Fractured, tight and unconventional petroleum reservoirs,
although less common and less well understood than conventional sandstone and carbonate reservoirs,
have become an increasingly important resource base. Fractured reservoirs are composed of naturally
fractured rock. Tight reservoirs contain no natural fractures and cannot be produced economically
without hydraulic fracturing. Unconventional reservoirs include tar, bitumen and heavy oil reservoirs
as well as coalbed methane, shale and basin-center gas reservoirs. Their interpretation relies on
emerging exploration strategies and new production technologies to be commercially productive.
As a group, these reservoirs are increasingly important contributors to world oil and gas
reserves and production.
Fractured, tight and unconventional reservoirs are often believed to entail higher
costs and risks than conventional reservoirs. Historically, they have been unpopular with geologists
and petroleum engineers. Geologists find that techniques such as regional facies mapping and sequence
stratigraphy, which are useful for finding and delineating conventional reservoirs, are often
ineffective for fractured, tight and unconventional reservoirs. Engineers look unfavorably on
them because they are difficult to evaluate, and recovery techniques must be judiciously
chosen and carefully applied in order to avoid production problems. However, new technologies
developed in recent years are making more and more of these accumulations economic. At the present
time, more than 25% of daily U.S. gas production is recovered from tight and unconventional
reservoirs, and more than 25% of daily Canadian oil production is recovered from heavy
oil sands. Clearly, fractured, tight and unconventional reservoirs represent a great
resource base that has come of age. C&C Reservoirs believes that now is the time
to carefully examine these reservoirs and the new and emerging approaches and technologies
that are being used to delineate and develop them.
To date, C&C Reservoirs has completed over 400 case studies on fractured, tight and
unconventional reservoirs. Each study is presented in a comprehensive reservoir evaluation report
that covers exploration history, basin evolution and petroleum systems, structure, trapping mechanism,
stratigraphy, depositional facies, reservoir architecture, rock and fluid properties, development
strategies, reserves and production, recovery mechanism, reservoir management and EOR techniques.
These reservoirs come from more than 80 sedimentary basins worldwide. We build upon our extensive
collection of case studies with this
TREATISE, which focuses on lessons
learned from delineating, developing and producing these well-documented examples. The
TREATISE addresses fundamental development
and production issues. Special emphasis is placed on reasons for and lessons learned from
the successes and failures experienced in drilling prospects, developing reservoirs and
employing new production technologies.
The project has just been completed in 2005. The treatise is delivered digitally and integrated
with DIGITAL
ANALOGS
Knowledge System seamlessly over the web. Please
contact our offices worldwide for more information.
[view
outline]
|
