The Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists has urged oil and gas operators to make greater use of integrated subsurface analysis and real-time drilling intelligence to unlock additional production from mature fields.
NAPE said experience from ND Western’s Utor-40 well in the Utorogu Field, Oil Mining Lease 34 in Delta State, showed the value of adapting field-development plans when new geological and production data emerge during drilling.
The Utorogu Field is a mature asset in the western Niger Delta operated by ND Western under a joint-venture arrangement with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Exploration and Production Limited.
At NAPE’s September technical and business meeting in Lagos, ND Western Head of Geoscience Christopher Asuquo-Jackson presented the Utor-40 case study.
He said the well was initially designed as a single horizontal completion targeting the E14 reservoir with an expected production rate of about 2,000 barrels of oil per day.
The strategy changed after drilling of the pilot hole encountered nine hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs.
That discovery prompted the integrated team to reassess the completion plan using geological, petrophysical, reservoir-engineering and real-time drilling information.
Asuquo-Jackson said the original E14 reservoir delivered about 2,000 stock-tank barrels per day.
The team then identified another saturated reservoir with a primary gas cap and an oil column that could be developed alongside the original target.
ND Western revised the completion design to include the second interval.
According to Asuquo-Jackson, the additional zone contributed about 300 barrels per day at relatively limited additional completion cost.
He said the case demonstrated why operators should avoid treating field-development plans as rigid documents when drilling reveals new opportunities.
Asuquo-Jackson identified three lessons for operators: multidisciplinary collaboration, use of real-time drilling intelligence and flexibility in adapting field-development plans.
He said ND Western’s approach brought together geoscience, reservoir engineering, drilling engineering, economics and completions.
The strategy, he argued, was particularly relevant to operators managing mature assets, where additional production from bypassed or thin reservoirs could materially improve project economics.
NAPE said many Nigerian onshore fields were mature and contained stacked reservoirs that were not fully exploited during earlier development phases.
The association argued that improved data integration could help operators identify incremental barrels without necessarily committing to entirely new field developments.
For operators working under tight drilling budgets and high evacuation and security costs, relatively small production gains from existing wells can have significant commercial value.
