Tight gas resource and technology appraisal: Sensitivity analyses of the national petroleum council estimates

Conference · Tue May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1984 · Soc. Pet. Eng. AIME, Pap.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6322441

Brashear, J P; Mercer, J; Rosenbery, J I

In 1980, the National Petroleum Council (NPC) published the most authoritative and comprehensive estimates to date of the technical and economic potential of tight sands gas. While the NPC study remains the landmark effort on this subject, its estimates for recoverable natural gas are considered by many to be optimistic. The Gas Research Institute (GRI) and the Department of Energy (DOE) jointly commissioned construction of the Tight Gas Analysis System (TGAS) as a vehicle to perform systematic sensitivity analyses of the NPC study, to serve as a repository for future additions to the data base and analytical understandings of the technology, and to estimate the benefits of specified R and D advances. This paper describes TGAS briefly, demonstrates its reconciliation with published NPC results, and reports sensitivity analyses of: Improved fracture effectiveness with and without closer well spacing; Producing from gas-bearing lenses encountered by the wellbore versus lenses lying remote from the wellbore; and Altering the NPC's assumptions about the relationship between reservoir permeability and thickness. The reconciliation and sensitivity studies confirm the analytical integrity of the NPC study but also point out that the NPC's results contain significant uncertainties.

• Research Organization: Lewin and Assocs., Inc.
• OSTI ID: 6322441
• Report Number(s): CONF-8405120-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Soc. Pet. Eng. AIME, Pap.; (United States) Journal Volume: SPE/DOE/GRI 12862
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
030100 -- Natural Gas-- Reserves-- (-1989)
030300* -- Natural Gas-- Drilling
Production
& Processing
DATA BASE MANAGEMENT
DATA COVARIANCES
DIMENSIONS
ECONOMICS
FRACTURE MECHANICS
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
MANAGEMENT
MECHANICS
MINERAL RESOURCES
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NATURAL GAS DEPOSITS
NATURAL GAS WELLS
PERMEABILITY
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
RESOURCE ASSESSMENT
RESOURCES
ROCKS
SANDSTONES
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
THICKNESS
US DOE
US ORGANIZATIONS
WELL SPACING
WELLS