Lessons Learned From the Vaca Muerta: An Exploration Model to Aid Sweet-Spot Prediction in the Frontier Hanifa Unconventional Resource Play in the Middle East

Bromhead, Alex; Sutcliffe, Owen E.; Hay, Duncan; Evans, Kate

doi:10.15530/urtec-2017-2670610

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Compressional deformation of the Central Cordillera and the MMVB began in the Late Cretaceous, resulting in several time gaps, including the Late Campanian hiatus (Cooney & Lorente, 1997;Bayona, 2018;Etayo-Serna, 2019a). In the Cenozoic, the basin began to fill with continental sedimentary rocks, which also partially covered the Central Cordillera with valley-fill deposits along an onlapping surface (Gomez et al, 2005;Caballero et al, 2013).…”

Section: Basin Geology and Petroleum Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We used subsidence analysis (backstripping) to reconstruct the basin's evolution from the Cretaceous to the present day, considering sediment compaction and variations in paleobathymetry or paleotopography (Allen & Allen, 2013). From seismic interpretation and subsidence curves, erosion maps were estimated to include the eroded thicknesses of the stratigraphic units in the basin modeling Stratigraphic names, ages, unconformities, and time gaps correspond to Morales (1958), Gomez et al (2005), Caballero et al (2013, Sarmiento-Rojas (2019), Bayona (2018) andEtayo et al (2019a) proposals.…”

Section: Basin Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sweet spot areas for shale oil and shale gas plays in the Upper Cretaceous rocks of the Middle Magdalena Valley, Colombia: insights from basin modeling

Pastor-Chacón,

Aguilera,

Triana

et al. 2023

Front. Earth Sci.

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The Middle Magdalena Valley Basin (MMVB) in Colombia has a long history of conventional hydrocarbon exploration and production, with a cumulative production of 2.75 billion barrels of oil as of December 2021. Recent interest has been directed towards unconventional hydrocarbon plays within the basin due to the fine-grained nature of its Cretaceous source rocks and their mineralogy and mechanical properties. This study presents a three-dimensional basin model for three Upper Cretaceous source rocks, known as the “La Luna Formation,” within the MMVB. The model was developed using new data from five outcrops, 7,640 km of 2D seismic lines, and forty-one boreholes, as well as additional data sets such as X-ray diffraction analyses, pyrolysis analyses, well-log correlations, facies analysis, fracture pattern prediction, pore pressure analysis, heat flow estimations, and petrophysical data. The model estimates total retained oil and gas volumes to be 7.95 billion barrels and 4.21 trillion cubic feet in most probable scenarios, after a 15% recovery factor. Seismic interpretation reveals pre-Eocene structures beneath Paleogene and Neogene sediments, and the thickness variation of the source rocks from south to north of the basin. Petrophysical modeling shows effective porosities ranging from 2%–12% and organic porosities lower than 0.1%, with parts of the succession that might correspond to a carrier bed play. From a geomechanical perspective, we identified several brittle strata based on the higher concentrations of carbonates and quartz, and the areas with a higher probability of occurrence of natural fractures. Pore pressure analysis of multiple wells shows that wells in which the Middle Eocene unconformity has beveled the source rocks have no sealing capacity, becoming a risk for the play. The results suggest potential for unconventional hydrocarbon plays in the MMVB, with sweet spot areas being primarily controlled by porosity, thermal maturity, gas-oil ratios, and retained oil and gas volumes, as well as to a lesser degree, the probability of natural fractures and pore pressure conditions. However, further exploration is needed to constrain uncertainties regarding facies and source rock quality, particularly within the depocenters of the basin, in order to prove the economic feasibility of these unconventional plays.

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Section: Basin Geology and Petroleum Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Basin Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sweet spot areas for shale oil and shale gas plays in the Upper Cretaceous rocks of the Middle Magdalena Valley, Colombia: insights from basin modeling

Pastor-Chacón,

Aguilera,

Triana

et al. 2023

Front. Earth Sci.

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Petroleum systems of the Iranian Zagros Fold and Thrust Belt

Alipour

2024

Results in Earth Sciences

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Type Curves for Vaca Muerta Horizontal Wells

Johanis

2018

SPE Argentina Exploration and Production of Unconventional Resources Symposium

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The increasing number of drilled, completed, and produced horizontal wells in Vaca Muerta enables strengthening the generation of its type curves. The samples can be categorized by produced fluid, landing zone, and eventually by other criteria, reaching statistical significance and, thereby, enabling the preparation of type curves specific to each criterion. Public domain monthly production data, combined with directional, completion, and hydraulic fracturing records related to horizontal wells in Vaca Muerta, were gathered, building a database that as of December 2017, included 254 wells. Each well was classified according to fluid produced, landing zone, and well location relative to slope breaks of progradant facies. The monthly produced volumes are expressed in equivalent barrels of oil and normalized to 1,000 m of stimulated lateral length. For each class considered, percentiles 90, 50, and 10 of a recomputed monthly series were calculated, as well as the average. The series best-fit theoretical curves were generated and are proposed as type curves. More than 200 new entries were added to a legacy database that had been used to estimate normalized standard production and appraise stimulation trends. In this way, the data sample reached greater statistical significance and included a longer series of monthly production data, making it possible to obtain production type curves with smaller deviation and more robust means and averages. Progress was made in the discrimination of the entire set of horizontal wells in Vaca Muerta by preparing type curves for wells producing black oil, intermediate wet fluids, and dry gas. Production accumulations increase from one production type to the next in the order listed. Relevant to landing zone criteria, discriminated type curves are presented for the "kitchen" (basal section of the formation, which reaches the highest organic and shale content)," the "organic" level (inmediate overlaying section of high organic content), and the lower and the upper prograding facies (shaly limestone sequences in the middle and upper sections of the formation). Particularly for the oil-producing wells, the type curves reveal the increased production in the "kitchen" and upper progradant levels. The elaboration of best-fit curves to the series of typical P90, P50, and P10 data, with its generatrix algorithm, provides a simple aid to approximate production estimates and economic evaluation of projects.

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Lessons Learned From the Vaca Muerta: An Exploration Model to Aid Sweet-Spot Prediction in the Frontier Hanifa Unconventional Resource Play in the Middle East

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Sweet spot areas for shale oil and shale gas plays in the Upper Cretaceous rocks of the Middle Magdalena Valley, Colombia: insights from basin modeling

Sweet spot areas for shale oil and shale gas plays in the Upper Cretaceous rocks of the Middle Magdalena Valley, Colombia: insights from basin modeling

Petroleum systems of the Iranian Zagros Fold and Thrust Belt

Type Curves for Vaca Muerta Horizontal Wells

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