SPE 110882

Reviving the Mature Handil Field: From Integrated Reservoir Study to Field Application
Henricus Herwin, Emmanuel Cassou, Hotma Yusuf, Total E&P Indonsie

Copyright 2007, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2007 SPE Asia Pacific Oil & Gas Conference
and Exhibition held in Jakarta, Indonesia, 30 October1 November 2007.
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Abstract
The Handil field, discovered in 1974, is a giant mature
oilfield located in the Mahakam Delta, Indonesia. The field
consists of 555 accumulations and was developed by more
than 350 wells with conventional oil recovery methods:
natural depletion and peripheral water injection. After many
reservoirs have been water-flooded, in order to recover the
tertiary oil, EOR lean gas injection project was started in
November 1995 on five reservoirs. The project was successful
and extended to the other six reservoirs in 2000. However, the
field production continued to decline from 200,000 BOPD in
the late seventies to 12,500 BOPD in 2003.
An integrated study on the largest EOR reservoir was
performed to assess the projects performance, including 3D
geo-modeling, reservoir simulation and chemical tracer
injection. The study permitted to track the main effects of the
gas injection and define reservoir management guidelines for
the other lean gas injection reservoirs.
In the same time, dynamic synthesis has been performed in
all accumulation in Handil Field with objective to identify
potential by-passed oil and un-drained areas. Following the
study, an intensive Light Work Over campaign has been
launched and three pilot wells, each with different completion
type, have been successfully put on production and became
the model for the next Handil development wells; horizontal
well equipped by gas lift to recover viscous sandy reservoir in
very shallow zone, gravel pack equipped by ESP to recover
sandy reservoirs in shallow zone and monobore multi-target
well equipped by gas lift to recover reservoirs in main zone.
The production has been increased by nearly 100 percents,
from 12,500 BOPD in 2003 to 23,000 BOPD nowadays.
Integrated reservoir study and the successful application of
Light Work Over and Infill Well to recover by-passed oil
and un-drained areas, supported by EOR techniques to

maintain the reservoir pressure and sweep the tertiary oil,

become the key elements to revive the mature Handil Field.
Introduction
The Handil field is located in the Mahakam Delta, East
Kalimantan, Indonesia. The field comprises of 555
unconnected accumulations/reservoirs in structurally stacked
and compartmentalized deltaic sands. The reservoirs are
trapped by Handil Anticline which is cut by a major
impermeable fault dividing the field into two compartments,
North and South.
The reservoirs are found between 200 mSS and 3500 mSS,
in the surface of 10 km long and 4 km wide.

Fig.1.Handil Cross Section

Three different reservoir characteristics distinguish the
field:
1. Shallow zone, down to 1500 mSS, has excellent
permeability ranging from 200 mD to 2000 mD with
very strong aquifers that maintains the reservoirs
pressure at their initial condition. However, the sands
are poorly consolidated which require special sand
control technique, prior to the production.
2. Main zone, between 1500 mSS to 2200 mSS, has
permeability between 10 mD and 500 mD. The
reservoirs are mostly having initial gas caps which
have been preserved to maintain the reservoir
pressure, especially since the aquifers are not as
strong as the shallows. The sands are normally wellconsolidated; therefore sand production is not an
issue.

SPE 110882

3.

Deep zone, below 2200 mSS, contains mostly gas

and decreases in quality with depth to permeability of
several mDs.

Production History
After its discovery in 1974, the production was started up
one year later under natural depletion. The production peak
was reached in 1977 with production of around 200,000
BOPD.
In order to maintain the production plateau as well as the
reservoir pressure, water injection was started in 1978 and it
had helped to maintain the 160.000 BOPD of production up to
1985, except for one year drop due to OPEC restriction. As
addition to optimize the lifting system, gas lift has been
introduced in 1979 and has been implemented in field scale in
1991 by using a dedicated compressor.

