SACROC Unit CO2 Flood: Multidisciplinary Team Improves Reservoir Management and Decreases Operating Costs

The SACROC Unit of the Kelly-Snyder field is located in the Midland basin. The Midland basin is the eastern most of the Permian Basins of west Texas. This field is the largest of the many prolific, Late Pennsylvanian age carbonate buildups that comprise the Horseshoe Atoll. The field, discovered in 1948, encompasses 50,000 acres and contained an estimated original oil in place of 2.8 billion bbl. Waterflooding operations began in 1954 and CO{sub 2} flooding began in 1972. Cumulative recovery has been more than 1.2 billion bbl. The field contains approximately 1,600 wells with about 400 active producers and 240 active injectors. Recent changes implemented by the team have significantly improved operational efficiency at the unit. In addition, recent geologic investigations have finally began to unravel the complex stratigraphy of the reservoir. In 1992, the economic viability of the SACROC Unit was somewhat uncertain. At that time, a multidisciplinary team was formed to improve operational efficiencies and reservoir performance. Better understanding of reservoir geology from detailed biostratigraphic analysis provided the framework to make effective changes. This paper discusses operational efficiency and reservoir exploitation projects implemented by the team.