T/UDOM/2020/09398

Tight gas reservoirs.

 INTRODUCTION.
• What is tight reservoir?
• Tight reservoirs are generally defined as having less
than 0.1 milli-Darcy (mD) matrix permeability and
less than ten percent matrix porosity.
• Tight reservoirs are clastic and carbonate reservoirs.
• Tight gas reservoirs may be Tight Formation (Gas); Coalbed Methane, and Shale
gas reservoir.
• Production rates from tight reservoirs are marginal, but these reservoirs account
for a large percentage of the long-term supply of oil and gas.
• Most of tight reservoirs: i) Pervasive gas saturation; and ii) Free gas produced by
gas expansion.
Tight Gas Resource.
• Tight Gas Resources: All gas resources occurring as free gas in the pores of clastic and
carbonate reservoirs in regionally-pervasive continuous gas accumulations.
A tight gas reservoir is one in which the expected value of permeability to gas flow would be
less than 0.1 md.
• Tight gas is natural gas produced from reservoir rocks with such low permeability that
Massive Hydraulic Fracturing is necessary to produce the well at economic rates. That
reservoir is called as the Tight Gas Reservoir.
• Although shales have low permeability and low effective porosity, shale gas is usually
considered separate from tight gas, which is contained most commonly in sandstone but
sometimes in limestone.
• Tight gas is considered unconventional source of natural gas.

 Characterize the resource potential of the complete spectrum of reservoir qualities within
these gas accumulations.
• Regionally-pervasive gas accumulations be classified as tight gas areas and
reviewed in the following priority:
 Deep Basin trap Primary characterization focus:
 Shallow biogenic gas
 Additional accumulations

CHARACTERISTIC OF TIGHT RESERVOIR.