Fig.2.Handil Production Profile

Since the field started to experience water breakthrough,
and reservoir pressure, especially in the main zone, had also
been depleting, infill drilling has regularly been performed to
maintain the production. Today, more than 350 wells have
been drilled in the field with an average spacing coming down
to 300 m. However the decline seemed to be inevitable,
therefore in November 2005, lean gas injection project in five
reservoirs was started as first tertiary recovery project in
Handil Field. The project boosted the production of the 5 large
reservoirs and altered the overall decline rate of the field. Due
to its performance, the project was extended in 2000 with
other 6 large reservoirs which resulted in over 25% of the
fields OIIP being under a tertiary recovery mechanism.

After all the efforts that have been done in the Handil field,
the decline was still inevitable. In 2003, the field was
producing at its lowest of 12,500 bopd. This presentation
describes the strategies and the methodology that have been
applied to increase the production to the level of 23,000
BOPD today.
Geological Overview and Study
The Handil field is located in the internal axis of the
Mahakam delta. The main pay zone is Middle to Upper
Miocene in age. The reservoirs are sandstones which have
been deposited in distributary channels or as mouth bars. The
average orientation of the channels is N130E. The thickness
corresponding to one deltaic cycle is of the order of about 30
to 50 meters.
The field is a four way dip structure. The trapping is
structural and stratigraphic. Reservoir quality is good with
variation of porosity from 5% to 36% and with permeability
values up to several thousands mD. As a multilayer field, the
most continuous and reliable markers correspond generally to
transgressive shales associated with lignite, organic shale or
limestones.
When studying mature fields, it is essential to understand
reservoir behavior. In the case of the Handil field, there are
two major difficulties present. The first is the geological
context; the fluvio-deltaic environment comprises multilayered sedimentary series; therefore each layer can hold
different accumulations, often with different fluid contacts and
dynamic behavior. The second is the lack of interpretable
seismic data: only poor 2D lines are available, no 3D has been
acquired, due to numerous coal beds, which tend to interfere
with and eventually hide any amplitude effect expected from
gas-bearing reservoirs.
Therefore, the only usable data for structures, stratigraphy and
reservoir analysis is the well data.
Dynamic Synthesis
Dynamic synthesis and material balance have been
performed in all reservoirs in the shallow and main zone as a
compromise between the huge number of reservoirs in Handil
and the time constraint. The final product of the study is a set
of reservoir monitoring maps showing the production
performance and status of each well, the fluid data from recent
log and the prediction of actual fluid contact. The map also
indicates the location of the remaining oil rim, by-passed oil
or/and un-drained area.
It is worth to mention that the log data brought by the new
wells give valuable information about the actual fluid status,
not only in the wells themselves, but also in area around the
wells or even farther.

Fig.3.Handil EOR Phase 1 Prod Profile

SPE 110882

Handil Sweet Spots Mapping Methodology

The approach is pragmatic and is aiming to give a
qualitative indication on the most likely productive
behaviour of a reservoir or part of a reservoir. The three
grades are likely productive, possible productive and
likely non productive. Although, the approach is
simple, the study use of geomodelling fundamental to
maintain 3D data consistency. The following steps have
been applied to achieve this objective:
Step 1: Sweet Spots Mapping Static

For each reservoir on the logs, from the netsand

thickness and the porosity response, discriminate as
follows:

Fig.4.Example of Reservoir Monitoring Map

Black Oil reservoir simulation models have been built in
several reservoirs where high potentials are expected as well
as to reservoirs where horizontal wells are planned. The
models help to determine the remaining oil area, define the
optimum production strategy and forecast the production.

Likely-Productive:
If porosity 13.5% and netsand 2m

Possibly-Productive:
Ifporosity-13.5%-and-netsand-<-2m--or
If 11% porosity < 13.5% and netsand > 2m

Likely-Non-Productive:
If_11%--porosity-<-13.5%-and-netsand-<2m-or-if porosity < 11%

The empirical cut off of porosity >13.5% is based

on dynamic results (productivity of perforated
intervals) where Porosity > 13.5% corresponds to Kh >
5mD.
A colour code for each category enables to
transpose this information on the reservoir netsand
maps.
The manual extrapolation of the log
discretisation will be based on the sedimentological
interpretation, i.e. on the way sand body continuity and
facies homogeneity are understood.

