Evaluation of Tight gas reservoirs

Deepak Pandey, B. Tech-Applied Petroleum Engineering

Department of Petroleum Engineering & Earth Sciences,

University of Petroleum & Energy Studies,

Dehradun

Abstract:
Tight gas is an important unconventional gas resource. It is also a basin centered gas reservoir
which is associated with existing oilfields or bypassed zones and characterized by low in situ
permeability of less than 0.6 mili Darcy. This evaluation initially started at San Juan basin in
USA. There are about 40,000 tight gas wells producing from 1600 reservoirs in 900 fields whose
estimated capacity is 3400 tcf. In India, the Cambay field holds about 413 bcf. amount of tight
gas reserves. The layers of Tight Gas are attributed to commingled production and they are often
layered and complex. Since the permeability is quite low, the reserves cannot be obtained
profitably by vertical wells. As a result mostly horizontal wells and S-shaped wells are used for
production of tight gas. Processes like Hydraulic Fracturing and Acidization are used to stimulate
the well for better recovery. This technical paper aims at evaluation of tight gas reservoir in order
to ameliorate the exploitation through different processes like material balance, volumetric
method, transient pressure test, productivity index test and decline curve method along with the
modern methods of interpretation of concentration pattern such as detailed Petrography by
implementing XRD(X-ray diffraction) and SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope). Elemental
Capture Spectroscopy along with Spectral Gamma Logging helps in detecting the distribution
within wells. Tight Gas offers maximum recovery rate of 20%.

Keywords: unconventional, basin centered, Hydraulic fracturing, Acidization, Petrography,

Spectroscopy, Gamma Logging, Material balance, volumetrics, transient pressure, productivity
index, decline curve
Introduction:
With the increasing supply demand gap in the field of crude oil, unconventional gas resources
have a very good scope of finding itself as one of the most important sources of energy in the
upcoming decades. Unconventional gas reservoirs refer to those reservoirs which produces dry
natural gas. Many of the low permeability reservoirs that have been produced in the past decades
are sandstones, carbonates, and shale and coal bed methane.

Tight gas Reservoir is defined as a gas bearing sandstone or carbonate could which manifests in-
situ permeability to gas of less than 0.10 mD. Recently a new definition has been announced by
the German Society of Petroleum and Coal Science and Technology according to which
Tight Gas reservoirs includes those reservoirs which have an average effective gas permeability
of less than 0.6 mD. Effective porosity, viscosity, fluid saturation and the capillary pressure are
some of the import parameter controlling the effective permeability of a reservoir.

Tight gas refers to natural gas reservoirs locked in impermeable, hard rock, making the
underground formation extremely "tight." Tight gas can also be trapped in sandstone or carbonates.
Therefore there is requirement of well stimulation in order to activate the welland produce gas
profitably. Hydraulic fracturing and acidization are common processes used to stimulate a well.
Due to less permeability, vertical wells are not used for production of tight gas. Instead,
horizontal wells or S-shaped wells are mostly used for economic recovery. To optimize the
development of unconventional gas reservoirs, the optimum number and the locations of the
wells to be drilled along with the drilling and completion procedure must be determined.

Explorations for tight gas sand reservoirs differ from convention al gas exploration in those tight sands
that are continuous, consisting of stacks of sedimentary layers that are charged with oil and gas. Their oil
holding capacity is same as aquifer charged with water. Conventional reservoirs have much more
confined boundaries and are in contact of water, but the continuous reservoirs are charged with oil and
gas. Tight gas sands are the continuous reservoirs, in contrast to discrete reservoirs that have provided
most of the oil and gas production. Other types of continuous reservoirs are methane producing coal bed,
and Devonian Shale reservoirs of Illinois and Appalachian Basin.

