Wireline-Supported Solutions

for Tight Reservoir Exploration and Exploitation

Introduction: Tight Reservoirs in a Global Context
Jurry van Doorn, Schlumberger Wireline Bucharest Domain Centre – Hassi Messaoud, 15 November 2018

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Wireline-Supported Solutions for Tight Reservoir Exploration and Exploitation

Theme A – Improvement of Reservoir/Fracture Characterization

• Introduction: Tight reservoirs in Algeria placed in a global context
• Petrophysical measurements for improved reservoir characterization in tight formations
• Photorealistic borehole imaging solutions in OBM/SBM with Quanta Geo

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• Reservoir engineering solutions for fractured and tight rock scenarios
Theme B – Geomechanics Solutions: Input to Completion Strategies
• Geomechanics input to frac design
• Sonic fracture characterisation
Theme C – Well Integrity and Perforation: New Insights
• Isolation Scanner/Cement Bond Logs, Wireline mechanical interventions
• Clean perforations, reactive liner charges

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Agenda

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Some Definitions of Tight Reservoirs
• Common use: “Tight reservoirs are those which have low permeability, less than 0.1 mD”

• Schlumberger Oilfield Glossary: “Tight gas or oil is produced from a relatively impermeable
reservoir rock. Hydrocarbon production from tight reservoirs can be difficult without stimulation
operations.

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• Stimulation of tight formations can result in increased production from formations that previously
might have been abandoned or been produced uneconomically. The term is generally used for
reservoirs other than shales.”

• Preferred definition from Canadian Centre of Energy: “Tight reservoirs cannot be produced at
economic flow rates or do not produce economic volumes of hydrocarbons without assistance
from massive stimulation treatments or special recovery processes and technologies.
• Poor permeability is primarily due to fine-grained nature of the sediments, compaction, or infilling
of pore spaces by carbonate or silicate cements precipitated from water within the reservoir….”
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Origin of the Permeability Threshold < 0.1 mD
• The U.S. government decided in the 70s that the definition of a tight gas reservoir is one in which
the expected value of permeability to gas flow would be less than 0.1 mD. This was a political
definition used to determine which wells would receive federal and/or state tax credits for
producing gas from tight reservoirs.

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• What makes a tight gas reservoir tight depends on many physical and economic factors, whereby
the physical factors are related by Darcy's law, as per the stabilised, radial-flow equation:

q = flow rate β-, μ- = fluid properties

k = permeability re = drainage area
h = net pay thickness rw = wellbore radius
p- = av. reservoir pressure s = skin
pwf = av. flowing pressure

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Challenges
• There are no "typical" tight reservoirs. They can widely vary:
• Deep or shallow
• High pressure or low pressure
• High temperature or low temperature
• Blanket or lenticular

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• Homogeneous or (intensely) naturally fractured
• Single-layered or multi-layered

• Optimum drilling, completion, stimulation methods depend on reservoir characteristics/economy

• The costs to drill, complete and stimulate the wells, plus the oil/gas price and the oil/gas market
affect how tight reservoirs are developed. As with all engineering problems, the technology used is
a function of the economic conditions surrounding the project.

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Resource Triangle

• Masters and Gray published the concept of the

resource triangle in the late 1970s to show that “oil
and gas resources are distributed log normally in
nature” just like any other natural resources(gold,

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silver, oil, gas, etc…)

• The high grade deposits are difficult to find but

easy to extract

• As you get deeper into the resource triangle, you

need adequate product prices and improved
Holditch, 2009 technology

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Two Tight Gas Reservoirs in North Africa (Hamra Quartzite vs. Acacus Fm.)

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Hamra Quartzite Fm. (Algeria) Acacus Fm. (Tunisia)
Ordovician Silurian
98% Quartz (grains and overgrowths) Chlorite-lined quartz plus siderite cement
Ρma = 2.65 g/cc; Rt = 500 Ohmm; Ρma = 2.82 g/cc; Rt = 2 Ohmm
Ф = 2.3%; Kgas = 0.12 mD Ф = 14%; Kgas = 0.12 mD After: IPTC 13832

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Hamra Quartzite Fm. Dipslope with Orthogonal Fracture Pattern

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 Micro-Scale: Thin Section Analysis

• This is an example of where thin

section analysis is required to
reconstruct the diagenetic history.
• Two phases of cementation can

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be distinguished in this example
where quartz grains have
overgrowths (labeled 'o'),
reflecting a first phase of
cementation followed by
carbonate cementation (c) seen
Quartz sandstone seen under plain light
as a brownish material filling pore
space.

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Micro-Scale: Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy
• Tight sands pose both a geological and
petrophysical problem and this section
petrography provides valuable information.
• Laser scanning confocal microscopy (widely
used in medical industry) is a new application in

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earth sciences.
• Laser interacts with fluorescent-dyed epoxy to
image pores and fractures.
• With a resolution of 0.25 microns also
microfractures become visible
• Studies at SDR are undertaken where confocal
microscopy is combined by mercury injection
capillary pressure, NMR to map microporosity vs.
depth
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Formation Evaluation
• To properly complete, fracture treat, and produce a tight gas reservoir, each layer of the pay
zone and the formations above and below the pay zone must be thoroughly evaluated.

• The most important properties that must be known are pay zone thickness, porosity, water
saturation, permeability, pressure, in-situ stress, and Young’s modulus.

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• The raw data that are used to estimate values for these important parameters come from;
Cores, Logs, Well tests, Drilling records, Production from offset wells

• Because tight gas reservoirs are normally also low porosity reservoirs, the importance of
detailed log analyses becomes critical to understanding the reservoir. For example, if an error
of 2 porosity units (p.u.) occurs when the porosity is 30%, it is normally not critical. However,
the same 2 p.u. error applied to a reservoir in which the porosity is 8% can cause significant
errors in estimates of net gas pay, water saturation, and gas in place.

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 ISRM 13, Castellarini et al., 2015

Tectonic Analysis Tight Reservoirs, Neuquen Basin, Argentina

• Lineaments for the
• 1 Mulichinco Formation; (A)
• 2 map with all the
lineaments and the main
faults,
colours indicate different

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families; (B) lineaments
statistic distribution for
each family, orientation is
weighted with the length;
(C) open fractures
identified in wellbore
using image log; (D)
schematic diagram
showing differential
subsidence

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Critically Stressed Fracture Orientation
IPTC 13832, 2009 • This combined log plot
and cartoon show the
importance of
determining the fracture
density, as well as which

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fracture set is critically
stressed.
• The red set may have a
lower fracture density
than the blue set, but the
red fractures are critically
stressed

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Sand Body Orientation
IPTC 13832, 2009 • Depositional environment
and facies orientation in
conjunction with present-
day principal stress
direction influences the

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stimulation length design.
• The two sand bodies
displayed here have similar
petrophysical properties and
thicknesses.
• The body on the right is the
better candidate for
stimulation

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