The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DFRAI]

Oakes, see below and please give us your comments....TIA

I cant get the pic to show for some reason..so here is the link

http://home.entouch.net/dmd/ghawar.htm

Postscript: I went to a talk Oct. 2004 at the Society of Exploration Geophysicists Convention, on an attempt to collect 4D seismic over that field (4D is time-lapse 3d seismic. Two surveys are acquired in identical patterns after a period of time in which oil is produced from the field. we use it to monitor fluid flow). At Ghawar, the world's largest field, they began water injection when the field was put on line back in the early 50s. The initial injector well were just beyond the initial oil water contact of the Arab D reservoir. As the oil was extracted, a formerly producing well would be turned into an injector (a producer would become an injector), so you will see what it looks like today after lots of producers have been turned into injectors. Water is injected into the carbonate reservoir in order to maintain reservoir pressure and allow the field to be produced at 5 million barrels per day. If the pressure were to drop, the production rate would fall quickly. One of the things to keep in mind as you look at the model below is that the original oil column was 1300 feet thick. Today, the green layer is less than 150 feet thick. One must draw the necessary conclusions that most of the oil has been removed from Ghawar. The original article can be found at http://abstracts.seg.org/ease/techprog/downloadpaper?paper_id=817&assigned_num=762

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You can see for yourself, that the area occupied by oil is not very large compared with where the initial injectors were placed. One friend, a reservoir engineer, to whom I showed this picture said "It's over! Kiss your life-style goodbye!"