Predicting the natural state of fractured carbonate reservoirs: An Andector Field, West Texas test of a 3-D RTM simulator
- Indiana Univ., Bloomington, IN (United States)
- Kestrel Geoscience, Littleton, CO (United States)
- Phillips Petroleum Co., Bartlesville, OK (United States)
The power of the reaction, transport, mechanical (RTM) modeling approach is that it directly uses the laws of geochemistry and geophysics to extrapolate fracture and other characteristics from the borehole or surface to the reservoir interior. The objectives of this facet of the project were to refine and test the viability of the basin/reservoir forward modeling approach to address fractured reservoir in E and P problems. The study attempts to resolve the following issues: role of fracturing and timing on present day location and characteristics; clarifying the roles and interplay of flexure dynamics, changing rock rheological properties, fluid pressuring and tectonic/thermal histories on present day reservoir location and characteristics; and test the integrated RTM modeling/geological data approach on a carbonate reservoir. Sedimentary, thermal and tectonic data from Andector Field, West Texas, were used as input to the RTM basin/reservoir simulator to predict its preproduction state. The results were compared with data from producing reservoirs to test the RTM modeling approach. The effects of production on the state of the field are discussed in a companion report. The authors draw the following conclusions: RTM modeling is an important new tool in fractured reservoir E and P analysis; the strong coupling of RTM processes and the geometric and tensorial complexity of fluid flow and stresses require the type of fully coupled, 3-D RTM model for fracture analysis as pioneered in this project; flexure analysis cannot predict key aspects of fractured reservoir location and characteristics; fracture history over the lifetime of a basin is required to understand the timing of petroleum expulsion and migration and the retention properties of putative reservoirs.
- Research Organization:
- Science Applications International Corp., Germantown, MD (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC22-94PC91008
- OSTI ID:
- 307852
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/PC/91008-23-Pt.2; ON: DE99001621; TRN: AHC29905%%29
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: [1998]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
The role of diagenesis in the formation of compartments: A fully coupled 3D reaction-transport-mechanical (RTM) modeling approach
The role of diagenesis in the formation of compartments: A fully coupled 3D reaction-transport-mechanical (RTM) modeling approach