Advances in the Study of Fractured Reservoirs

Naturally fractured reservoirs constitute a substantial percentage of remaining hydrocarbon resources; they create exploration targets in otherwise impermeable rocks, including under-explored crystalline basement; and they can be used as geological stores for anthropogenic carbon dioxide. Their complex behaviour during production has traditionally proved difficult to predict, causing a large degree of uncertainty in reservoir development. The applied study of naturally fractured reservoirs seeks to constrain this uncertainty by developing new understanding, and is necessarily a broad, integrated, interdisciplinary topic. This book addresses some of the challenges and advances in knowledge, approaches, concepts, and methods used to characterize the interplay of rock matrix and fracture networks, relevant to fluid flow and hydrocarbon recovery. Topics include: describing, characterizing and identifying controls on fracture networks from outcrops, cores, geophysical data, digital and numerical models; geomechanical influences on reservoir behaviour; numerical modelling and simulation of fluid flow; and case studies of the exploration and development of carbonate, siliciclastic and metamorphic naturally fractured reservoirs.
Quantifying fracture density and connectivity of fractured chalk reservoirs from core samples: implications for fluid flow
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Published:January 01, 2014
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CiteCitation
D. A. Sagi, M. Arnhild, J. F. Karlo, 2014. "Quantifying fracture density and connectivity of fractured chalk reservoirs from core samples: implications for fluid flow", Advances in the Study of Fractured Reservoirs, G. H. Spence, J. Redfern, R. Aguilera, T. G. Bevan, J. W. Cosgrove, G. D. Couples, J.-M. Daniel
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Abstract
Fractured carbonate reservoirs, characterized by high structural porosity/permeability, are of great economic importance because in such systems a single well can access large volumes of easily migrating hydrocarbons. Therefore, the accurate quantification of fracture density and connectivity values within a reservoir can be an important input for reservoir models and field development plans. However, a large number of the fractures that are present in a field are smaller than the resolution of most industry standards methods. In this paper we use two independent methods to quantify small-scale fracture density and connectivity, such as two-dimensional image analysis of slabbed cores and rubble-size measurements.