But the tight gas reservoirs are different from other continuous reservoirs as their permeability is
very low. The fact that the tight gas reservoir is continuous does not mean that that the well
drilled into any point in the reservoir will be as productive as well drilled into a different point.
In that case the productivity depends on the sweet spots. The sweet spots may be defined as the
point in the reservoir where wells possess more productivity.
 Figure 1: - Resource Pyramid

From the above resource triangle we can conclude that the resources which are at the apex of the
pyramid have low quantity in terms of distribution. On moving down the pyramid the quantity of
the resources starts increasing. The conventional gas resources are kept at the apex and have high
degree of permeability. Therefore low technology is required to exploit these reserves. But when
unconventional gas is taken into the account then those are characterized by low porosity and
permeability. Hence huge technical investment is required in order to recover them. During the
search for the hydrocarbons, it has been approximated that the volume of natural gas acquired
from non-conventional gas reserves is more as compared to conventional gas reserves.

Figure 2: Drilling procedure for conventional and unconventional reservoirs

 The pores in the rock formation in which the gas is trapped are either irregularly disturbed or
badly connected to narrow capillaries or lessening the permeability. Without secondary
production methods, gas from the tight formation would flow at very slow rate, making the
production uneconomical.

Table 1: - Existing unconventional gas reserves by EIA, 2009

The above table reveals the existing unconventional gas resources in different countries and parts
of the world:

Along with the existing processes like, there are few improved technologies and computational
processes which help in the recovery of unconventional gas resources. XRD(X-Ray diffraction),
SEM(Scanning Electron Microscope) and SEM-EDX(Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy)
and elemental mapping are some of the common simulation techniques in order to locate and
study the properties of tight gas reservoirs.

Detection techniques for tight gas:

1. XRD (X-RAY Diffraction)

It is a technique used to detect the presence of clay particles and other very small pore filling materials in
sandstone for better identification of tight gas. It is done by a testing a sample of the rock in XRD labs.
The process starts with coating of the suspected rock sample with conductive materials followed by
bombarding it with electrons in vaccum. Images are constructed from measurements obtained by
secondary electron emission. The images are magnified up to 100,000 times.
The X-ray diffracting meters consists of three basic components: an X-ray tube, a sample holder, and an
X-ray detector. The rays are produced in a cathode ray tube by heating a filament. Consequently, the
electrons are produced. The electrons are then accelerated towards the rock sample by applying a suitable
voltage. When electrons gain sufficient energy to dislodge inner shell electrons of the target material,
characteristic X-ray spectra are produced. These spectra consist of several components, the most common
being K and K. K consists, in part, of K1 and K2. K1 has a slightly shorter wavelength. When the
geometry of the incident X-rays satisfies the Bragg Equation n= 2d sin (which relates the wavelength
of radiation to diffraction angle and the lattice spacing where d represents lattice spacing, n represents
order of wavelength, represents wavelength and represents the diffraction angle respectively),
constructive interference occurs and a peak in intensity occurs. A detector is used to record the data
obtained and a converter converts the signal to a count rate which thereafter can be seen on output devices
such as printer or computer monitors.

Figure 3: - Diagrammatic representation of Braggs law

Figure 4: - Clay detection mechanism inside CRT (cathod ray tube)

 2. SEM (Scanning electron microscope)

SEM is used to detect the presence of various minerals and specially clay content in the suspected rock
samples. It gives us a 2-D image of the interior of the rock samples which helps us to study the rock pores
and the pore throat system along with connectivity among the pores, natural fractures and fossil content.
Moreover it makes the study of diamagnetic features easier.

The SEM is used to generate high-resolution images of objects and to show spatial variations in chemical
compositions. Moreover elemental maps are acquired using SEMS. It is also widely used to identify
phases based on qualitative chemical analysis and/or crystalline structure. Accurate measurement of very
small features and objects down to 50 nm in size is also accomplished using the SEM.

Figure 5: -Mineral composition identification based on SEM & Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy
(EDS). The sample is from Silurian shale in Pengshui, Sichuan, China. The upper left and the rest of the
slices have the exact same view area under microscope even though their scales are different.

Strengths - There is arguably no other instrument in the study of solid materials that compares with the
SEM. The SEM is critical in all fields that require characterization of solid materials. While this
contribution is most concerned with geological applications, it is important to note that these applications
are a very small subset of the scientific and industrial applications that exist for this instrumentation. Most
SEM's are comparatively easy to operate. Modern SEMs generate data in digital formats, which are
highly portable.

