A Decade of Developing Unconventional Resources in Middle East: A Retrospective

Abstract

The requirement of tapping new hydrocarbon resources has pushed the Middle East region, which typically produces hydrocarbon in conventional ways, to develop its unconventional resources. The Middle East region started to boost its unconventional resource exploration and appraisal in 2009 targeting multiple tight gas formations and source rocks. Different approaches and concepts were applied based on the exploration data and on adopting the best practices from other regions, such as North America and Argentina.

Adopting the best practices from other regions and integrating comprehensive surveillance data help to define the processes and practices for developing the unconventional resources in the Middle East region. Understanding the reservoir, hydrocarbon, and the fracability of the formation is critical during the exploration phase of the field. During this phase, a full range of log and surveillance data and subsurface analysis are required to understand the fundamental characteristics of the reservoir. Moving to the appraisal phase, additional studies focus on the drilling and completion design to select the best approach as basis of design of the field and confirmation of well productivity. Details and confirmation of field development plan are required to ramp up from the appraisal phase to the development phase to be commercially viable. Furthermore, as successful unconventional resource development is characterized by having the lowest cost of well delivery and maximum productivity, optimization of well cycle is required to ensure the economics of the project.

During the more than 10 years of unconventional resource development in the Middle East region, we acquired many typical field development lessons learned that could be applied in the different unconventional resource plays. Our observations cover different aspects, from both the operator and the service company perspectives. They range from the strategy of field development organizational structure to the operation execution and third-party management throughout the exploration, appraisal, and development phases.

Case studies from Middle East region will be presented for each field development phase and include completion optimization, hydraulic fracturing strategy, surveillance strategy, and operational efficiency.