Preliminary management and optimization of a gas reservoir in central Serbia

Management of hydrocarbon reservoirs is a dynamic, continuous and complex process. It is applied from reservoir discovery to its abandonment, with the objective of achieving maximum profitability by using a recovery process with minimum capital investments and operation costs.The goals of modern system-engineer' approach to hydrocarbon reservoir management are: managing efficiency; adequate and on time decision making; increasing reserves, and oil and gas recovery factor; production increment; risk reduction; investment efficiency; minimizing costs and environmental protection.The gas reservoir “M” is the gas reservoir discovered in central part of Serbia. It was not put in production yet, so it is important to apply reservoir management concepts from the beginning of the production process.Based on production characteristics, this reservoir belongs to a group of smaller gas reservoirs that characterizes most often the Serbian exploitation area. Also, this reservoir fullfils most of criteria for using it as an underground gas storage reservoir. Thus, the analysis of possibilities for conversion into the underground gas storage after certain production period was also considered.The management of gas reservoir “M” has been analyzed by two different approaches. The first one refers to the management of the reservoir as a gas producer during the whole reservoir life. The second management approach considers gas production for a certain period of time, followed by underground gas storage (UGS). In this paper, economic and financial evaluation results are given for the presented options of gas reservoir management.A decision analysis has been applied to select an optimized gas reservoir management approach.Adequate management of this gas reservoir would contribute to further development and reform of Serbia's gas energy sector that is characterized by great dependence on natural gas imports, and a lack of underground gas storage.