Education

CSEG DoodleTrain

Fractured and Shale Reservoirs: From Geologic Concepts to Reservoir Models

Instructor: Ahmed Ouenes / John Lorenz
Date: November 15 – 16, 2012
Duration: 2 days
Members: (early bird/price): CAD $750 / $850 (plus GST)
Non-Members (early bird/price): CAD $ 950 / $1050 (plus GST)

Venue: TBA
Time: TBA

Course Description:

The short course provides a unique opportunity to learn all the aspects related to the understanding and modeling of fractured reservoirs. The workshop includes both presentations and hands-on training using a software (ReFract). The first part of the workshop covers the geologic aspects which allow the geoscientist to recognize different types of fractures from outcrop, cores and boreholes. Once the fractures are recognized, their impact on the reservoir and its performance is examined. Six case studies are used to illustrate all the geologic concepts. The second part of the workshop covers all the aspects of modeling fractured reservoirs. Using ReFract and actual data from Teapot Dome, (WY) Niobrara shale, the geoscientist will be able to construct fracture models that integrate geology, geophysics and reservoir engineering. Emphasis will be given to the critical use of high resolution seismic attributes derived from inversion, volumetric curvature and spectral imaging. Using actual Teapot Dome field data from the Niobrara Shale formations and a hands-on approach, the workshop allows the geoscientist to identify fractures and to construct 3D fracture models that can be used to identify productive zones and areas, plan wells and to create fracture porosity and permeability models for reservoir simulation. The students can take the concepts learned in this class and use them to solve his own problems. Many commercial and open source software (Petrel, OpendTect, EMERGE from Hampson Russel, Geomodeling, etc..) offer tools similar to those used in ReFract during the course.

Audience:

Geologists, Geophysicists, Reservoir Engineers and Geomodellers.

Format:
The course will consist of taught lectures and practical sessions. Real field examples will be taught using ReFract software and Niobrara shale Teapot Dome data.

Contents:

Part 1: Geologic Aspects of Fractured Reservoirs

A. Introduction: Fracture Types and Variability

  1. extension fractures
  2. shear fractures
  3. deformation bands
  4. fractography
  5. mineralization
  6. fracture swarms and corridors
  7. microfractures
  8. compound fractures
  9. faults

B. Fractures in Core: Natural Fractures

  1. extrapolating from the surface to the subsurface
  2. distinguishing natural from induced fractures in core
  3. fracture types in core
  4. collecting fracture data from core
  5. quality checking an orientation survey
  6. measuring fracture orientations in core
  7. image logs

C. Fractures in Core: Induced Fractures, Types and Uses

  1. petal fractures
    • saddle fractures in horizontal core
    • using petal fractures
  2. Other induced fractures and artifacts

D. Fracture Mechanics

  1. contraction fractures
  2. lithologic mis-matches and bedding-plane tractions
  3. extension fractures in flat-lying strata
    • the important effects of pore pressure
  4. shear fractures: conjugate shears, en echelon veins, and deformation bands
  5. dynamically compatible fractures
  6. fractures in limestone vs. fractures in sandstone

E. Fractures on Anticlines

  1. Stearns and Friedman vs. Cooper models/Teapot Dome
  2. Salt Valley: stretching features over a mobile salt core
  3. drapes over dissolution fronts
  4. Wyoming anticlines – UW Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute Tensleep Fm studies

F. Fracture Spacings

  1. spacing variability
  2. sampling problems
  3. measuring spacing
  4. geometry and wellbore efficiency

G. Fracture Effects on Reservoirs

  1. permeability enhancement and anisotropy
  2. permeability baffles and barriers
  3. dynamic permeability
  4. corridors and sweet spots
  5. interactions between stimulation fractures and natural fractures
  6. nuclear stimulations

H. Case Histories

  1. Spraberry Formation: Permian Basin, Texas
  2. Frontier Formation: Green River Basin, Wyoming
  3. Mesaverde Formation: Piceance Basin, Colorado
  4. Fractures in lenticular sandstones: Uinta Basin, Utah
  5. Mesaverde Formation: San Juan Basin, New Mexico
  6. Raton Basin, Colorado-New Mexico

Part 2: Modeling Fractured Reservoirs

A. Introduction

  1. Classification of fractured reservoirs
  2. Classification of fractures

B. Factors Affecting Fracturing
The notion of fracture drivers is introduced with a focus on the influence of the following drivers on reservoir fracturing:

  1. structure
  2. distance to fault and fault throw
  3. porosity
  4. lithology
  5. reservoir thickness

C. Methodologies to Characterize Fractured Reservoirs

  1. Continuum Fracture Modeling (CFM)
  2. Discrete Fracture Modeling (DFN)
  3. Geomechanical aspects of fracture modeling.

D. The Use of Seismic to Improve the Fracture Modeling

  1. The use of high-resolution seismic inversion
  2. Spectral imaging and volumetric curvature
  3. Pre-stack seismic and azimuthal analysis

E. Integrated Workflow Applied to Fractured Reservoirs
Case studies: application of the CFM methodology on several fractured reservoirs around the world to determine:

  1. the matrix block size
  2. the fracture intensity distribution
  3. the fracture permeability distribution
  4. the fracture porosity distribution

F. Hands-on Application: Dataset from the Teapot Dome (WY)

  1. Teapot Dome Niobrara shale formation

Presenter / Instructor Biography:

Ahmed Ouenes
Ahmed Ouenes is the president of Prism Seismic. Ahmed graduated from Ecole Centrale de Paris and joined Elf-Aquitaine to conduct research on wettability in New Mexico, USA. After getting his Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering, he joined the New Mexico Petroleum Recovery Research Center where he focused on the development of new reservoir characterization techniques. Among these new techniques he developed the Continuum Fracture Modeling (CFM) technology which has been successfully applied throughout the world. The CFM technology is the only available technology that is able to successfully integrate seismic, geologic and geomechanical information. Ahmed joined (RC)2 where he was the Chief Reservoir Engineer and the developer of the first commercial software for the CFM technology. After the acquisition of (RC)2 by Veritas, Ahmed shifted his focus to the development of new advanced seismic technologies that can be used in reservoir characterization in general and fracture modeling in particular. Ahmed published more than 50 papers and was an SPE editor.

Scott Cooper
Scott has spent the last 15 years working projects related to outcrop and subsurface fracture studies with applications to reservoir characterization, production and CO2 sequestration. He received a M.S. in geology from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in 2000 under Dr. Laurel Goodwin and Dr. John Lorenz; the thesis topic was fracture characterization and modeling of Teapot Dome a basement-cored anticline in central Wyoming. Scott left Sandia National Laboratories (a Department of Energy Research Laboratory) as a Senior Member of the Technical Staff in the summer of 2008. Since that time, he has had fun working in partnership with Dr. John Lorenz at FractureStudies LLC on naturally fractured reservoir characterization projects around the world. Detailed descriptions of projects, published papers, short courses and links to open-file reports and papers are available at www.fracturestudies.com.

Contact Info:

Ahmed Ouenes
ouenes@att.net


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