Abstract
Reliable geothermal data are required for basin and petroleum system modeling. The essential shortcomings of the methods and results of previous geothermal investigations lead to a necessity to reappraise the data on the thermal properties and heat flow. A new, advanced experimental basis was used to provide reliable data on vertical variations in the thermal properties of formation and heat flow for the area surrounding a prospecting borehole drilled through an unconventional hydrocarbon reservoir of the Domanik Formation in the Orenburg region (Russia). Temperature logging was conducted 12.5 months after well drilling. The thermal properties of the rocks were measured with continuous thermal core profiling on all 1699 recovered core samples. Within non-cored intervals, the thermal conductivity of the rocks was determined from well-logging data. The influence of core aging, multiscale heterogeneity and anisotropy, in situ pressure and temperature on the thermal properties of rock was accounted for. The terrestrial heat flow was determined to be 72.6 ± 2.2 mW·m−2—~114% larger than the published average data for the studied area. The experiment presents the first experience of supporting basin modeling in unconventional plays with advanced experimental geothermal investigations.
Highlights
Information about the actual heat flow and thermal properties of rock is necessary for modeling sedimentary basins and oil and gas-bearing systems [1]
The thermal conductivity at the formation temperature was measured on 10 cylindrical 50 × 20 mm core samples that were saturated with synthetic brine under vacuum and selected based on the results of the continuous thermal core logging of full-sized cores
An investigation of more than 1700 rock samples was conducted with new techniques, including continuous thermal core logging, new laser optical scanning instrument, and the well-log-based prediction of rock thermal conductivity, in combination with rock thermal property measurements at elevated temperatures and on core samples saturated under vacuum with brine
Summary
Information about the actual heat flow and thermal properties of rock is necessary for modeling sedimentary basins and oil and gas-bearing systems [1]. It has been shown that uncertainties in these data lead to a severe reduction in the reliability of basin and petroleum system modeling [2] conducted on areas of the Earth’s crust with the occurrence of unconventional reservoirs, where only scarce special geothermal surveys have been conducted recently All of this has led to the necessity to measure the thermal properties of rock and assess variations of heat flow density when drilling a prospecting and appraisal well located in the Orenburg region on the European part of Russia in the southern part of the piedmont of the western Urals. The volumetric heat capacity of rock, the data on which, along with the thermal conductivity, are necessary for basin modeling and estimates of the paleoclimate effect [10,12,13], was found only in rare instances [10,11]
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