Unconventional/complex reservoirs

Multidisciplinary Integrated Approach Unlocks Fracture-Characterization Ambiguity

This paper proposes a multidomain approach to tackle petrophysical and geomechanical aspects of a fracture system governing the carbonate layer of an exploration well in Kuwait to assess producibility and qualification for stimulation.

Representation of the correlation between interpreted fractures (red) and fractures from 3DFFS (pink).
Fig. 1—Representation of the correlation between interpreted fractures (red) and fractures from 3DFFS (pink).
SPE 213771.

Fracture systems play a significant role in production in the case of tight, low-porosity complex reservoirs. An exploration well in North Kuwait that targeted the Middle Marrat formation encountered uncertainty regarding reservoir compartments in an underexplored field, with minimal offset wells to properly evaluate its potential. A multidomain approach is proposed leveraging different types of expertise to tackle the petrophysical and geomechanical aspects of the fracture system governing the carbonate layer and assess its producibility and qualification for stimulation through hydraulic fracturing.

Introduction

A comprehensive study was performed on Well A targeting the Marrat formation, a tight, low-permeability carbonate Jurassic reservoir. During the last two decades, the operator has drilled many vertical and deviated wells through this formation.

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