ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF 2D/3D SEISMIC DATA OVER DHURNAL OIL FIELD, NORTHERN PAKISTAN

Abstract: The study area, Dhurnal oil field, is located 74 km southwest of Islamabad in the Potwar basin of Pakistan. Discovered in March 1984, the field was developed with four producing wells and three water injection wells. Three main limestone reservoirs of Eocene and Paleocene ages are present in this field. These limestone reservoirs are tectonically fractured and all the production is derived from these fractures. The overlying claystone formation of Miocene age provides vertical and lateral seal to the Paleocene and Permian carbonates. The field started production in May 1984, reaching a maximum rate of 19370 BOPD in November 1989. Currently Dhurnal‐1 (D-1) and Dhurnal‐6 (D-6) wells are producing 135 BOPD and 0.65 MMCF/D gas. The field has depleted after producing over 50 million Bbls of oil and 130 BCF of gas from naturally fractured low energy shelf carbonates of the Eocene, Paleocene and Permian reservoirs. Preliminary geological and geophysical data evaluation of Dhurnal field revealed the presence of an up-dip anticlinal structure between D-1 and D-6 wells, seen on new 2003 reprocessed data. However, this structural impression is not observed on old 1987 processed data. The aim of this research is to compare and evaluate old and new reprocessed data in order to identify possible factors affecting the structural configuration. For this purpose, a detailed interpretation of old and new reprocessed data is carried out and results clearly demonstrate that structural compartmentalization exists in Dhurnal field (based on 2003 data). Therefore, to further analyse the available data sets, processing sequences pertaining to both vintages have been examined. After great effort and detailed investigation, it is concluded that the major parameter giving rise to this data discrepancy is the velocity analysis done with different gridding intervals. The detailed and dense velocity analysis carried out on the data in 2003 was able to image the subtle anticlinal feature, which was missed on the 1987 processed seismic data due to sparse gridding. In addition to this, about 105 sq.km 3D seismic data recently (2009) acquired by Ocean Pakistan Limited (OPL) is also interpreted in this project to gain greater confidence on the results. The 3D geophysical interpretation confirmed the findings and aided in accurately mapping the remaining hydrocarbon potential of Dhurnal field.