The VARG field: the tail is bigger than the fish
In 2002, two Norwegian oil companies, Hydro and Statoil, submitted an application to close down the Varg field after several unsuccessful development wells and low oil price at that time. PGS whose production FPSO was in the field, decided to acquire the asset. So PGS formed an oil company, Pertra which acquired Varg for US$1 plus an obligation to cover abandonment costs.
In order to tackle this challenging opportunity, Pertra (today Aker BP) contracted with AGR to leverage our subsurface and drilling expertise.
CHALLENGE
The Varg reservoir was a complicated reservoir formed by a salt dome. Inaccurate reservoir mapping had been followed by a number of unsuccessful wells in the past, which had prevented the previous operator from investing more wells and other IOR activities on Varg.
SOLUTION
The AGR team capitalised on their synergies to develop unique and fresh insights into the situation. Through a systematic review of all well data and understanding the depositional environment (sand lobes) and fault system (guided by a new multi-directional 3D seismic), a much more accurate geological mapping was accomplished.
AGRs evaluation of existing seismic and well data enabled the team to create and develop hypotheses regarding the location of new reserves.
RESULTS
- Eight new wells were drilled and 50 mio more barrels of oil than initial production volumes were identified (“the tail being larger than the fish”)
- Oil production was extended by more than seven years
- The new owner of the assets purchased the field in 2004/ 2005 for approximately US$ 155mio
AGR’s team excels at leveraging their combined experience and knowledge to bring fresh new insights in helping to locate new reserves and cost-effectively bringing those reserves out of the ground.