Fig.5.Example of Black Oil Reservoir Model to Optimize the

Future Horizontal Well
Sweet Spot Mapping

In geomodeling, polygons are digitized for each

category based on the manual extrapolation result. A
code value is given to all point inside the polygon (0 for
likely non-productive, 1 for possibly productive or 2 for
likely productive).
Step 2: Sweet Spots Mapping Dynamic

Areas in Handil Oil Pool which are not yet

produced by current wells thus are considered as
potential are mapped. The potential areas are called as
Sweet Spots.

In order to determine the sweet spot area which

has not yet been produced by current wells, the
dynamic data and drainage areas of existing producers
for each reservoir is integrated.

The work takes into account the static data

(geological map, log data) and the dynamic data. The
maps resulting from this work are enabling to position
certain number of wells that are expected to be good oil
producers.

The wells and their production data are positioned

on the Sweet spot map. The limits of the Sweet
spot boundaries are re-determined based on dynamic
criteria:

SPE 110882

Proximity
excluded)

to

producer

(drainage

area

Exclusion of flooded wells and drainage area

Proximity to fluid contact (water); a cut-off at

10m above water contacts (OWC or WR) is
used to retain an area of interest which should
not be subject to quick water flooding or
coning

If more than one trajectory can meet these three

objectives, then the final selection will be based on the
number of the secondary objectives that can be
encountered.

This approach is conservative, the purpose is to

avoid as much as possible any bad surprise during
drilling/production.

Fig.7.Well Trajectroy Optimization using 3D Sweet Spot Map

Fig.6. Static Cut Off (A), Dynamic Cut Off (B), Final Swet
Spot (C)

Light Work Over

The most economical method to recover the oil in Handil
is by performing Light-Work-Over (LWO), which means to
do well intervention without pulling the completion or in other
word to isolate the water-out reservoirs and perforate the
prospective reservoirs. However, Light-Work-Over is
sometime not applicable due to poor well condition, such as;
tubing leaks, tubing-parted, fish etc.

Sweet Spot Grid Parameter & Proposal Target

As the purpose of this study is to enable to position
a certain number of wells that are expected to be good
producers, Sweet spot maps have been produced per
layer.
These sweet spots maps will be put as grid
parameter and visualised in 3D by assigning filter on
numeric code (0 for likely non-productive, 1 for
possibly productive or 2 for likely productive).
Based on these, preliminary trajectories are
proposed so far as the target for future Handil Oil wells.
The choice of a final well trajectory for a Handil oil
pool well lies in the difficulty in meeting three major
constraints:
Geology: chose main targets in the Handil oil
pool (the present study gives the best possible
solution today for vertical section through the
Handil oil pool) and has to have an optimum
multi target.
Select one or more possible well heads with
appropriate pipelines.
Check drilling feasibility (well departure of the
trajectory, anti collision constraints)

Fig.8.Example of Handil Completion Diagram

Light Work Over is also not preferable in the high
producing wells since it can jeopardize the actual production
in the case the expected prospective reservoirs produce water.
Beside the technical operation constraints, the main issue
of Light Work Over is on defining the actual fluid status
behind the casing. The dynamic synthesis studies that have
been performed are made to reduce these uncertainties.

SPE 110882

Gravel pack and three zones have been completed by

Swelling Packer. The latest was cheaper, less time
consuming and simpler in term of the operational
work.

In 2005, 26 Light Work Overs have done in which 19 or

75 % are successful. It gives 1.7 MMstb of cumulative
production during the year and 4 MMstb of incremental
reserves. The total cost operation is around 2 MM US$ which
is far below the economical cut-off. This result proved that the
studies that have been performed, simple dynamic synthesis
and material balance, are feasible to define the remaining oil
potential and have indeed helped to increase the oil production
of the Handil field.

