Identification of remaining oil resource potential in the Frio Fluvial/Deltaic Sandstone play, South Texas

Abstract

The Frio Fluvial/Deltaic Sandstone (Vicksburg Fault Zone) oil play of South Texas has produced nearly 1 billion stock tank barrels (BSTB) of oil, yet still contains about 1.2 BSTB of unrecovered mobile oil and an even greater amount of residual oil resources (1.5 BSTB). More than half of the reservoirs in this depositionally complex play have been abandoned, and large volumes of oil may remain unproduced. Interwell-scale geological facies models of Frio fluvial/deltaic reservoirs will be combined with engineering assessments and geophysical evaluations in order to characterize Frio fluvial/deltaic reservoir architecture, flow unit boundaries, and the controls that these characteristics exert on the location and volume of unrecovered mobile and residual oil. Reservoir attribute data were statistically analyzed from oil and gas fields throughout the geographic area covered by the Frio Fluvial/Deltaic Sandstone oil play. General reservoir attributes analyzed in detail included porosity, initial water saturation, residual oil saturation, net pay, reservoir area, and fluid characteristics. Statistical analysis of variance demonstrated no difference between oil reservoir attributes and gas reservoir attributes. Probability functions that describe attribute frequency distributions were determined for use in risk adjusting resource calculations. The oil play was found to contain significant volumes of remaining oil. The volumetric probability distribution between 5- and 95-percent probability for original oil in place ranges from 3.8 to 5.6 BSTB, original mobile oil in place ranges from 2.5 to 3.6 BSTB, and residual oil ranges from 1.5 to 2.3 BSTB. The untapped oil resource may be 10 percent of the original oil in place, or 380 million stock tank barrels.