Development Of Hydrocarbon Resources Research Articles

КЛЮЧЕВОЙ ВЕКТОР СОЦИАЛЬНО-ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКОГО РАЗВИТИЯ РОССИЙСКИХ АРКТИЧЕСКИХ ЗОН

In Russia, since the end of the last century, the development of hydrocarbon resources in the Arctic is increasingly moving from the stage of assessing the resource potential of the subsoil to the stage of determining the organizational and economic framework for the implementation of specific investment projects. Despite the different national interests that have certain specifics in Russia and foreign countries, the main vector of development of Russian and foreign cooperation in the Arctic region is the need to implement the national economic interests of each country. An example is the relationship between Russian and Chinese companies dedicated to cooperation in the field of strategic approach to the development of Arctic resources.

Оценка экономической эффективности освоения нетрадиционных ресурсов углеводородов России

Оценка экономической эффективности освоения нетрадиционных ресурсов углеводородов России

Present-day in-situ stress field within the Yanchang Formation tight oil reservoir of Ordos Basin, central China

The present-day in-situ stress field has many important and practical applications during the exploration and development of hydrocarbon resources. The Ordos Basin is a significant petroliferous basin in China, within which, the Yanchang Formation serves as the most significant tight oil reservoir. However, an overview of previous studies indicates that little was known as to the present-day stress state in the Yanchang Formation. Therefore, the present-day stress field in the Yanchang Formation tight oil reservoir of the Ordos Basin is systematically analyzed in this study. The orientation of horizontal maximum principal stress (SHmax) within the Yanchang Formation of Ordos Basin ranges between north-northeast-south-southwest-trending (NNE-SSW) and east-northeast-west-southwest-trending (ENE-WSW) based on interpretations of borehole breakouts and drilling-induced fractures from borehole imaging logs. The SHmax orientation shows various tendencies in different wells, which may result from differential development in lithology, natural fracture and bedding plane over various regions. The estimated magnitudes of vertical stress (Sv), SHmax and horizontal minimum principal stress (Shmin) in the studied wells indicate that the normal faulting stress regime is dominant within the Yanchang Formation. In addition, the geomechanical assessments of wellbore stability and natural fracture reactivation are also performed. Natural fractures in the Yanchang Formation Chang 7 tight oil reservoir of Ordos Basin are developed striking mainly in the northeast-southwest-trending (NE-SW) and west-northwest-east-southeast-trending (WNW-ESE). Among them, those fractures with NE-SW-trending strikes are more conductive with reference to the present-day stress state, contributing more to tight oil production in the Ordos Basin. In addition, within the Yanchang Formation, if horizontal wells are drilled towards the NNE-SSW-trending to ENE-WSW-trending, they are more likely to have wellbore instability issues. The results in this study provide important geological information for tight oil production in the Yanchang Formation of Ordos Basin.

Vibrational Spectroscopy for Hydrocarbon Resource Development

Determining the amount and geochemistry of organic matter in rocks is an important and essential step of hydrocarbon resource development. Despite extensive publications there still is a need for i...

Borehole Microseismic Imaging of Hydraulic Fracturing: A Pilot Study on a Coal Bed Methane Reservoir in Indonesia

Over the last decade, microseismic monitoring has emerged as a considerable and capable technology for imaging stimulated hydraulic fractures in the development of unconventional hydrocarbon resources. In this study, pilot hydraulic-fracturing treatments were operated at a coal-bed methane (CBM) field in Indonesia to stimulate the flow and increase the reservoir's permeability while the monitoring system was set in a single near-vertical borehole. Locating event sources accurately is fundamental to investigating the induced fractures, but the geometry of a single downhole array is a challenging data processing task, especially to remove ambiguity of the source locations. The locating procedure was reviewed in 3 main steps: (i) accurate picking of P- and S-wave phases; (ii) inclusion of P-wave particle motion to estimate the back azimuth; (iii) guided inversion for hypocenter determination. Furthermore, the seismic-source moment magnitudes were calculated by employing Brune's model. Reliable solutions of locations were obtained as shown statistically by uncertainty ellipsoids and a small misfit. Based on our results, both induced and triggered seismicity could be observed during the treatments and therefore conducting intensive monitoring is important. The triggered seismicity is an undesired activity so disaster precautions need to be taken, in particular for preventing reactivation of pre-existing faults.

How to Discover a Storage Resource: Following the Principles of the SPE-SRMS What is Required to Classify as Storage Resource as ‘Discovered’?