Two out of the three zones under swelling packer are

later fail and giving excessive sand production,
making Gravel Pack the only option for the next
multi-target wells. However, swelling packer
completion reminds interesting in marginal reserves
reservoir with high precaution should be addressed
during clean up and production.

Infill Well
Although Light Work Over is the most economical way to
recover the remaining oil, the well condition is sometime
difficult to technical intervention. In this case, the only way to
recover the potential is by using new well or what a so-called,
infill well.
In general there are three cases where infill wells are
preferred and it would affect the well design and architecture.
1.

In the very shallow zone where the reservoirs are less

developed and having high viscous oil, horizontal
wells are proposed with sand screen to prevent the
excessive sand production. Gas lift was used as
activation lift with option to convert to ESP when the
BSW is getting higher.
Fig.10. Multi-Target Well completed with Gravel Pack and
Swelling Packer
3.

In the main zone where the reservoirs are already

quite mature, multi-target wells are the best solution.
Sand control completion is not necessary since the
sand is well consolidated.
Gas lift is used as activation lift in a monobore
completion. ESP is not preferable in this zone since
the reservoirs containing a significant gas cap volume
that can generate high GLR which is not suitable for
ESP.

Fig.9.Horizontal Well Completion Diagram

2.

In the shallow zone where the reservoirs are already

well developed and the reserves of each reservoir are
not justified for dedicated wells, multi-target wells
are proposed.
The wells are activated by ESP to anticipate the quick
water breakthrough and gravel pack was used to
prevent sand problem since the sand down to 1500
mSS is poorly consolidated.
In the first multi-target well, a completion trial has
been tested. Two zones have been completed by

Fig.11. Monobore Multi-Target Well

SPE 110882

Enchanced Oil Recovery (EOR)

The lean gas injection in an oil reservoir is primarily an
immiscible displacement process which, when the reservoir
has already undergone waterflooding, becomes a Double
Displacement Process (DDP), also called Gravity Assisted
Tertiary Gas injection. The remaining oil in these reservoirs is
located in: oil rim trapped above the structurally highest
production row, as bypassed oil down dip in the reservoir and
as residual oil (Sorw) trapped after the water flooding.

Gas Injection

OIL

GOR

The crestal injection of gas intends to sweep back the

remaining mobile oil towards the producer wells (gasflooding)
and secondly, re-mobilize part of the capillary trapped oil (at
Sorw).
After Gas Injection

After Water-flooded

Oil-rim

Gravity drainage
Sorw
Sorw

Sorw

Sorw ~ 25%

Sorwg = 10 20

Fig.12. Gravity Drainage Mechanism

All reservoirs are divided into several production rows
with row one being the closest production row to the gas
injector (Fig. 13)

North-South Cross
Section
GAS INJ.
Production Row 3

BSW
WHFP

Fig.14. Typical EOR Response in the Well

EOR optimization
In 2003, an integrated study consisting of complete review
of geological correlation based on facies recognition on the
logs and using the geometries of the sand-bodies, 3D
Geomodel, dynamic synthesis, reservoir model and chemical
tracer injection was performed in the largest EOR reservoir.
The study confirmed the efficacy of the gas injection
mechanism where very low residual oil saturation are found in
the first row area which has been swept by the gas. The study
is also able to predict the location of the actual oil rim where
oil potential is remaining.
Tracer injection helped to trace the gas injection pattern
and this information has been used to calibrate the reservoir
model. The tracer has also identified poorly connected areas in
the north-east of the reservoir and a disconnected area in the
southern area of the reservoir.

Production Row 2

Production Row 1

GAS INJ.

