Multistage Horizontal Hydraulic Fracture Optimization Through an Integrated Design and Workflow in Apollonia Tight Chalk, Egypt from the Laboratory to the Field

Salah, Mohamеd K.; Orr, Doug; Meguid, Ahmed Abdel; Crane, Brady; Squires, Scott

doi:10.2118/183068-ms

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…We had one leakoff test record (7988 PSI at 10,362 ft) from the overlying shales of the AR-E Member which exhibited a S hmin gradient of 0.77 PSI/ft. The interpreted AR-F S hmin gradient corroborates well with the published interpretation from the JDT field and Al-Khilala fields located in the onshore Nile Delta region (Salah et al, 2016;Leila et al, 2021). Considering a normal faulting stress state and an effective maximum horizontal stress ratio (k) of 0.5, we infer a S hmax gradient of 0.88 PSI/ ft.…”

Section: Rock-mechanical Properties and Brittleness Indexsupporting

confidence: 88%

Geomechanical assessment of the Lower Turonian AR-F limestone Member, Abu Gharadig Field, Egypt: Implications for unconventional resource development

Farouk

Sen²,

Abu-Alam

et al. 2022

Front. Earth Sci.

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This study evaluates the unconventional reservoir geomechanical characteristics of the Lower Turonian Abu Roash-F (AR-F) carbonates from the Abu Gharadig field, onshore Egypt, which has not been attempted before. The interval dominantly consists of planktic foraminifera and micrite matrix. The AR-F marine carbonate is organic-rich (0.59–3.57 wt% total organic carbon), thermally mature (435–441°C Tmax) and falls within the oil generation window. The studied interval is very tight with up to 2.6% porosity and 0.0016–0.0033 mD permeability with the wireline log-based brittleness index ranging between 0.39–0.72 which indicates a less brittle to brittle nature. AR-F exhibits a hydrostatic pore pressure gradient with minimum horizontal stress (Shmin) varying between 0.66–0.76 PSI/ft. Safe wellbore trajectory analysis was performed for deviated and horizontal wells to infer the mud pressure gradients required to avoid wellbore instabilities. Based on the inferred in-stress magnitudes and considering an NNE regional maximum horizontal stress orientation, none of the fractures are found to be critically stressed at present day. To produce from the AR-F, hydraulic fracturing is necessary, and we infer a minimum pore pressure increment threshold of 1390 PSI by fluid injection to reactivate the vertical fractures parallel to regional minimum horizontal stress azimuth.

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Section: Rock-mechanical Properties and Brittleness Indexsupporting

confidence: 88%

Geomechanical assessment of the Lower Turonian AR-F limestone Member, Abu Gharadig Field, Egypt: Implications for unconventional resource development

Farouk

Sen²,

Abu-Alam

et al. 2022

Front. Earth Sci.

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“…Stewart (1999) suggested that gas accumulations at shallow depths can cause enough overpressure to form set of faults and fractures with a circular structure. An important observation, however, is that the chalk reservoir of the Apollonia Formation is characterized by its low formation pressure (Elmahdy et al, 2018;Salah et al, 2016) which suggests the releasing of the formation pressure after the generation of the polygonal faults.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Apollonia Formation (upper Paleocene to middle Eocene) is overlain by the Dabaa Shale (Oligocene), and is underlain by the chalk of the Khoman Formation (Upper Cretaceous) ( Figure 3). The Apollonia Formation was studied in detail in terms of its lithology, palaeontological characteristics and reservoir productivity (e.g., El-Bendary et al, 2016;Elmahdy, Farag, Tarabees, & Bakr, 2018;Salah, Orr, Abdel Meguid, Crane, & Squires, 2016;Sedek & Al Mahdy, 2013;Sousa & Badri, 1996).…”

Section: Geologic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polygonal faults in Eocene carbonate reservoir, Abu El‐Gharadig Basin, Egypt

