Abstract
Abstract This paper describes the optimisation through production engineering of the rehabilitation of Block 3A in the Uzen Field, Kazakhstan. The Uzen field is located onshore adjacent to the Caspian Sea and was discovered in 1961 with initially estimated oil in place of 8,400 million barrels (MMBBLS). By the 1970s, the Uzen Field was contributing 320,000 barrels oil per day (bopd) to the Soviet system and was considered to be one of the largest producing assets in the USSR. However, due to both political and economic instability and underinvestment in the 1990s, production levels declined to 52,000 bopd. To restore the oilfield to its former levels of production would require an intensive field wide work programme costing a significant amount of money. In 1995, the Kazakhstan Government applied for a World Bank loan to fund a pilot rehabilitation project on one area of the field, a premier production unit. This loan utilised a multidisciplinary service team that was equivalent to a small oil company. The programme of work, initiated during the second quarter of 2000, was focused on workovers and surface facilities, production optimisation procedures, the application of new technologies and targeting engineering solutions. At the conclusion of the consulting contract after 3.5 years of work in November 2003, production from Block 3A had been increased from 8,000 bopd to 16,000 bopd. In conjunction with the rehabilitation project, an extensive training programme was undertaken for all staff in the host field management and field organisation, the knowledge base of which was successfully transferred to the rest of the field. It has also been demonstrated that these achievements reconciled logistical, cultural and management-style differences through the use of fit for purpose technology and the introduction of effective decision making procedures in conjunction with change management and intensive on-the-job training.