Beyond Volumetrics: Unconventional Petrophysics for Efficient Resource Appraisal (Example from the Khazzan Field, Sultanate of Oman)

Abstract

Abstract The Middle East region holds substantial resources of unconventional tight gas and shale gas. The efficient extraction of these resources requires significant technology and expertise across numerous disciplines, including reservoir description and geomechanical characterization, hydraulic fracture modelling and design, advanced numerical simulation capabilities, sensor and surveillance technologies, and tightly integrated workflows. The effective application of these integrated subsurface and completion workflows leads to improved capital efficiency and well performance through increased well potential, increased ultimate recovery, and reduced costs. Key elements include dynamic rock typing to highlight potential flow units that will maximize gas deliverability, geomechanical modelling to provide a calibrated stress profile, and an integrated model that demonstrates the importance of understanding both dynamic flow properties and geomechanical response in complex tectonic environments. Dynamic rock typing focuses on using both depositional and petrophysical properties including rock type, porosity, and effective gas permeability at reservoir conditions to divide the reservoir into flow units in the context of their saturation history. The geomechanical profiling generates a tectonics-corrected minimum horizontal stress (SHmin) and the net confining stress (NCS). The rock-log-test calibration requires the evaluation and integration of subsurface fracture tests, including After-Closure Analysis (ACA), Data Fracs and Micro Fracs. All three involve different injection volumes and sampled reservoir volumes. Tight gas petrophysical studies must go “beyond volumetrics”, and should consider not only the static (storage) and dynamic (flow) properties within the context of the petroleum system and evolution of the current day pore geometry and fluid saturation distribution, but also the geomechanical stress regime and its implications for efficient completion optimization. Alternative interpretations test the range of uncertainty and are useful in designing field trials and surveillance strategies to reduce the subsurface uncertainty and to mitigate development risks.