SPE Distinguished Lecture:

Mature Fields: Keep Revisiting the Fundamentals

Kutubu is Papua New Guinea’s largest oil field. It came on line in 1992 and achieved peak rates in 1993 before decline began in 1994. A follow up
development campaign, along with other projects, has for 4 years completely halted the production decline. The field now appears to have a considerable remaining life of up to 2 decades. This lecture’s main conclusion is that we regularly need to go back to basics and establish whether or not our fundamental assumptions are supported by solid evidence.

Neil Williams is currently in charge of the reservoir engineering, geoscience, planning, and development of the Kutubu field for Oil Search. He earned a BS degree from Sydney University in applied mathematics, and a PhD degree in fluid mechanics from the University of New South Wales.