Kashagan Field, Kazakhstan, and the Use of Petrophysical Rock Typing for Improved Reservoir Quality Prediction

Kashagan Field is located in the Kazakh sector of the North Caspian Sea and is one of the largest oil discoveries made anywhere in the world in the last decade. It is one of a group of isolated carbonate build-ups in the North Caspian Basin. Kashagan consists of two separate carbonate platforms separated by a narrow connection (Figure 1). The field is approximately 70 kilometres long and ranges between 5 and 20 kilometres wide. The field was discovered in 2000 by AGIP with an exploration well penetrating mainly shallow marine carbonate facies. The field is overpressured and contains light oil with approximately 15% H2S. It is estimated to contain approximately 30 GBO inplace and poses significant development challenges.