Prediction and exploitation of basement-controlled production trends in Piceance Basin fractured tight gas reservoirs: Results of an integrated analysis
- Advanced Resources International, Inc., Arlington, VA. (United States); and others
The ability to delineate and accurately predict fracured reservoir conditions represents critical information necessary for field development srategies, and development of play concepts in less-developed areas. To demonstrate relationships between fracture-controlled production, stratigraphy and structural geology, the Piceance Basin is being used as the site for an integrated fracture detection and reservoir characterization program utilizing high-resolution aeromagnetics, seismic, and conventional subsurface structural and stratigraphic mapping. In the Piceance Basin, there are two primary controls on well performance. The first is reservoir thickness and the second is deliverability, a funciton of fracture permeability. Reservoir thickness is controlled by depositional systems whereas fracture permeability is controlled by tectonic deformation. In Rulison Field, a sidetrack well with a 142 foot difference in bottomhole location shows a 50% difference in net sandstone pay between the two wellbores. This intense variability underscores the difficulty of predicting sand geometries in the basin. Depositional systems analysis is important as a means of predicting reservoir quality and reservoir thickness, however, in the Piceance Basin, reservoir thickness and quality cannot be accurately predicted because of complex fluvial and paludal stratigraphy, In addition, stratigraphy does not exert the greatest control on production economics. Instead, fracture permeability is the predictable and most important variable for successful development programs. In support of this, the orientation of fracture-controlled production trends lie either orthogonal or oblique to depositional trends in White River Dome, Divide Creek, Shire Gulch, Plateau, Grand Valley, Parachute and Rulison fields.
- OSTI ID:
- 207326
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-951002-; TRN: 96:000704-0085
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Annual meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), Dallas, TX (United States), 22-25 Oct 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Formation evaluation and reservoir geology. 1995 SPE annual technical conference and exhibition; PB: 1010 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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