How can we know that a developable storage resource exists at a given location – i.e. it is discovered? Is the presence of a permeable rock sufficient? How does a developer, financier or policy maker gain sufficient confidence that CO2 can be stored at an injection site to proceed with a project? The SPE have released the SRMS (Storage Resource Management System) which can clarify communication of storage resource confidence, using a consistent set of principles for classification (of resource maturity and ‘certainty’) and associated storage resource estimation methodology. There are strong similarities between the exploration and development of hydrocarbon resources and storage resources, and hence between the PRMS and SRMS. A notable difference is the additional requirement to demonstrate an expectation of long-term containment of the injected CO2 for a storage resource. A resource could not be classified as a discovered contingent resource until the expectation of a competent seal (to contain the injected CO2) is demonstrated (with direct supporting evidence) over the entire reservoir area where the injected CO2 plume might migrate in the long-term. The predicted pressure footprint may be permitted to extend beyond the discovered seal area. Many estimates in the literature take the pore volume of a formation and multiply this by a storage efficiency, but they do not critically assess the storage efficiency factor with containment in mind, in particular the containment of a migrating CO2 plume. The OGCI has reviewed publicly available CO2 storage resource assessments for the Captain Sandstone formation (UK Central North Sea), against the SRMS framework of principles. The potential classification of the storage resource estimates reviewed (both regional and site-specific) are discussed based on the available information. This focuses on allocating the resource estimates to either the discovered contingent resource class, or the undiscovered prospective resource class, through application of the SRMS principles for resource discovery. This review has triggered key questions, such as: How large an area can a single well ‘discover’? and, what is required to discover an open store (where injected CO2 is free to migrate laterally) versus CO2 storage resources utilizing a ‘trap’ which prevents lateral migration? Which are also discussed.

Examination of downward hydrocarbon charge within the Bakken-Three Forks petroleum system – Williston Basin, North America

Abstract The Bakken and Three Forks Formations of the Williston Basin have been targeted by over 10,000 unconventional style wells (horizontal drilling coupled with hydraulic fracturing). Exploration and developmental drilling initially focused on the Middle Bakken but later expanded into the underlying upper Three Forks (located directly below the Bakken) and eventually the middle and lower Three Forks, which are positioned 10s to 100 + feet below the Bakken. Hydrocarbons (oil and associated gas) within both formations are believed to be sourced from the upper and lower Bakken shale members, which are both highly organic-rich (>10% TOC), thermally mature petroleum source beds. However, minimal literature exists examining the relationship between hydrocarbons generated by the lower Bakken shale and expelled downward into the various reservoirs of the Three Forks. Core-plug oil and water saturation data from 65 partial to complete Three Forks cores were utilized to map out fluid saturation trends within the upper, middle, and lower Three Forks. Over 500 core chip analyses from 52 cores were used to spatially delineate the present day average hydrogen index (thermal maturity) of the lower Bakken shale while a lower shale isopach map was created from wireline logs of 240 wells. Lastly, the geochemical and standard core-plug data from four complete Bakken-Three Forks cores were used to calculate and compare the volumetric amount of oil generated and expelled from the lower Bakken shale with the original oil in place (OOIP) of the entire Three Forks section. The results show a strong spatial relationship between increased thickness-thermally maturity of the lower Bakken shale and increased core-plug oil saturations across the upper to middle Three Forks members, and a similar, but less pronounced relationship with the lower Three Forks. The calculated lower Bakken shale expelled oil volumes ranged from 13 to 51 million barrels of oil (MMBO) per section (640 acres) which overall equaled to exceeded the OOIP of the entire Three Forks section (9–25 MMBO/section). These spatial and volumetric relationships indicate that local hydrocarbon generation and expulsion from the lower Bakken shale is the primary control for hydrocarbon charge within the underlying Three Forks Formation, where in some locations hydrocarbons have been pushed downwards 200 + ft. Understanding downward hydrocarbon charge has implications in exploring for and developing hydrocarbon resources within the Bakken-Three Forks as well as numerous other unconventional petroleum systems.

Celebrating our 25th year

2019 is an important milestone for applied geoscience – as Petroleum Geoscience starts its 25th year of publishing leading research papers on exploration and development of sub-surface hydrocarbon resources and related themes in applied geoscience. The first issue of the Journal was published in January 1995, and it has been all uphill since then – by that I mean progress in climbing the hills of earth science. What has changed in 25 years? The topics and themes addressed have been recognisable and fairly constant over that period …

Development of Hydrocarbon Resources on Soft Computing and Data Mining Technologies Base

Development of Hydrocarbon Resources on Soft Computing and Data Mining Technologies Base

Рациональный выбор плавучих буровых средств при освоении месторождений шельфа

Рациональный выбор плавучих буровых средств при освоении месторождений шельфа

Геоморфология и литодинамика подводных каньонов как инженерно-геологический фактор освоения углеводородных ресурсов (на примере Российского сектора Черного моря)

Геоморфология и литодинамика подводных каньонов как инженерно-геологический фактор освоения углеводородных ресурсов (на примере Российского сектора Черного моря)

Опыт технико-экономической оценки освоения ресурсов углеводородов на основе типизации геолого-географических условий

Опыт технико-экономической оценки освоения ресурсов углеводородов на основе типизации геолого-географических условий

New Insights into the Biology of Anadromous Dolly Varden in the Canning River, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska

