Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
    • Series home
    • Lyell Collection home
    • Geological Society home
  • Content
    • Current volume
    • All volumes
    • Collections
    • Supplementary publications
    • Open Access
  • Subscribe
    • GSL fellows
    • Institutions
    • Corporate
    • Other member types
  • Info
    • Authors
    • Librarians
    • Readers
    • Access for GSL Fellows
    • Access for other member types
    • Press office
    • Accessibility
    • Help
  • Alert sign up
    • eTOC alerts
    • Online First alerts
    • RSS feeds
    • Newsletters
    • GSL blog
  • Geological Society of London Publications
    • Engineering Geology Special Publications
    • Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis
    • Journal of Micropalaeontology
    • Journal of the Geological Society
    • Lyell Collection home
    • Memoirs
    • Petroleum Geology Conference Series
    • Petroleum Geoscience
    • Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society
    • Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology
    • Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society
    • Scottish Journal of Geology
    • Special Publications
    • Transactions of the Edinburgh Geological Society
    • Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow
    • Transactions of the Geological Society of London

User menu

  • My alerts
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Geological Society, London, Petroleum Geology Conference Series
  • Geological Society of London Publications
    • Engineering Geology Special Publications
    • Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis
    • Journal of Micropalaeontology
    • Journal of the Geological Society
    • Lyell Collection home
    • Memoirs
    • Petroleum Geology Conference Series
    • Petroleum Geoscience
    • Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society
    • Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology
    • Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society
    • Scottish Journal of Geology
    • Special Publications
    • Transactions of the Edinburgh Geological Society
    • Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow
    • Transactions of the Geological Society of London
  • My alerts
  • Log in
  • My Cart
  • Follow gsl on Twitter
  • Visit gsl on Facebook
  • Visit gsl on Youtube
  • Visit gsl on Linkedin
Geological Society, London, Petroleum Geology Conference Series

Advanced search

  • Home
    • Series home
    • Lyell Collection home
    • Geological Society home
  • Content
    • Current volume
    • All volumes
    • Collections
    • Supplementary publications
    • Open Access
  • Subscribe
    • GSL fellows
    • Institutions
    • Corporate
    • Other member types
  • Info
    • Authors
    • Librarians
    • Readers
    • Access for GSL Fellows
    • Access for other member types
    • Press office
    • Accessibility
    • Help
  • Alert sign up
    • eTOC alerts
    • Online First alerts
    • RSS feeds
    • Newsletters
    • GSL blog

The Bacchus development: dealing with geological uncertainty in a small high-pressure–high-temperature development

Phil Rose, Grant Byerley and Owen Vaughan
Geological Society, London, Petroleum Geology Conference series, 8, 319-337, 26 September 2016, https://doi.org/10.1144/PGC8.4
Phil Rose
Apache North Sea Ltd, Caledonia House, Prime Four Business Park, Kingswells Causeway, Aberdeen AB15 8PU, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: Phil.rose@apachecorp.com
Grant Byerley
Apache North Sea Ltd, Caledonia House, Prime Four Business Park, Kingswells Causeway, Aberdeen AB15 8PU, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
Owen Vaughan
Apache North Sea Ltd, Caledonia House, Prime Four Business Park, Kingswells Causeway, Aberdeen AB15 8PU, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
PreviousNext
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

The Bacchus Field, discovered in 2004, is a small borderline high-pressure–high-temperature (HPHT) oil field 6.8 km east of the Forties Alpha Platform. The reservoir is Fulmar Sandstone with a rotated fault-block trap. The reservoir is typically thin (10–50 m) and difficult to image seismically. Compartmentalization was anticipated due to significant in-field faulting. The Bacchus development decision was made when considerable geological uncertainty remained.

The key risk-mitigation strategies employed during the development of Bacchus were to drill long horizontal wells, contacting multiple reservoir compartments, while maintaining a flexible development plan. The ability to react to unexpected results was facilitated by optimizing the development data-acquisition programme. Drilling risk and cost were minimized by exploiting existing well control for landing development wells, combined with pilot drilling in untested parts of the reservoir. Development wells were designed to be geometrically robust, minimizing the requirement for geo-steering. This ensured low wellbore tortuosity that did not compromise the completions. Bacchus was successfully developed despite the final distribution of reserves being radically different from the pre-development perception. It is argued that maintaining a flexible development plan was far more effective in maximizing the value of the Bacchus development than more extensive pre-development appraisal or modelling.

  • © 2018 Petroleum Geology Conferences Ltd. Published by the Geological Society, London. All rights reserved
View Full Text

Please note that if you are logged into the Lyell Collection and attempt to access content that is outside of your subscription entitlement you will be presented with a new login screen. You have the option to pay to view this content if you choose. Please see the relevant links below for further assistance.