Elmahdy

Tarabees

Bakr³

et al. 2019

Geological Journal

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Interpretations of high resolution three‐dimensional (3D) seismic data and well logs indicate that the fine‐grained carbonates of the middle Eocene Apollonia Formation in the Abu El‐Gharadig Basin (Western Desert, Egypt) is deformed by the polygonal fault system. The 3D seismic data cover an area of about 1,100 km2 including the JDT gas field, where the Apollonia Formation includes gas‐bearing reservoir intervals with high porosity and low permeability. The results show that the polygonal faults have no preferred dip or strike directions. They have lengths ranging from 123 to 3,800 m, fault throws up to 100 m and dips of 27°–88°. Fault traces are approximately linear in vertical cross‐section producing a series of horsts and grabens. We used this data to interpret and geometrically characterize the polygonal faults in a fine‐grained carbonate reservoir unit, and we show the faults influence the fluids flow in the reservoir. The increase in the formation pore pressure mechanism is the proposed mechanism for the initiation of the polygonal fault system in the Abu El‐Gharadig Basin.

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“…Ongoing explorations and studies aim at identifying optimal technologies to maximize productivity of unconventional low-permeability reservoirs [30]. [41] and [42] summarized the findings of the recent activities within different unconventional plays in Egypt from which the basis for necessary subsequent development could be achieved.…”

Section: Fig 1-annual Petroleum and Other Liquids Production And Conmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating Ultimate Recoveries of Unconventional Reservoirs: Knowledge Gained from the Developments Worldwide and Egyptian Challenges

Mahmoud

Elnekhaily

Hegazy

2020

International Journal of Industry and Sustainable Development

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Supertight oil and gas reservoirs have always been considered uneconomical. Their high stimulation costs, forecasting the future production and estimating the ultimate recovery (EUR), have long been problematic.They should be constantly updated during the lifetime of a reservoir, besides; their accuracy depends on the amount of available data and the adopted method. However, after the enormous production in North America, exploring and developing unconventional hydrocarbon resources are gaining more interest worldwide. Nowadays, the Egyptian government is targeting tight layers/zones, in the western desert, to increase the high domestic energy demand and hence, increase the annual production of the conventionalhigh permeabilityreservoirs. Several zones within Khatatba source rock in the Shoushan basin as well as in the Abu Gharadig basin are now being studied and evaluated to maximize their productivity and identify the optimal technology for future developments.In the present work, various approaches, used in predicting the performance of unconventional reservoirs, are investigated and compared through their forecasting future production and their estimated ultimate recovery (EUR). Traditional Arps' decline, for low permeability reservoirs, over-forecasts reserves. Power-law exponential decline (PLED), stretched-exponential decline (SEPD), logistic-growth model (LGM), and Duong's method have been used to represent the rate/time production data for the standard well completion in a multiple-fractured horizontal well in a shale play. These methods provide different forecasts as they are based on different equation forms. Unfortunately, previously mentioned methods are not satisfactorily adequate to forecast production for all unconventional reservoirs. The rate transient analytical (RTA) models require certain modifications of the reservoir and fracture parameters to provide optimistic EURs when compared to the numerical simulation.In this research, based on the production forecast and EUR prediction, different models for forecasting unconventional well data have been reviewed and compared. Production data has been used to validate the accuracy of the models, show the similarity of reserves estimation, and reveal the relationship to the reservoir theory. This work might help the Egyptian operating companies to better understand the production dynamics of unconventional reservoirs and suggest a more reliable model EUR's estimation.Recently numerical simulation is found to be a vital tool in understanding of the flow behavior characteristics in tight/shale gas systems. Although facing nearly the same difficulties and limitations of analytical analysis, their ongoing developments are promising in helping in the optimization of lateral length, well spacing, and completion techniques as well as getting

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Multistage Horizontal Hydraulic Fracture Optimization Through an Integrated Design and Workflow in Apollonia Tight Chalk, Egypt from the Laboratory to the Field

Cited by 10 publications

References 10 publications

Geomechanical assessment of the Lower Turonian AR-F limestone Member, Abu Gharadig Field, Egypt: Implications for unconventional resource development

Geomechanical assessment of the Lower Turonian AR-F limestone Member, Abu Gharadig Field, Egypt: Implications for unconventional resource development

Polygonal faults in Eocene carbonate reservoir, Abu El‐Gharadig Basin, Egypt

Estimating Ultimate Recoveries of Unconventional Reservoirs: Knowledge Gained from the Developments Worldwide and Egyptian Challenges

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