3/15/20

Geology of Unconventional
Petroleum Systems

1
 3/15/20

What Makes a Reservoir

“Unconventional”?
• Continuous (versus discrete) type of accumulation

• Areally and/or vertically extensive

• Commonly lacks obvious trap or seal

• Not buoyancy driven – often “inverted” systems

• Low porosities, v. low permeabilities – difficult to produce

2
 3/15/20

What Makes a Reservoir

“Unconventional”?

• Abnormally pressured – usually overpressured

• Large calculated OOIP and/or OGIP

• In the oil, wet gas, or gas generation window

• Pervasive petroleum saturation

• Discrete reservoir bodies

• Structural, stratigraphic, or combination traps

• Seals necessary

• Buoyancy (fluid density) driven – gas, oil, water

3
 3/15/20

• Continuous (versus discrete) type of accumulation

• Areally and/or vertically extensive

• Commonly lacks obvious trap or seal

• Not buoyancy driven – often “inverted” systems

• Low porosities, v. low permeabilities – difficult to produce

• Abnormally pressured – usually overpressured

• Large calculated OOIP and/or OGIP

• In the oil, wet gas, or gas generation window

• Pervasive petroleum saturation

4
 3/15/20

Bakken Formation Example

• The Williston basin is an intracratonic basin – a

bowl full of sedimentary rocks of mostly
Paleozoic age, with minor Mesozoic and
Cenozoic fill

• The Bakken is widespread and continuous over a

very large area

The Bakken Fm. covers

a total area of almost
40,000 km2

Elm Coulee/Mondak
Field is appx. 100 km long x
50 km wide, or 5000 km2

Recall Ghawar productive

area is about 2800 km2

10

5
 3/15/20

A continuous type of
accumulation. The
Bakken Fm. was
deposited widely
across the Williston
basin. The formation
covers an area of
almost 40,000 km2.

11

Stratigraphy is nearly the same all across the basin. Lower

and Upper Bakken Shale Members are the intraformational
source beds. Production comes from the Middle Bakken.

12

6
 3/15/20

Unconventionals like the Bakken typically have low porosities

and very low permeabilities. Lower and Upper Bakken shales
average less than 3.5% porosity, with permeabilities down to
the nano-Darcy range. Middle Bakken lithologies typically
have porosities 2-12% and k from 0.01 to 1.0 mD.

13

Total Organic Carbon (TOC)

maps for the Lower and Upper
Bakken Shale members. TOC
values greater than 5% are
considered “excellent” source
rocks. Combined with thermal
maturity maps, you can see
why the estimates of OOIP or
OGIP are enormous – 7.4
billion barrels of technically
recoverable oil and 6.7 tcf
natural gas.

14

7
 3/15/20

The Bakken is organic rich and,

In various parts of the basin,
sits in the oil, wet gas, or dry
gas window.

15

This is Bakken/Three Forks daily oil production. It was

83,000 BOPD in 2008!! Yay, horizontal drilling and fracking!

16

8
 3/15/20

Many of the successful unconventional formations were well

known to have large reserves of oil and/or gas. The shale
gas / shale oil revolution was driven by technology -
horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.

17

There are many different types of proppants currently in

use. Completion engineers try to match the proppant with
the target reservoir rock geomechanical properties.
Manmade proppants are replacing natural ones. Thousands
of tons of proppant are required for each frack job.

18

9
 3/15/20

Passive seismic methods (microseismic recording) are used

to monitor the effectiveness of fracking. Here are
microseismic records from seven isolated frack stages.

19

Passive seismic from multiple laterals with up to 14 frack

stages.

20

10
 3/15/20

21

11