INDIVIDUALS

Log in using your username and password

– GSL fellows: log in with your Lyell username and password. (Please check your access entitlements at https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/fellowsaccess)
– Other users: log in with the username and password you created when you registered. Help for other users is at https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/lyellcollection_faqs
Forgot your username or password?

Purchase access

You may purchase access to this article for 24 hours and download the PDF within the access period. This will require you to create an account if you don't already have one. To download the PDF, click the 'Purchased Content' link in the receipt email.

LIBRARY USERS

Log in through your institution

You may be able to gain access using your login credentials for your institution. Contact your library if you do not have a username and password.
If your organization uses OpenAthens, you can log in using your OpenAthens username and password. To check if your institution is supported, please see this list. Contact your library for more details.
If you think you should have access, please contact your librarian or email sales@geolsoc.org.uk

LIBRARIANS

Administer your subscription.

CONTACT US

If you have any questions about the Lyell Collection publications website, please see the access help page or contact sales@geolsoc.org.uk

PreviousNext
Back to top

In this volume

Geological Society, London, Petroleum Geology Conference 				series: 8 (1)
Geological Society, London, Petroleum Geology Conference series
Volume 8
2018
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • Index by author
  • Back Matter (PDF)
  • Front Matter (PDF)
Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Citation tools

The Bacchus development: dealing with geological uncertainty in a small high-pressure–high-temperature development

Phil Rose, Grant Byerley and Owen Vaughan
Geological Society, London, Petroleum Geology Conference series, 8, 319-337, 26 September 2016, https://doi.org/10.1144/PGC8.4
Phil Rose
Apache North Sea Ltd, Caledonia House, Prime Four Business Park, Kingswells Causeway, Aberdeen AB15 8PU, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: Phil.rose@apachecorp.com
Grant Byerley
Apache North Sea Ltd, Caledonia House, Prime Four Business Park, Kingswells Causeway, Aberdeen AB15 8PU, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Owen Vaughan
Apache North Sea Ltd, Caledonia House, Prime Four Business Park, Kingswells Causeway, Aberdeen AB15 8PU, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Permissions
View PDF
Share

The Bacchus development: dealing with geological uncertainty in a small high-pressure–high-temperature development

Phil Rose, Grant Byerley and Owen Vaughan
Geological Society, London, Petroleum Geology Conference series, 8, 319-337, 26 September 2016, https://doi.org/10.1144/PGC8.4
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Email to

Thank you for sharing this Geological Society, London, Petroleum Geology Conference Series article.

NOTE: We request your email address only to inform the recipient that it was you who recommended this article, and that it is not junk mail. We do not retain these email addresses.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
The Bacchus development: dealing with geological uncertainty in a small high-pressure–high-temperature development
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Geological Society, London, Petroleum Geology Conference Series
(Your Name) thought you would be interested in this article in Geological Society, London, Petroleum Geology Conference Series.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Print
Download PPT
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Exploration and development history
    • Geophysical database
    • Pre-development understanding
    • Development drilling risk-mitigation strategy
    • Bacchus development: the first development well, 22/6c-B3Z and 22/6c-B3Y
    • Revised analogue to assist reservoir development
    • Bacchus development: the second (22/6c-B2) and third (22/6c-B1) development wells
    • Discussion
    • Summary and conclusions
    • Acknowledgments
    • Appendix A
    • References
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

Similar Articles

Cited By...

  • Most read
  • Most cited
Loading
  • The Lancaster Field: progress in opening the UK's fractured basement play
  • Passive margins: overview
  • Middle East and North Africa: overview
  • 3D basin and petroleum system modelling of the NW German North Sea (Entenschnabel)
  • The meaning of oil depletion and its consequences
More...

Petroleum Geology Conference Series

  • About the series
  • Author information
  • Supplementary Publications
  • Subscribe
  • Pay per view
  • Alerts & RSS
  • Copyright & Permissions
  • Activate Online Subscription
  • Feedback
  • Help

Lyell Collection

  • About the Lyell Collection
  • Lyell Collection homepage
  • Collections
  • Open Access Collection
  • Open Access Policy
  • Lyell Collection access help
  • Recommend to your Library
  • Lyell Collection Sponsors
  • MARC records
  • Digital preservation
  • Developing countries
  • Geofacets
  • Manage your account
  • Cookies

The Geological Society

  • About the Society
  • Join the Society
  • Benefits for Members
  • Online Bookshop
  • Publishing policies
  • Awards, Grants & Bursaries
  • Education & Careers
  • Events
  • Geoscientist Online
  • Library & Information Services
  • Policy & Media
  • Society blog
  • Contact the Society

Published by The Geological Society of London, registered charity number 210161

Online ISSN 
2047-9921

Copyright © 2021 Petroleum Geology Conferences Ltd