GAS INJ.
So ~ Sorg
Poor connected

Fig.13. Production Row Distribution

Gradually, gas will sweep the oil which formed as an oil
rim above the highest initial oil producer to the wells located
in the first row. After certain time the gas will breakthrough
and well should be SI whenever oil is going down below the
economical limit and let the gas push down the remaining oil
to the next production rows.
Typical gas injection response can be seen in the Fig. 14,
the plot is taken from one of the first row wells in which the
oil production has stabilized, the BSW decreases and the GOR
and the WHFP gradually increase.

Disconnected

1995
Water Flooded Condition / GI Project Start Up

2003
End of History Matching

Fig.15. Saturation Map After Waterflooding and after 8 Years

of Gas Injection
One of the most interesting learning from the study is the
optimum gas cycling rate, which is the ratio between the
produced gas and the injected gas over the gas injection

SPE 110882

In the Handil field, the study was followed up by three

operations, Light Work Over, Infill Well and EOR that
become the key elements to increase the production from
12,500 BOPD in 2003 to 23,000 BOPD today.

period. The average gascycling throughout the project was

60%.

Fig.16. Gas Cycling History

This relatively high cycling is coming from the first row
wells which although producing with significant oil rate also
have high GORs. The simulation model indicated that the gas
would be used more efficiently by closing these high GOR
wells at an earlier stage in the project. This would have
allowed more gas to reach the regions around the second and
third row producers in order to sweep the remaining mobile oil
and allow remobilization and oil production by gravity
drainage from these areas. The small gravity drainage oil still
being produced by the first row producers will continue and in
time also be displaced towards the second row.

Fig.19. Production Profile in the Past 5 years

Acknowledgement
The authors thank Total E&P Indonesie, INPEX and
BPMIGAS for the permission to present this paper.
Special thanks to Mr. M.W. Duiveman, Mr. H. Tafsiri, Ms.
I.F. Hayati, Mr.I.M. Yasa and Mr. B. Bernadi for their
contribution in the reservoir engineering works, Mr. Ph.
Ruelland, Mr. Y. Priyadi, Mr. A. Riski and Mr. Hermawan for
their contribution in the geological works, Mr. M.Sofyan for
his contribution in the completion work, Mr. R.Agusta, Mr. H.
Setiawan and F. Hadiaman for their contribution in well
servicing works, Mr. W. Sudradjat, Mr. I. Saleh and Mr. B.
Radjab for their contribution in the well performance works.

Close
GASINJECTOR
ROW 1 PROD.

ROW 2 PROD.

ROW 3. PROD.

The paper is a result of a multi-disciplinary teamwork, the

authors thank all the team members and all the concerning
parties who have been involved in the project.

Fig.17. Reduced Cycling by Closing High GOR Wells

References

The application of the optimized cycling ration has already

been rewarded by a substantial improvement of the reservoirs
production.

1. Duiveman, M. W., Herwin, H and Grivot, P., " Integrated

Management of Water, Lean Gas and Air Injection: The
Successful Ingredients to EOR Projects on the Mature Handil
Field, SPE-93858-PP, Asia Pacific Oil & Gas Conference
and Exhibition, Jakarta, April 2005

No Injection
Period

Gas Injection
2000

35

1800

Reduced
Cycling

actual

1600

1200

20

1000
15

800
600

10

WI Decline

400

5
200
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scfd

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p
d

30

25

1400

2. Yusuf, H.S. Willuweit, M. Ruelland, Ph,3D Software

Application to Mature Fields of the Internal Axis of the
Mahakam Delta, Indonesian Petroleum Association, Thirtieth
Annual Convention & Exhibition, Jakarta, August 2005.

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Fig.18 Production After New Strategy Applied

Conclusion
An integrated geosciences and reservoir study can help to
redefine the remaining potential in a mature field. However,
when the huge number of reservoirs, wells and long
production history are concerned, simple dynamic synthesis
and material balance can be a good compromise to identify the
potential, thus optimize the production.

3. Gunawan, S., Caie, D., Handil Field: Three years of Lean

Gas Injection into Waterflooded Reservoirs. SPE 57289, SPE
Asia Pacific Improved Oil Recovery Conference, Kuala
Lumpur, October 1999