Produce While Explore Strategy: Phased Approach to Accelerate De-Risking and Monetization of Marginal Resources in West Abu Dhabi

In frontierbasin exploration, discoveries are often associated with major risks. The petroleum system elements are often not fully understood, or commercial aspects such as hydrocarbon recovery may not be straightforward. Therefore, development plans are normally not considered until sizable commercial discoveries are proven and de-risking through appraisal activities has been undertaken to mature the resources post-discovery. Consequently, the exploration-development strategy tends to be associated with lengthy and very expensive funding programs taking more than 10 years to witness the first hydrocarbon. For mature basins with marginal prospective resources, however, adopting a similar approach can significantly reduce the attractiveness of these opportunities. The West Abu Dhabi, which is regionally part of Rub’ Al Khali mature basin, contains a stack of plays with either gas, condensate or oil resources that are trapped structurally in small four-way dip closures or stratigraphically in heterogeneous carbonate-evaporite deposits. The small size and geological nature of the resources (leads/prospects) require a different strategic mindset, where the Produce While Explore Strategy needs to be of a different form. The strategy adopted for the West Abu Dhabi area hinges on the Explore-Produce concept to facilitate quick cash flow generation, while self-funding the de-risking plans. The early cash-flow is generated from hooking up/commissioning the tested exploration wells through trucking the produced oil from the planned Extended Well Test (EWT) project. The monetary value generated from producing these wells will fund the subsequent 3-year exploration/appraisal programs. Subsequently, the success of de-risking and commissioning of the next batch of wells will support future on-plot and off-plot facilities investments. Therefore, the strategy is designed to address challenges associated with marginal resources by coupling de-risking and development plans in a phased manner with small and areal-focused segments to allow future clustering of successful discoveries named Hub Development System. The development Phases are built on the success of preceding de-risking activities, such as exploration/appraisal wells and any dynamic information gathered from EWT projects. The number and size of development phases will rely on the success of de-risking activities, residual risks, funding appetite and potential economic return. The Produce While Explore Strategy, which is underpinned by "Agile Approach", is becoming more common for marginal opportunities. It can be applied to both conventional and unconventional oil and gas resources. It has the benefit of phasing the funding programs while defining the project "Exit Point" at different stages of the project depending on the outcome of the de-risking activities. Therefore, the development pace can always be controlled (accelerated, decelerated, or even paused) at any stage of the project. This approach allows establishing subsurface analogues and surface configurations that can be utilized and replicated for the subsequent phases. This strategy is proposed for the West Abu Dhabi to be implemented in the very near future. The key to success for thisstrategy is having a competitive cost model on different aspects of the project; be it on drilling, facilities, or cost of technology deployment. This normally requires different contracting strategies, followed by a steeplearning curve to arrive at efficient execution for the subsequent phases. The other important success factor is to have adequate technologies to enable better allocation of hydrocarbon, such as using of advanced seismic techniques and enhancing oil production through various forms of stimulations.