Fateh

Location and Geography

The Fateh Oil Field is situated approximately 60 miles (97 km) northwest of Dubai in the Arabian Gulf.

History

• The oil field was discovered on June 23, 1966, by a ConocoPhillips consortium, which had been operating under a concession agreement signed on August 3, 1961.
• The first oil was lifted from the field and shipped to world markets on September 22, 1969. This marked the completion of the first underwater oil storage facility, known as "Khazzan," a world-first innovation at the time.

Field Characteristics

• The Fateh field is a 73 square kilometer folded structure with a vertical relief of 250 meters. It contains numerous carbonate reservoirs, with the Cretaceous Mishrif formation being the most prolific, having produced about 60% of the oil to date. Other producing reservoirs include the Thamama and Ilam carbonates.

Operations and Management

• The field is managed by Dubai Petroleum Establishment, which took over operations from the ConocoPhillips consortium on April 2, 2007.
• The field facilities include 71 processing, compression, water injection, and wellhead platforms, of which four are manned. There are also 317 miles of pipelines and three submerged steel vessels called "Khazzans" for final separation and storage. Additional storage is provided by the Al Wasel floating storage unit.

Production and Recovery Methods

• The field has about 240 active oil wells and 120 active injection wells. Oil wells produce using gas lift, with 17 compressor trains providing 1 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of gas-lift capacity.
• Secondary oil recovery using seawater injection commenced on June 8, 1974. Dubai Petroleum has also planned projects for CO2 injection to enhance oil recovery (EOR), aiming to make it the world’s largest CO2 capture and EOR project.

Gas Production

• In 2014, significant volumes of gas were discovered in deep gas exploration wells at the Fateh oil field. Increased energy demand in Dubai has led to an aggressive program for exploiting potential gas accumulations, with the first gas flowing to shore on May 23, 2007.

Development and Expansion Plans

• Dubai Petroleum plans to eliminate production bottlenecks by debottlenecking producing facilities, optimizing reservoir performance, and conducting extensive field tests. Additional plans include contracting more drilling rigs, developing gas discoveries, and improving production in under-performing areas such as the Ilam reservoirs.

Other Associated Fields

• Besides Fateh, other fields within the concession area include SW Fateh (discovered on October 26, 1970), Falah (discovered on August 10, 1972), and Rashid (discovered on August 17, 1973).