Optimizing the Zama Development Through Integrated System Modelling

How Harbour Energy used CMG’s IMEX and CoFlow to improve forecasting accuracy, optimize infrastructure design, and maximize recovery from one of the world's largest offshore discoveries.

Before first oil is produced, operators must make some of the most expensive decisions in a field's life.

Pipeline diameters are selected. Platforms are sized. Artificial lift strategies are planned. Water handling facilities are designed. These decisions often commit billions of dollars in capital years before actual production data becomes available.

For Harbour Energy's Zama development offshore Mexico, the challenge was particularly significant. With approximately 700 MMBOE of recoverable resources, Zama represents one of the largest shallow-water discoveries of the past two decades.

The question was straightforward:

How do you confidently design a field of this scale before first oil?

To answer it, Harbour Energy and CMG developed a fully integrated production system model (IPSM) using CMG IMEX and CoFlow, connecting the reservoir, wells, facilities, and export pipelines into a single forecasting environment.

The study revealed that traditional forecasting methods were overestimating field performance, identified opportunities to optimize infrastructure design, and demonstrated how production management strategies alone could increase recovery by up to 6%.