Brittleness evaluation of Naparima Hill mudstones

Abstract

The brittleness of unconventional source rock reservoirs is an essential parameter that controls the effectiveness of hydraulic fracturing operation. Brittleness can vary with effective pressure (equivalent to burial depth) and can be influenced by fluid saturation. Therefore, a detailed evaluation of rock brittleness is necessary prior to field applications. The late Cretaceous Naparima Hill Formation is the primary source for most of the 4 billion barrels of oil and 10 trillion cubic feet of gas produced in the last hundred years from conventional reservoirs in Trinidad, West Indies. This Formation is now being considered an unconventional reservoir in order to prolong and increase current productions. However, despite being a prolific Formation, there are no available geomechanical data, including brittleness. Brittleness index (BI) is often used to measure rock brittleness. In this study, we determined elastic-based BI from P- and S-wave velocity measurements, at effective pressures up to 130 MPa, for dry and water saturated outcrop mudstones from four lithofacies within the Naparima Hill Formation. The experimental results show that the BI for all four lithofacies, is independent of effective pressures in both dry and water saturated conditions. All four lithofacies can be considered brittle under dry conditions. However, when saturated, the BI reduces, which proves significant for softer lithofacies (siliceous calcareous mudstones and siliceous mudstones). In this saturated state, the harder lithofacies (calcareous mudstone interbedded with black chert and carbonate rich mudstone with nodular chert) are considered marginally brittle and the softer ones, are considered ductile. The results highlight that porosity is the main factor that controls the magnitude of reduction in the BI when the mudstones are fully saturated.