Development of Additional Primary Recovery Wells in the Charlton 30/31 Field

The Charlton 30/31 Field is located in Otsego County, Michigan. In this field, the producing formation is the Niagaran Brown formation (of the North Silurian pinnacle reef trend). Several oil wells have extracted 2.6 million of the estimated 7 million barrels of oil in place, all in around 40 year's time. The solution for extracting more oil economically from a field that has been active for so long is difficult. This is due to previous field activity from both injection and production wells. They have an influence on the remaining oil in the reservoir, on the remaining reservoir pressure and various other factors that impact primary recovery. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to overcome these technical difficulties to identify the optimal surface location(s), drilling methods, and stratigraphic zones for drilling additional wells that will recover the majority of the oil remaining in the field. The stratigraphic zones that are most effective for oil production are dolomite intervals that lay throughout the carbonate reservoir in the Charlton 30/31 Field. Specifically, the dolomite intervals have been found to contain higher porosity and permeability than the limestone intervals. Therefore, targeting those oil saturated dolomitic areas in the matrix is the priority of the project, while planning to drill around fault planes and wells already in place is a secondary, yet still important focus. The dolomitic oil-bearing trends from well to well will all be identified on a static model in Petrel, which is built from interpretations of well logs and a 3D seismic survey. In this study, the designing of a static model and the plan behind developing additional oil wells in the Charlton 30/31 Field will be discussed at a higher level.