SPE-178601-MS/URTeC:2154633

Quantifying Variability of Reservoir Properties From a Wolfcamp Formation

Core
Joel D Walls, and Anyela Morcote, Ingrain Inc.

Copyright 2015, Unconventional Resources Technology Conference

This paper was prepared for presentation at the Unconventional Resources Technology Conference held in San Antonio, Texas, USA, 20 –22 July 2015.

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Abstract
The Permian Basin of west Texas covers an area of approximately 250 by 300 miles according to the
Texas Railroad Commission. It now contains some of the largest unconventional resources plays in the
world and total production from the Permian region has reached almost 2 million barrels per day according
to the US Energy Information Administration (Permian Region Drilling Productivity Report, March,
2015). A substantial fraction of this production is now coming from the Wolfcamp shale formation. Even
though thousands of wells have been drilled targeting the Wolfcamp, there are still many challenges
arising from its geologic complexity. For example, there is a wide range of oil vs. water production
reported among wells that have targeted this formation. This variability creates high uncertainty for many
operators and there is a strong need to understand the factors that influence water cut. To seek answers,
we requested and were provided a slabbed core from the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) in
Austin, TX and have applied the tools of Digital Rock Physics to look for clues. The well, called
Wolfcamp-1, is located in the southern Midland Basin.

Introduction
The Permian Basin of west Texas covers an area of approximately 250 by 300 miles according to the
Texas Railroad Commission. It now contains some of the largest unconventional resources plays in the
world and total production from the Permian region has reached almost 2 million barrels per day according
to the US Energy Information Administration (Permian Region Drilling Productivity Report, March,
2015). A substantial fraction of this production is now coming from the Wolfcamp shale formation. Even
though thousands of wells have been drilled targeting the Wolfcamp, there are still many challenges
arising from its geologic complexity. For example, there is a wide range of oil vs. water production
reported among wells that have targeted this formation. This variability creates high uncertainty for many
operators and there is a strong need to understand the factors that influence water cut. To seek answers,
we requested and were provided a slabbed core from the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) in
Austin, TX and have applied the tools of Digital Rock Physics to look for clues. The well, called
Wolfcamp-1, is located in the southern Midland Basin.
2 SPE-178601-MS/URTeC:2154633

Methodology

The cored interval from Wolfcamp-1 was 168ft in length. Digital Rock Physics (DRP) technology was
applied in the Wolfcamp-1 well using a workflow especially designed for the characterization of shales
(Walls and Sinclair, 2011, Driskill, et al, 2013). During Phase1, dual energy X-ray CT imaging was
carried out with a voxel resolution of about 0.5 millimeter. From this core imaging, a continuous log was
computed of high-resolution rock bulk density (RHOB) and photoelectric factor (PEF) using a process
described by Vinegar, 1986 and Coenen and Maas, 1994. Bulk density is an indicator of porosity and
organic matter content, while PEF is an indicator of mineralogy. Spectral gamma ray scanning for
thorium, potassium, and uranium was performed concurrently with the CT imaging. Following a
petrophysical interpretation of the data, we obtained the results shown in Figure 1. The first track on the
left side shows spectral gamma data, both total GR and uranium free GR. The second track from the left
shows computed lithology (carbonates, silicates, and clays). Red and green colored facies (track 4)
represent higher porosity and/or organic content, with green being more silica rich than red. Light blue
zones are more carbonate dominated. This data can be generated in a matter of hours or days after core
has been received, thereby aiding in horizontal wellbore placement and stimulation design. Core derived
rock facies, mineralogy, and TOC were used to select the locations for plug samples that were used to
further define and quantify the key shale reservoir properties.
SPE-178601-MS/URTeC:2154633 3

Figure 1—Computed petrophysical properties from dual energy X-ray CT (RhoB, PEF, images) with spectral gamma ray data from one
section of the Wolfcamp 1 well. Formation-specific petrophysical models were used to compute lithology, TOC, and brittleness index
directly from the scanned core. Note the large variability over small depth changes.