• Tight reservoirs characterized with low porosity and permeability, small
drainage radius, and require significant well stimulation-hydraulic fracture
treatment-or the use of horizontal or multi-lateral wells to produce at economic
rates.
• Tight gas reservoirs are generally gas-saturated with little or no free water.
Special recovery processes and technologies like hydro-fracturing, steam
injection etc. are used to produce hydrocarbons from theses reservoirs.
• Production from tight oil reservoir requires at least 15-20% of natural gas.
• These formation are heterogeneous and vary widely over short distance.
• Tight reservoir is a Strong heterogeneity and low single-well control reserves.
• The tight reservoirs are characterized by large pressure gradient across
reservoir, often layered and complex, high transient decline rate and comingled
production.
• These are highly compacted with very low porosity 4-12%.
• Permeability of these shale is less than 0.1 md... Typical lithology of tight
reservoirs are shale/sandstone/siltstone and rarely carbonate with permeability
as low as (<0.1md).
• Tight reservoir sands are continuous and stacked sedimentary layers charged
with hydrocarbons.
Principle types of tight gas reservoir.
Formation.
• Tight gas is formed in the same general way as conventional natural gas
deposits, the main difference being the age of the deposits.
• Conventional gas is relatively young whereas tight gas formed around 248
million years ago in Palaeozoic formations.
• Over this long period of time, a conventional gas reserve was changed by
cementation and recrystallization.
• This led to reduced permeability of the rock and natural gas being trapped tightly
within rock formations.
• Most tight gas formations are found onshore.
FACTORS TO CONSIDER FOR TIGHT RESERVOIR.
1. Geologic Considerations.
• The analysis of any reservoir, including a tight reservoir, should always begin with a
thorough understanding of the geologic characteristics of the formation. The
important geologic parameters for a trend or basin are:
 The structural and tectonic regime
 The regional thermal gradients
 The regional pressure gradients
• Knowing the stratigraphy in a basin is very important and can affect:
Drilling
 Evaluation
 Completion
Stimulation
 Important geologic parameters that should be studied for each stratigraphic
unit are:
The depositional system
 The genetic facies
Textural maturity
 Mineralogy
Diagenetic processes
Cements
Reservoir dimensions
 Presence of natural fractures
2. Reservoir Continuity.
• One of the most difficult parameters to evaluate in tight reservoirs is the drainage
area size and shape of a typical well. In tight reservoirs, months or years of
production are normally required before the pressure transients are affected by
reservoir boundaries or well-to-well interference. As such, the engineer often has
to estimate the drainage area size and shape for a typical well in order to estimate
reserves. Knowledge of the depositional system and the effects of diagenesis on
the rock are needed to estimate the drainage area size and shape for a specific
well.
• In blanket, tight gas reservoirs, the average drainage area of a well largely
depends on:
The number of wells drilled.
The size of the fracture treatments pumped on the wells.
The time frame being considered.
• A main factor controlling the continuity of the reservoir is the
depositional system. Generally, reservoir drainage per well is
small in continental deposits and larger in marine deposits.
Fluvial systems tend to be more lenticular. Barrier-strandplain
systems tend to be more blanket and continuous.
• Most of the more successful tight plays are those in which
the formation is a thick, continuous, marine deposit.
 4. Drilling and Completion Considerations.
• The most important part of drilling a well in a tight reservoir is to drill a gauge
hole. A gauge hole is required to obtain an adequate suite of openhole logs and
to obtain an adequate primary cement job. In low porosity, shaly reservoirs, the
analyses of gamma ray (GR), spontaneous potential (SP), porosity, and resistivity
logs to determine accurate estimates of shale content, porosity, and water
saturation can be difficult. If the borehole is washed out ("out of gauge"), the log
readings will be affected, and it will be even more difficult to differentiate the
pay from the non-pay portions of the formation.
• Formation damage and drilling speed should be a secondary concern. Some
wells are drilled underbalanced to increase the bit penetration rate or to
minimize mud filtrate invasion.
• The completion strategy and stimulation strategy required for a tight reservoir
very much mu depends on the number of of la layers of net pay and the overall
economic assessment of the reservoir. In almost every case, a well in a tight
reservoir is not economic to produce unless the optimum fracture treatment is
both designed and pumped into the formation.
LOGGING IN TIGHT RESERVOIR.
• Logging is the important process in the petroleum sector.
• Logging is important to find the hydrocarbon in to the reservoir and find the
lithology below the earth surface.
Factors identified by Logging in tight reservoir:
1) Location of the tight reservoir 4) Permeability
2) Lithology 5) Porosity
3)Natural fracture 6) Tightness
Different type of logs are used in tight reservoir to find its characteristics
• Types of Logs:
1)SP (spontaneous potential)
2)NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance)
3) Resistivity
4) Neutron porosity and density log
5)Gamma ray log
6)image
1. SP (spontaneous potential) log.
2. NMR log.
• NMR porosities are not affected by shale of rock minerology. NMR logs differ
from conventional neutron and density porosity logs, NMR signal amplitude
provides detailed porosity free from lithology effects.
• Relaxation time gives other petrophysical parameters of tight reservoir such as
permeability, capillary pressure, distribution of pore sizes and hydrocarbon
identification.
3. Resistivity log:
• Due to low porosity the resistivity log shows high resistivity of the order of
70 ΩΜ.
 4. Neutron porosity and density log.
• Since tight reservoirs are mostly shaly sands so the thermal neutron absorbers
in shaly sands affect the neutron porosities which cause neutron porosity very
high.
• As a result neutron density logs can miss hydrocarbon zones in the tight
reservoirs.
5. Gamma ray log
• Due to presence of clay minerals the total Gamma ray shows high gamma API
which misleads the reservoir as non-reservoir.
• This ambiguity is resolved with the help of Spectral Gamma Ray log which infers
the presence of radioactive minerals in the reservoir.
6. Image log.
FORMATION EVALUATION.
• To properly complete fracture treat and produce a tight reservoir each layer of
the pay zone and the formations above and below the pay zone must be
thoroughly evaluated.
• The most important properties that must be known are pay zone thickness,
porosity, water saturation, permeability, pressure, in-situ stress, and Young's
modulus.
• The raw data that are used to estimate values for these important parameters
come from:
 Logs
Cores
Well tests
Drilling records
Production from offset wells
TECHNIQUES TO PRODUCE FROM TIGHT RESERVOIR:
• In contrast with conventional reservoir, unconventional gas from tight reservoir
is situated in rocks with extremely low permeability, which makes extracting it
much more difficult.
• New technologies and enhanced applications of existing techniques are making
it possible to extract these tight gas resources safely, responsibly and
economically.
• The combination of horizontal wells and hydraulic fracturing, for example, have
been key to unlocking unconventional gas reserves in the US and elsewhere.
Tight Gas Challenges.
• Multiple-stage fracking can require millions of gallons of water.
• The frack fluids may contain chemicals that have become the subject of public
concern.
• Flaring has been a source of environmental criticism.
Challenges cont…
OFF SHORE FIELD:
• The construction of thousands of well pads and truck traffic for the drilling and
fracking of thousands of wells:
 Increased airborne dust
 Adversely affect the "Viewshed
Tight Gas Solutions.
• Increased use of technologies to drill multiple wells from a single pad:
 Reduces the overall footprint of drilling operations.
• Development and application of environmentally friendly
dust control materials.
• Development and application of frack fluid recycling.
• Reformulation of frack fluids to be more environmentally friendly.
• Utilization of flare gas:
Global Scenario.
• Few countries like USA, China, Australia, Canada are the pioneer in the
development of tight reservoir.
• At present 50% of daily US gas production recovered from tight reservoir.
• Tight gas fields are also being developed around the world e.g. Yucal Pacer field
in Venezuela, Aguada Pichana in Argentina, Timimoun in Nigeria and Aloumbe in
Gabon, Sui area in Balochistan of Pakistan, Warro field in western Australia.
• Recoverable tight gas reservoirs is Canada-20.4 TCM,
• CIS (commonwealth of independent states)-5.4 TCM, Middle east-3.4 TCM &
Others-1.4TCM.
Reference.
• Holditch SA (2006): "Tight Gas Sands," SPE Paper 103356, Distinguished Author Series.
• Feugueur K, and Schenckery M (2006): "Unconventional Gas in North America." Mission
Economique de HOUSTON (2006): 1-52.
• Xiong Hand Holditch SA (2006): "Will the Blossom of Unconventional Natural Gas Development in
North America Be Repeated in China?" paper SPE 103775 presented at the 2006 SPE International
Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition in China, Beijing, (December 5-7, 2006). Stark P and Chew K
(2004): Global Gas Resources: Implications for North America, IHS Energy
• (August 2004). Ammer, J. (2002): "Tight Gas Technologies for the Rocky Mountains, Gas TIPS 8,
number 2 (Spring 2002): 18-23.
• "Technology Impact on Natural Gas Supply Chapter 5 in Supply Task Group Report, Volume 4 of
Balancing Natural Gas Policy, Fueling the Demands of a Growing Economy, National
• Petroleum Council (September 2003). Available at http://www.npc.org/ Filling the Gap,
Unconventional Gas Technology Roadmap, Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada (June 2006)
• Technology Needs for Unconventional Gas Development, Research Partnership to Secure Energy
for America, Final DOE Report, Contract DE-RP26-04NT41817 TSK41817.211.01.05 (November
2005).