NIOC’s requirements for data processing and interpretation in challenging geological environment

Abstract

The time for easy oil discovery and production for National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) is over. This means that the oil is no longer discovered in structurally simple, i.e., almost flat environments like south of Khuzestan province (south west of Iran). This comes along with the fact that Iran's biggest oil reservoirs are in this area, and they are passing half of their life cycle. These giant reservoirs are still producing more than half of oil production in Iran. There is significant uncertainty in future of Iran oil and gas exploration. In fact, the rate of drilling a successful well by NIOC exploration directorate is dramatically reduced in past few decades. The reason is that nowadays NIOC is drilling in structurally complex areas such as Zagros thrust belt mountains with rough topography and complex geology. Uncertainty in the drilling arises mainly from many factors, one of which is the processing tools in NIOC repository that belongs to at least 30 years ago. These tools belong to the time when NIOC used to drill for easy oil. In addition to the processing, other parts such as exploration techniques need to be revised in structurally complex environments. This article briefly looks at processing tools, which are critical to be used by NIOC to be able to significantly improve the drilling success rate.