In Phase 2 of this shale core program, plugs were selected for further analysis. Figure 2 shows a ternary
diagram of the mineralogy of the 11 plug samples selected, as determined by X-ray fluorescence. Initially
they were X-ray CT imaged at a resolution of 40 microns/voxel. These CT volumes were used to guide
the selection of sub-samples and to create an important visual catalog of shale texture and heterogeneity.
During this second phase, scanning electron microscope (SEM) analyses were also conducted on
ion-milled samples. This type of analysis on shale samples was first reported in publications by Curtis, et
al., 2010 and Loucks, et al., 2010. Scanning electronic microscope data allows us to obtain high resolution
images of the shale mineral grains, solid organic material, and pore space. These images, as shown in
Figure 3 and 4, were digitally analyzed to quantify the amount of organic matter (OM), porosity associated
with organic material (PAOM), inter-granular porosity, and high density minerals (usually pyrite) present
in the samples. Note that intra-granular and inter-granular in this context refer only to porosity surrounded
by mineral surfaces. Porosity entirely or mostly bounded by organic material is called PAOM.
4 SPE-178601-MS/URTeC:2154633

Figure 2—Three component mineralogy of the 11 samples as determined from x-ray fluorescence.
SPE-178601-MS/URTeC:2154633 5

Figure 3—SEM image from Wolfcamp-1 well, 7928 ft., clearly shows porosity associated with organic material.

Figure 4 —SEM image from Wolfcamp-1 well, 8016 ft, showing predominantly inter-granular porosity.

The concept of “apparent transformation ratio” or ATR was originally presented by Driskill, et al, 2013.
ATR is defined as ATR ⫽ PAOM / (PAOM ⫹ OM). In this case OM is remaining solid organic matter
6 SPE-178601-MS/URTeC:2154633

and PAOM is all porosity surrounded primarily by OM. This definition assumes that all PAOM was
originally solid OM before thermal maturity. Note that OM may include any remaining solid organic
material including kerogen, bitumen, pyrobitumem and even dead oil. ATR differs from the geochemical
definition of transformation ratio in that it is computed as a fraction of total original organic matter and
not as a fraction of convertible kerogen (Modica and LaPierre, 2012). It also accounts for any organic
porosity that may have been lost due to increasing burial depth and compaction over time. In a sense, it
could be considered a “transformation and preservation ratio”. One major advantage of this definition of
transformation ratio is that it is directly determinable on individual samples. It is also applicable to rocks
of any thermal maturity. Our experience shows that it may vary substantially from one depth to another
in individual wells, and even at different locations within individual samples. Basically, there is a
distribution of ATR values in any given sample, but a single average can be computed.

Figure 5—Top shows an original backscatter electron image and bottom shows the final segmented image. Red is inter- or intra-
granular porosity, blue is porosity associated with organic matter (PAOM), and green is the remaining solid organic matter (OM). Light
gray is mineral grains. Apparent transformation ratio (ATR) is computed as PAOM / (PAOM ⴙOM).

During Phase 3 of this project, three-dimensional volumes of digital rock images were obtained from
FIB-SEM (focused ion beam combined with scanning electron microscopy). These image volumes have
a voxel resolution of about 5 to 15 nanometers and form a digital rock volume which is used for computing
permeability and other types of special core analysis data. Figure 6 shows two examples. Segmentation
and image processing allows the separation of the solid mineral, organic matter and pore space of these
SPE-178601-MS/URTeC:2154633 7

3D objects. Absolute permeability was calculated in each 3D FIB-SEM volume using a numerical method
known as Lattice-Boltzmann (Tolke, et al, 2010).

Figure 6 —High resolution 3D FIB-SEM volumes are shown from the Wolfcamp-1 well. Top images show the external surface of the 3D
volume analyzed. In the bottom images, green is solid organic material, blue is connected porosity, red is isolated porosity, and the
solid mineral grains are transparent. Note that the sample on the left (7928 ft) has much of its connected porosity closely associated
with organic material and the sample on the right (8016 ft.) has essentially no organic material or PAOM.

Results and findings

In addition to total porosity, connected porosity, solid organic matter, and porosity associated with organic
matter (PAOM), we also computed vertical permeability, horizontal permeability, and pore size distri-
bution. Results of these tests show that the Wolfcamp formation has not only large variability in porosity
and permeability, but that organic porosity and inter-granular porosity are both common. In addition, both
types of porosity are well interconnected and can contribute to fluid flow.
8 SPE-178601-MS/URTeC:2154633

Figure 7 shows the total porosity versus horizontal permeability for Wolfcamp-1 compared to the upper
and lower bounds determined from other Wolfcamp samples in our database.

