This field is very old field. It would be very surprising if it was not in decline. It is not invested into either (unlike Samotlor), so I was under assumption that it was close to being sucked dry. That's why I am very surprised to find it in top 20.

Actually, according to this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romashkino_Field the field already produced over 15 billion barrels out of 16.5 to 17.2 recoverable which sounds very much in line with what I would expect.

Then I was the age of my daughter (i.e. more then 20 years ago) my grad dad drove me thru this field at night and I was fascinated with how gas flares lit the sky...

Anyhow, Russia should have more oil in other fields deeper in Siberia and up north in Pechora region and I am surprised they didn't make top 20, though they are indeed smaller then Samotlor, so they could be right at 10 billion barrels.

Finally, as far as Samotlor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samotlor_Field it is 20 billion barrel field with over 16 billion extracted. It was guttered in 1980ies at 7 million barrels per day. So despite Western seismic and horizontal drilling at the very best the field would be flat if that, mostly due to smaller fields in the area.

Where does China's big field fit in this list? I didn't see it listed. I thought it was the 4th or 5th biggest in the world?

"Daqing has 25,000 wells that produced 17.9 billion gallons of oil last year, about a third of the nation's total."

http://www.cnn.com/WEATHER/9808/17/chin ... index.html

By my rough calculations that's about 1.16 million barrels per day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengiz_Field
25 billion barrels but only 6 to 9 billion barrels recoverable. Very sour. Production is ramping up from 285,000 to 450,000 barrels per day. Could be producing up to 700,000 barrels by 2010.

Kashagan is new discovery, but as all Caspian oil is very sour. This is the field BP was so hyper about but seems to be pulling out lately. There are huge environmental problems developing this field.
http://www.mees.com/postedarticles/oped/a47n32d01.htm

Still Kashagan could be producing up to 1.2mn b/d by 2016. Was supposed to start producing in 2005, but it was pushed back to 2008 and with BP pulling out it would be given to China for pillage, but Chineese cannot move the oil to China for the only route is to European markets thru Russia.

Are the estimates of the field size the real estimates or are they the inflated ones we got from the 1980?? I seem to recall the Kuwaiti's revised their estimates downward??

Upgraded #6 Tengiz and #13b Kashagan to "Additional production possible". Downgraded #15 Romashkino to "likely decline". Need more data on production rates to calculate decline.

I think Manifa is the Saudi oilfield that's heavily tainted with vanadium and sulphur. I don't think the Saudis will want to touch it yet and it should be more or less still "full".

Saudi Arabia is in the process of building 4 heavy oil refineries around the globe so it looks like Manifa will be tapped. ANWAR will likely be exploited as well.

I didn't see any question on Burgan being 2a because no one really knows if the numbers are real or not as it could be only half that size!

I don't think Kirkuk is in natural decline, though.. Iraq's fields aren't producing because Saddam blew the infrastructure during the wars, so those can be brought back online.. once a stable government is in place (probably NEVER!)

No matter how you slice it, we're going to be drawing a larger portion of our future usage from the "heavier" and more sour stuff, which is going to drive the cost up considerably.

Platt's reported a couple days ago that the Saudi's are talking about a possible 8% decline in Ghawar. If that's the case, it's here -- we can see down both sides of the production curve from where we're standing.

I know that when you send heavy crude through an old style refinery you get less gasoline than you do sending light crude through the same refinery, but as I seem to recall if you send heavy crude through a heavy crude designed refinery you preform hydrogen upgrading and catalytic cracking on it and get what are called 'refinery gains' which can be quite significant. Refinery gains are when the finnished products have more volume than the crude inputs.

Can you comment on this Rockdoc?

Yes, but energy intensive to do so. What energy source do you use to make the hydrogen for cracking?

