Oil recovery from oil fields in Sudan may be substantially increased
Results from the first phase of a project on improved oil recovery (IOR) from oil fields in Sudan were presented in a workshop on Wednesday 3 November in Khartoum. The project is a co-operation between Ministry of Petroleum in Khartoum, Ministry of Energy and Mining in Juba and the Norwegian Oil for Development initiative.
The Norwegian team is headed by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) and includes Norwegian consultants from Bridge Consult, Inoil, Odin Petroleum and Petrolink. The project was agreed in June under the Memorandum of Understanding regarding cooperation in the petroleum sector between Sudan and Norway, and the technical assessment started in August. 30 petroleum experts from GoNU MoP, GoSS MEM, the operating company GNPOC participated in the workshop.
"Based on available data from fields in GNPOC blocks 1, 2 and 4, our screening assessment demonstrates a large potential for increased oil production and recovery compared to current plans" says Reidar Kristensen, principal reservoir engineer in NPD. "However, further detailed studies are required to reduce risks related to more advanced oil recovery methods and reduce uncertainties in production and cost estimates."
Oil was discovered in Sudan in the 1980s by Chevron, but the first oil was produced and exported from Port Sudan at the Red Sea in 1999. The fields have been developed in a traditional onshore manner by drilling a number of production wells equipped with powerful pumps in the wells in order to boost oil production. Few water injection wells have been drilled for pressure maintenance and displacement of oil for reservoir management. This has resulted in high initial oil production, which rapidly declined, and in early and rapidly increasing water production - currently in the range of 70-95%. The average oil recovery factor in Sudan is estimated to 23 % compared to a world average of 30 % and a 46 % average from Norwegian fields. Since the fields studied have good reservoir properties with light oil, much more oil could probably be recovered by using more advance recovery methods such as injection of water with chemicals or injection of gas, which the current studies demonstrate. More advanced well-technology can also reduce the very high water production level and increase oil production. This can potentially reduce one of the biggest environmental challenges related to the oil industry in Sudan – handling of produced water.
The project is expected to continue later this year with more detailed assessments of the most promising recovery methods for the field structures with the highest IOR potential. The more advanced recovery methods may require pilot testing before implementation in a larger scale and a good cooperation with the operator company is necessary. An important issue will also be that the authorities in North and South Sudan will be able to cooperate in the years to come and maintain an attractive environment for investments in further developments of the fields.
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