3. SEM/EDX (Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy)

The SEM when combined with the latest technology of EDX (Energy Dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy) is
capable of performing analyses of selected point locations on the rock sample. It can produce extremely
high magnification images (up to 200000 X) at high resolution up to 2nm. SEM/EDX is a powerful and
flexible tool for solving a wide range of product and processing problems for a diverse range of metals,
materials and minerals
Evaluation techniques for Tight gas Reservoirs

1. Material Balance Method:

The material balance method should be used only in high permeability gas reservoirs where accurate gas
production and reservoir pressure data are available. In high permeability gas reservoirs, the well can be
shut in for hours or days and accurate estimates of the reservoir pressure can be measured or computed
using Horners graph. If the high permeability reservoir is connected to a strong aquifer or the reservoir is
highly compressible the material balance can still be used but are less accurate due to complexity of the
problem.

In tight gas reservoirs, the material balance method should never be used because it is impossible to
obtain accurate data to describe how the reservoir pressure declines as the gas is produced. In order to
achieve constant drainage radius and pseudo steady state flow, a well (or the entire reservoir) must be shut
in for months or years before the enough pressure data is collected to measure the average reservoir
pressure accurately. There might be cases arise in which the shut in pressure measurements would
underestimate the value of average reservoir pressure and if those data are used then estimated OGIP and
ultimate gas recovery will be too low. The figure below shows the deviation in the average reservoir
pressure in tight gas reservoir w.r.t conventional gas reservoirs.

Figure 6: - Tight Gas P /Z Response

In order to evaluate the tight gas reservoirs, some assumptions are to be made, i.e. the volume of the gas
inside reservoir is constant, small pressure gradient in the reservoir, and there should be no efflux and
influx. The P/Z model depicted from the data coming from the transient as well as boundary flow well
performance. The transient flow well performance gives the finger print of the reservoir which contains
the information about the reservoir properties i.e. permeability. On other hand the boundary flow provides
the information about the reservoir pore volume and OGIP (original gas in place). Some precautions are
to be considered during pressure build up test in tight gas. It is very important to run prefracture build up
for permeability and static borehole pressure.
Problems arises in material balance method

The material balance method proves very difficult to analyze the reservoir due to shut in time,
heterogeneity, and large pressure gradient. Moreover it can result in the large errors for GIP (gas in place)
for early values. Also prolonged shit in time would help in establishing the pseudo steady state flow but
the estimated GIP is very low. The deviation behavior is the function of pressure gradient and
heterogeneity of the reservoir.

2. Volumetric Method:
Like material balance method, the volumetric method is also used to estimate the reserves from high
permeability and depletion gas drive reservoirs. Therefore in those reservoirs, the gas recovery efficiency
and the drainage area could be estimated with reasonable certainty. This method could provide accurate
reserves of OGIP. The volumetric evaluation technique includes both logging and coring data.

Log Analysis

The logging data is calibrated with the coring one in order to get the better reserve estimation. The
properties like formation factor, resistivity index, density porosity, neutron porosity and radioactivity can
be determined by using logging tool at the time of drilling.

1. Radioactivity: - In this method the radioactive source is used to generate the gamma rays. These
gamma rays collide with the electorns in the formation and loses the energy. The intensityof
backscattered electrons is detected by the detector installed in the logging tool (SONDE). The
peculiarity of tight gas sand is that it shows the deviation in the gamma ray log.

Figure 7: - Pressure Gradient, Gamma Ray and Acoustic Ray Log

 2. Resistivity factor: -The formation resistivity factor is calculated empirically by Archies
Equation which is

where a is constant called tortuosity factor, is the porosity, m is the cementation factor, is the
resistivity of brine saturated rock, is the resistivity of the brine solution and I is the resistivity index.
The cementation factor and tortuosity factor is determined by resistivity log. For low porosity sandstones
the value of tortuosity factor a, is 1.0. Initially the cementation factor for tight gas is in between 1.8
2.0.