The info has been updated on TOD:

1. Ghawar Unknown
2a. Burgan CONFIRMED DECLINE ~14% (Source)
2b. Cantarell CONFIRMED DECLINE ~14% (Source)
3. Bolivar Coastal Unknown
4. Safaniya-Khafji Unknown
5. Rumaila Unknown
6. Tengiz Unknown
7. Ahwaz CONFIRMED DECLINE ~64% (HOLY CRAP!) (Source)
8. Kirkuk CONFIRMED DECLINE Need Source
9. Marun CONFIRMED DECLINE (Source)
10. Gachsaran Unknown
11. Aghajari CONFIRMED DECLINE (Source)
12. Samotlor CONFIRMED DECLINE ~ 9% (Simmons' book IIRC)
13a. Prudhoe Bay CONFIRMED DECLINE ~11% (Multiple sources)
13b. Kashagan Unknown
14. Abqaiq I don't know, but have you seen the cross section? It's all water!
15. Romashkino ALMOST DEAD (>90% depleted) (source)
16. Chicontepec Unknown
17. Berri Unknown
18. Zakum Unknown
19. Manifa Unknown
20. Faroozan-Marjan Unknown
21. Marlim, Campos CONFIRMED DECLINE ~8% (Source)

I propose that we add the following fields:

Da Qing (China)
Shaybah (Middle East)
Zuluf (Saudi Arabia)
Haradh-III (Middle East)
Sakhalin basin area 1 (Russia)
Marjan (Saudi Arabia)
Plutonio (Angola)
Abu Sa'fah (Middle East)
Azadegan (Iran)
Qatif (Middle East)
Yibal (Oman)



_________________________________________________________
http://graphoilogy.blogspot.com

kind of ironic that Iran has a load of oil (even more than Saudi) and wouldja just look? they are working on a nookular weapons program, guess we'll have to invade-this stuff is so transparent...

Daqing- wikipedia article says controlled production cut of 7% p/a is being done to prolong the lifespan of the field. DaQing

Ghawar flushed out some 6.5 MMbbl/d in the 70's, 5 now. But of course, aramco says it's a controlled production limitation to extend reserves life, not a decline.




Yep. Accoprding to some sources, the three main reservoirs will be filled with water by 2010-12, and production will crash.
The field was somewhat damaged by the uncontrolled pressure drop in 1991 (when the iraqis set fire to the wells)



Yep. It's a unique field, it's reservoir structure is a meteoritic crateer, probably the meteor that killed dinos, so it took everyone by surprise.
N2 injection worked great to double production, but didn't increase the ultimately recoverable oil volume. It just depleted the field increadibly fast.



Massive water injection and infill drilling to keep production roughly constant. Note bolivar coastal is not a sinle field, but a cluster of fields, the first of which was found in 1917.



Was damaged by inadequate exploitation at the end of hussein's reign. Kirkuk and Rumaila, together, gave 87% (!) of cumulative iraqi production to date, they are severely depleted but other iraqi fields can provide - it seems iraq have 4 fields of more that 5 Gb each that have been little or not exploited : East Baghdad, Majnoon, Um Nahr and West Qurna. They all should be added to this list and would make it look a bit less gloomish.



Yep, but it's very high-sulfur oil.



64% it cumultive decline since peak i guess. The five largest field in Khuzestan (SW iran) each peaked near, at, or slightly above 1 Mb/d (not simultaneously). Now the collectively produce 1100 kb/d. The Iranians are building a HUGE gas pipeline to bring natural gas for the North Dome/South Pars fdield there, for enhanced oil recovery. But this will consume immense amounts of gas, through much of it may be extracted again later (after the end of large scale oil production).



Kirkuk was damaged by bad practises in the recent years, even more than rumaila. They reinjected gas-stripped crude oil, because they needed associatedc gas for power production but couldn't export the crude. They injected too much water, and pumped oil too hard, creating early water breakthoughs at some points. They even reinjected excess refinery products !
These bad pratise may have damaged the field forever.



same as ahwaz.

>>> 11b Shaybay
>>> 11c Manifa

these saudi fields should rank here, they have some 15 Gb each.
Manifa is shut in and have not been much exploited. However, its vanadium content make its oil very difficult to use.
Shaybah is producing 500 kd/d since 1998. It could maintain this plateau untill 2050. But they will double the output, they need to compensate decline in other fields.



It is producing 300 kb/b, 10 times less than in the 80's. But it's still the largest producing russian field. Note it was overpumped by the soviets.



450 kb/j, vs 1600 in the 80's. Dying. May have a second life as gas field, the gas dome have some 30TCF.



Yes, not yet exploited, perharps the largest intact conventionnal oil field in the world. It should produce 1200 kb/d in 2015, since burgan will probably have decline a lot before that, it may then be the 2nd largest producing field in the world, after Ghawar.
Not easy to exploit : very deep, high pressure, high sulfure content.



