Management of Cross-Border Hydrocarbon Migration in Field Development Plans, a Case Study of Shared Oil and Gas Fields

It is the natural right of each country to exploit its underground resources. Production and development of a shared hydrocarbon formations can be performed independently, nevertheless any production or pressure change can have irreversible effect on the whole reservoir. Iran is one of the unique countries in the world, having shared oil and gas fields with at least six neighborhood countries. Some of these fields have been developed earlier and some are just under development. The purpose of this paper is to investigate development plans that can maximize the productivity of one party from a shared field. Fluid migration crossing border is simulated based on real field data with Eclipse software. Different scenarios are run to find different cross-border fluid encroachment. Finally, two sets of factors are recognized: development parameters and the intact reservoir properties. Application of these two types of parameters enables any country to manage the border fluid and to compensate the possible arrearage of production from shared reservoirs. Findings of this study are applied to investigate the development plan of a giant gas field named PASO. Some cross-border gas migration has already happened but managing the fluid in the border can compensate further lose of underground resources.