfully to optimize reservoir production and recovery. This paper describes how 4D-seismic results were incorporated into the geological model and illustrates applications in reservoir- management decisions, thereby mitigating drilling risks in Marlim deepwater turbidite heavy-oil field. It highlights the repositioning of many planned wells and the improvement in the history match by use of the updated geological model. The Marlim field is off the eastern Brazilian coast in water depths varying from 2,000 to 3,600 ft (Fig. 1). The field is the largest producing oil field in Brazil. Three seismic surveys cover the Marlim field. The first was acquired in 1986 and the others in 1997 and 2005. The most recent survey was acquired specifically for reservoir-characterization and -monitoring purposes.