3. Density Log: - The density porosity log is calculated from an empirical relation for inversion of
clean sand which is

( )

where is porosity, is matrix density, is bulk density, is the saturation of fluid in the flushed
zone, and is the fluid density. The bulk density is the function of the litho logy, porosity, grain size,
matrix size and the saturation of fluids in the flushed zone.

4. Permeability: - The permeability is the function of saturation. The logging also estimates in
saturation present inside the rock. The tight gas reservoir often contains clay dispersed in uneven
manner in the layered strata. The permeability can be calculated from the logs through the below
equation

where Swi is connate water saturation, c is constant having value 2, Ka is the intercept. Cementation factor
m is related to the tortuosity factor a. The presence of clay in tight sands increases the degree of
tortuosity.

The above equation is also known as Timurs equation. The data obtain from the Timurs equation is in
between the order of 0.1 D to 0.1 mD. The low permeability zones have high transition zones. At low
porosities, the Archie equation breaks down for cementation factor 2.
Therefore to calibrate the logging data with data obtained from the core we need to shift logs particularly
in the layered direction. The reservoir permeability is determined from the cores in the laboratory. In case
of Shaley sand, full logging suit is required.The core analysis is used to understand the layers composition
of the complex reservoirs. The core measure exact reservoir properties especially permeability.

Figure 8: - Logging Data

3. Decline Curve Method:

The decline curve method is a means of predicting the future reserves of oil and gas well, producing
based on past production history. It is one of the traditional means of identifying well production
problems and its life based on measured oil well production. In most gas reservoirs, the decline curve
analysis method is used to evaluate the reserves. There are mainly three types of curves can be plotted
through this method

1. Exponential Curve: - For high permeability reservoirs, the decline curve method works even
with the limited production data using the exponential equation written below that is

where a, is the constant also called instantaneous decline factor, q is the flow rate at time t, and is the
initial flow rate. Therefore on plotting the graph of gas flow rate vs. the logarithm of time we get a
straight line and further extrapolating this line to the economic limit we can determine the ultimate gas
recovery.
 2. Hyperbolic Curve: - But for the tight gas reservoirs which are especially layered reservoirs that
have been stimulated with a large hydraulic fracture, decline curve analysis method uses the
hyperbolic equation in order to fit the data and extrapolate the data to an economic limit. The
hyperbolic decline equation is

( )

where a0 is the initial decline curve, q0 is the initial flow rate, b is the decline factor. The value of b is 0.5
in case of hyperbolic decline curve. On substituting the value of exponent b the equation for hyperbolic
decline curve becomes

( )

3. Harmonic Curve: - The harmonic curve is the special case of hyperbolic curve with the b value
equal to 1. Therefore the above equation reduces to

( )

Near the end of the life of the well, the decline curve becomes exponential again. Usually, if the decline
rate decreases below 6 to 8 %, the decline rate is set constant by the user for the remaining life of the well.
The figure below illustrates a typical exponential decline for tight gas well in Cotton Valley, East Texas
which was originally completed and fracture treated in early 1980s in Taylor Sand Zone.

Figure 9: - Decline Curve Rate in Taylor Sand Zone

Conclusion:
Tight gas reservoirs have a huge future potential for production. There are four criteria that define basin-
centered gas accumulations which include low permeability, abnormal pressure, gas saturated reservoirs
and no down dip water leg. Past tight gas sands production was fueled by both technology and gas price
incentives, primarily price incentives. Gas production from a tight-gas well will be low on a per-well
basis compared with gas production from conventional reservoirs. A lot of wells have to be drilled to get
most of the oil or gas out of the ground in unconventional reservoirs. The techniques which are used to
detect the presence of tight gas are XRD, SEM and SEM/EDX. The principle used is to find clay or clay
minerals in the suspected rock samples collected from cores. Usually, SEM/EDX is widely used due to its
high accuracy and precision. For evaluation of tight gas, methods like material balance, decline curve and
volumetric method is used. Decline curve is the most suitable method of the three as it is based on the
production history of the gas at that place.

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