SPE Distinguished Lecturer Program

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through a grant from the SPE Foundation.
The society gratefully acknowledges the companies that support
this program by allowing their professionals to participate as
lecturers.
Special thanks to the American Institute of
Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum
Engineers (AIME) for its contribution to
the program.
Society of Petroleum Engineers
Distinguished Lecturer Program
www.spe.org/dl

Impact of Cutoffs on Tight Gas Reservoir

Simulation

Ahmed M. Al-Hamadah
Saudi Aramco

Society of Petroleum Engineers

Distinguished Lecturer Program
www.spe.org/dl

OUTLINE
Introduction & definitions
Identify key parameters to recovery
Sensitize on porosity & permeability
cutoffs
Understand water saturation distribution
Apply multiple cutoffs
Conclusions & Recommendations

Objectives
Identify impact of petrophysical cutoffs, across
tight gas clastic and carbonate, on volumetric
and reserve estimations.
Recommend best practices for defining and
utilizing cutoffs in reservoir engineering
calculations and simulation.
Narrow the gap between geologists & engineers
in understanding cutoffs.
4

Definitions
Porosity Cutoff:
Pores with porosity less than cutoff value,
are non reservoir rock.

Permeability cutoff:
Pores with Permeability less than cutoff
value, will not allow fluids to flow

Water Saturation Cutoff:

Pores with Sw greater than cutoff will have
water saturation of 1-Sgr
5

Outline
Introduction & definitions
Identify key parameters to recovery
Sensitize on porosity & permeability
cutoffs
Understand water saturation distribution
Applying multiple cutoffs
Conclusions & Recommendations

Identifying Key Parameters to Recovery

Sensitivity Tornado Plot Gp to Year 2050

Impact of Viscosity On Pressure

Understanding Core Experiments

Effect of core cleaning & drying
Procedure to clean cores with no
effect on pore geometry
History Matched

Sensitivity on Porosity & k Cutoffs

Calibrating log with stress corrected
core information
Low porosity & k measurements
Utilize grain densities and depositional
facies
Applying porosity & Permeability cutoffs
alone

10

Calibrating Log with Stress Corrected

Core Data

11

Calibrating Stress Corrected Core

Data With Test Data

12

Utilize Grain Densities & Depositional Facies

Carbonate

Sandstone

13

Low Porosity & k Measurements

14

Conduct Statistical
Analysis on Data

Sandstone Gas Well

15

Impact of Porosity Cutoffs on GIIP

Carbonates Reservoirs
Rsrv

Quality

3% Cutoff
GIIP
Reduction

% HM Wells

5% Cutoff
GIIP
Reduction

% HM Wells

Upper

V. Tight

11%

30%

48%

70%

Lower

Tight

11%

85%

21%

55%

16

NO CUTOFFS APPLIED

How things look when there is no cutoffs are applied

Applying Porosity Cutoffs Alone

Watch for reservoir connectivity

18

APPLYING 3% POROSITY CUTOFF

APPLYING 5% POROSITY CUTOFF

Applying Permeability Cutoffs Alone

Watch for reservoir connectivity

21

Understand Water Saturation

Identify end points from SCAL

Understand water saturation maps
Mimic logs with J-function
Partition composite facies data
Conduct statistical analysis on data

22

Determine Endpoint Saturations

23

Partitioning Composite Facies Data

FAL SW vs. FAL Porosity - The Six Stratigraphic Layers

24

Water Saturation Models

25

Effect of Facies Description on Simulation

26

Applying Water Saturation Cutoffs

Sw=55%

Sw=75%

27

Impact of Incorporating Multiple Cutoffs

at 55% Water Saturation Cutoff

28

Impact of Incorporating Multiple Cutoffs

at 75% Water Saturation Cutoff

29

APPLYING 3% POROSITY & 0.1 MD CUTOFFS

APPLYING 3% POROSITY & 0.05 MD CUTOFFS

APPLYING 3% POROSITY & 0.1 MD & 65% WAT. SAT. CUTOFFS

APPLYING 3% POROSITY & 0.1 MD & 85% WAT. SAT. CUTOFFS

Conclusions
Porosity is the most sensitive cutoff parameter.
Quality of HM decide the value of porosity cutoff.
Applying no permeability cutoffs in gas reservoirs
is a good strategy.
Water saturation cutoff > 65% is reasonable for
deep gas reservoirs.
Conduct risk assessment at various geometrical,
geological and PVT variables before simulation.
34

Recommendations
Careful review of available data is the best
strategy for accurate interpolations and hence
selection of cutoffs.
Net pay should be seen in light of reservoir
characterization and depletion mechanism.
Reservoir simulation remains the best tool to
validate initial-in-place numbers and reserve
estimates.

35

Thank you

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