73% of original reserves in this field are gonr, accordint to aramco itself. Production is rouglhly half its peak.



Yes. Discovered in 1942. Dying.



Very little production to date. But it's very difficult oil, very heavy, at the fringe of conventionnal oil.



In decline, according to simmons, it may end up been exploited as a gas field.



Additionnal production possible, according to national oil company



Shut-in. additionnal production likely. lots of vanadium.



Yep. Deepwater. Deepwater fields are not huge (only 3 or 4 exceed 1 billion barrels) but are exploited at insane depletion rates, often more than 10%.
So while deepwater basins add lot of production in the near term, they will bring huge decline in the future - worst than the north sea.

Ghawar flushed out some 6.5 MMbbl/d in the 70's, 5 now. But of course, aramco says it's a controlled production limitation to extend reserves life, not a decline.




Yep. Accoprding to some sources, the three main reservoirs will be filled with water by 2010-12, and production will crash.
The field was somewhat damaged by the uncontrolled pressure drop in 1991 (when the iraqis set fire to the wells)



Yep. It's a unique field, it's reservoir structure is a meteoritic crateer, probably the meteor that killed dinos, so it took everyone by surprise.
N2 injection worked great to double production, but didn't increase the ultimately recoverable oil volume. It just depleted the field increadibly fast.



Massive water injection and infill drilling to keep production roughly constant. Note bolivar coastal is not a sinle field, but a cluster of fields, the first of which was found in 1917.



Was damaged by inadequate exploitation at the end of hussein's reign. Kirkuk and Rumaila, together, gave 87% (!) of cumulative iraqi production to date, they are severely depleted but other iraqi fields can provide - it seems iraq have 4 fields of more that 5 Gb each that have been little or not exploited : East Baghdad, Majnoon, Um Nahr and West Qurna. They all should be added to this list and would make it look a bit less gloomish.



Yep, but it's very high-sulfur oil.



64% it cumultive decline since peak i guess. The five largest field in Khuzestan (SW iran) each peaked near, at, or slightly above 1 Mb/d (not simultaneously). Now the collectively produce 1100 kb/d. The Iranians are building a HUGE gas pipeline to bring natural gas for the North Dome/South Pars fdield there, for enhanced oil recovery. But this will consume immense amounts of gas, through much of it may be extracted again later (after the end of large scale oil production).



Kirkuk was damaged by bad practises in the recent years, even more than rumaila. They reinjected gas-stripped crude oil, because they needed associatedc gas for power production but couldn't export the crude. They injected too much water, and pumped oil too hard, creating early water breakthoughs at some points. They even reinjected excess refinery products !
These bad pratise may have damaged the field forever.



same as ahwaz.

>>> 11b Shaybay
>>> 11c Manifa

these saudi fields should rank here, they have some 15 Gb each.
Manifa is shut in and have not been much exploited. However, its vanadium content make its oil very difficult to use.
Shaybah is producing 500 kd/d since 1998. It could maintain this plateau untill 2050. But they will double the output, they need to compensate decline in other fields.



It is producing 300 kb/b, 10 times less than in the 80's. But it's still the largest producing russian field. Note it was overpumped by the soviets.



450 kb/j, vs 1600 in the 80's. Dying. May have a second life as gas field, the gas dome have some 30TCF.



Yes, not yet exploited, perharps the largest intact conventionnal oil field in the world. It should produce 1200 kb/d in 2015, since burgan will probably have decline a lot before that, it may then be the 2nd largest producing field in the world, after Ghawar.
Not easy to exploit : very deep, high pressure, high sulfure content.



73% of original reserves in this field are gonr, accordint to aramco itself. Production is rouglhly half its peak.



Yes. Discovered in 1942. Dying.



Very little production to date. But it's very difficult oil, very heavy, at the fringe of conventionnal oil.



In decline, according to simmons, it may end up been exploited as a gas field.



Additionnal production possible, according to national oil company



Shut-in. additionnal production likely. lots of vanadium.



Yep. Deepwater. Deepwater fields are not huge (only 3 or 4 exceed 1 billion barrels) but are exploited at insane depletion rates, often more than 10%.
So while deepwater basins add lot of production in the near term, they will bring huge decline in the future - worst than the north sea.