Figure 7—Samples from the Wolfcamp-1 well compared to the upper and lower trend lines from other Wolfcamp samples in our
database. Inset images show segmented FIB-SEM volumes from Figure 4 where blue is connected porosity, red is disconnected
porosity, and green is solid organic material. Permeability in this figure was computed in the horizontal plane using FIB-SEM digital
rock volumes. Porosity is sum of connected plus disconnected porosity from the FIB-SEM.

The collection and integration of the data from this Digital Rock Physics (DRP) study of Wolfcamp
formation samples shows that rock types, porosity, and permeability are highly variable and that data from
the Wolfcamp-1 well are typical of other Wolfcamp samples we have tested. The DRP analysis further
shows that some samples have mostly inter-granular pores and while other samples have mostly porosity
associated with organic material. Both types of samples may have relatively high total porosity and
permeability.
Previous Work and Discussion
While it is instructive to determine organic vs grain bounded porosity from selected plug samples in the
lab, we also need a way to quantify it at reservoir scale. Methodologies to compute organic porosity from
well log data have been presented (Quirien, et al 2012, Galford, et al, 2013). These methods utilized data
from conventional open hole logs plus NMR and dielectric logs to solve for inter/intra-granular and
organic porosity separately. In the Galford publication, transformation ratio was determined from
geochemical data both from the thermally mature reservoir rock and from immature samples of the same
shale. Where immature shales were not available, the authors suggest the use of data from some analog
formation of similar age and burial history. Galford, et al used this geochemical data and other geologic
information to build a complete thermal maturation history of the formation. In turn, the thermal history
and sample geochemistry were used to estimate transformation ratio of the shale and to compute a
SPE-178601-MS/URTeC:2154633 9

correlation between transformation ratio and vitrinite reflectance, Vro. As described previously, the
geochemically- determined transformation ratio is the amount of hydrocarbon volume created as a fraction
of the original convertible organic matter volume. The authors computed an average transformation ratio
for the entire well and, in combination with log derived TOC, were able to compute organic porosity at
multiple depths over the logged interval. These results were used for comparison to the computed organic
porosity from the combination of wireline magnetic resonance and dielectric log data.
This process of building a basin model and thermal history to make estimates of transformation ratio
and organic porosity is complex and time consuming. Another way to calibrate logs for organic porosity
is to use the apparent transformation ratio (ATR) described previously. This SEM based method computes
how much organic porosity has been created and preserved as a fraction of total original organic matter.
The SEM method has the advantage of not requiring thermal history or samples from the immature shale
and can accommodate variations in transformation ratio that are observed within the same well or
formation.
If we assume that the organic-hosted porosity is primarily filled with oil or gas and that water resides
mainly in the inter-granular pores, then organic vs. non-organic hosted porosity data may help explain
why some Wolfcamp completions produce more water than others. It also suggests that a good strategy
might be to analyze a sufficient number of FIB-SEM samples to calibrate a well log interpretation of
organic associated porosity. Once it is determined which zones have the highest net organic porosity, then
landing zones can be selected for greater PAOM, not just higher porosity in general. A new project is
underway now to test this SEM based method of improving well log derived organic porosity determi-
nation.

Summary
Results from this digital rock physics study show that for a Wolfcamp formation core, dual-energy CT
imaging combined with spectral gamma scanning was used to provide continuous quantitative lithology,
TOC, and brittleness index. This information was in turn used to select 11 plug sample locations for
additional testing. Of these 11 samples, 5 were selected for FIB-SEM and permeability computation.
Results show that there is a wide range of pore types from organic dominated to inter-granular dominated.
Porosity ranged from 3 to 14% and horizontal permeability ranged from about 20 nd to around 8000 nd
(8 microdarcy). Assuming that the ratio of oil/water production will be higher at depths where organic
porosity is highest, a method is proposed to use the SEM derived “apparent transformation ratio”, ATR,
to calibrate a petrophysical interpretation of organic porosity and therefore help select the best zones for
landing the horizontal wellbore.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) for allowing access to core
samples from the BEG core storage facility in Austin, TX.

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