Project Profile
Value: Undisclosed
Location: Puerto Gaitán municipality, meta Province, Eastern Llanos Basin
Start-up Year: 2008
Total production: 160,000 bopd (year 2015)
Area: 141,000 acres
The Rubiales is the largest producing field in Colombia, and one of the biggest onshore fields in all of Latin America. The Rubiales field consists of mostly basal sands, which produces heavy oil of 12.5° API, and has an independently certified “STOIIP” value of 4.17 billion barrels of oil.
Production from the Rubiales field is transported through the ODL Pipeline to the Monterrey station and the OCENSA station at Cusiana, where the diluted crude oil is then transported through the OCENSA and Bicentenario Pipeline systems to the export terminal port of Coveñas on the Caribbean coast as part of the Castilla and Vasconia crude stream.
Geology
The main oil accumulation in the area occurs in the Carbonera Basal interval, informally known in the area as \"Arenas Basales;\" it has been deposited in a varied succession of fluvial environment genetic units, which hold oil-producing columns between 7 and 60 feet thick.
The geological model for the Rubiales field is a hydrodynamic trap, with oil trapped by basin ward (northwestward) flowing formation waters trapping oil under a broad subtle structural nose at the top of the Arenas Basales. This trapping model is supported by a tilted oil-water contact, pressure data in the reservoir section, log facies characteristics of available wells, and regional geologic information. The mapping method used to define prospective areas, using this geologic model, is the Trend Residual mapping method where subtle structural highs are identified as positive anomalies with a positive residual value when compared to the regional structural trend.
History Background
The Rubiales field was discovered in 1981 by Exxon in association with the Tethys operating group. Three wells were drilled from 1981 to 1982 and on July 1, 1988 a 28 year concession was granted. Exxon then drilled 14 wells from 1988 to 1993. The field was then acquired by Coplex Resources in 1994 who drilled 5 additional wells by 1997. Due to financial problems within the company, the field was shut in until Tethys et al re-acquired it from Coplex in 2000. Production was re-started in 2001 and two additional wells were drilled for a total of 24 wells at that time. In 2006, Mustang Engineering selected to provide front-end engineering design (FEED) and cost estimate services for a heavy oil upgrader complex.
Operators:
Ecopetrol SA: Operator with 100 % interest
Contractors:
RWL Water Group: Design, construct, operate and maintain a produced-water desalination plant. (August, 2012)
Wood Group: Provide approximately 200 electric submersible pumps, (ESPs), 30 variable speed drives and downhole sensors. (August, 2010)