AbstractAnadromous Dolly Varden Salvelinus malma in northeastern Alaska migrate to sea during the summer to feed but must overwinter in rivers because the sea under ice becomes too cold for salmonids. Flow ceases in rivers during the winter except for a few perennial springs in which all fish congregate. The Canning River is one of the largest rivers in the area with numerous perennial springs that support Dolly Varden during the winter. It also marks the western boundary of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as it flows across the coastal plain to the Beaufort Sea. We sought to improve our understanding of habitat use, migration timing, survival, and interdrainage exchange of Dolly Varden in the Canning River to improve management efforts to minimize the environmental impacts of potential hydrocarbon resource development in the area. To achieve these objectives, we deployed 210 radio tags in mature Dolly Varden during 2014 and 2015 and then determined their seasonal locations with aerial surveys of the Canning River and other nearby rivers and with a radio receiver located in the lower Canning River. Dolly Varden spawned and overwintered in several areas of the main stem and in perennial springs in the upper reaches of the drainage. Nonspawning fish occupied similar main‐stem habitats during the winter, but did not migrate into upstream reaches. Migration to sea occurred during a brief period in early to mid‐June, while fish returned to the river in small numbers over the next 3 months. The estimated annual survival of nonspawners (0.62) was significantly greater than that for postspawners (0.34). Survival in freshwater during winter was significantly greater than that in marine environments during the summer for both demographic groups. The interdrainage exchange rate was estimated to be 0.37. These data enhance our understanding of annual cycles of Dolly Varden habitat use, migration, and population dynamics.

The “fracture-controlled reserves” based stimulation technology for unconventional oil and gas reservoirs

Abstract To solve the problems facing the economic development of unconventional oil and gas, a new concept and corresponding technology system of reservoir stimulation based on “fracture-controlled reserves” are put forward. The “fracture-controlled reserves” stimulation technology is to realize the three-dimensional producing and economic and efficient development of unconventional hydrocarbon resources by forming a fracture system that well matches “sweet spots” and “non-sweet spots”. The technical route of the stimulation technology is “three optimizations and controls”, that is, control the scope of sand body through optimizing well spacing, control the recoverable reserves through optimizing fracture system, and control the single well production reduction through optimizing energy complement method. The “fracture-controlled reserves” stimulation emphasizes the maximization of the initial stimulation coefficient, the integration of energy replenishment, stimulation and production, and prolonging the re-fracturing cycle or avoiding re-fracturing. It aims at realizing the three-dimensional full producing and efficient development of reservoir in vertical and horizontal directions and achieving the large-scale, sustainable and high profitable development of unconventional oil and gas resources. The stimulation technology was used to perform 20 pilot projects in five typical tight-oil, shale gas blocks in China. The fracturing and producing effects of tight oil improved and the commercial development for shale gas was realized.

TO THE ISSUE OF SELECTION OF THE SCHEME OF TRANSPORTATION OF HYDROCARBONS OBTAINED FROM THE ARCTIC SEAS SHELF

At the global level, the resources of oil and gas on the continental shelf have long been the main sources of increasing the level of hydrocarbon production. To date, the share of oil and gas produced on the continental shelf already exceeds 25 % of the global volume. The world's largest continental shelf is in our country: its oil and gas potential exceeds 30 % of all resources in the bowels of the shelf of the World Ocean. Over 85 % of the hydrocarbon resources of the Russian shelf are concentrated in the Arctic seas. This explains the relevance and necessity of scientific and technological progress in the development of the oil and gas industry of our country. The formation of an integrated transportation system for the development of hydrocarbon resources in the Far North is a complex technical task. It requires the development of existing and construction of new transport infrastructure elements: onshore and underwater pipelines of high length, storage and reloading terminals, oil and gas storage facili- ties, transport and auxiliary vessels, etc. Basic methods for transporting hydrocarbons from fields to treatment or storage sites, their advantages and disadvantages are analyzed. The most difficult question of developing offshore hydrocarbon resources in these seas is the choice of transportation schemes for severe climatic conditions, complex ice conditions, high distances from coastal regions and markets. Of particular importance in this situation is a preliminary analysis of available schemes and a choice of schemes for transporting hydrocarbons produced on the shelf, which will be the most economi- cally viable in each specific case.

Quantifying the extent of flowback of hydraulic fracturing fluids using chemical and isotopic tracer approaches

Hydraulic fracturing technologies have facilitated the rapid development of shale gas and other unconventional hydrocarbon resources throughout the world. Following hydraulic fracturing operations, a large quantity of water flows back to the surface. Understanding the provenance and composition of this returned water is therefore of paramount importance in order to optimize the recycling and reuse of the millions of litres of wastewater generated by hydraulic fracturing and to reduce freshwater consumption. Here we report flowback and produced fluids data obtained from a horizontal well in a low permeability reservoir within the Montney formation in Alberta, Canada. The reservoir was fractured with a mixture of nitrogen and water and the returned water was sampled 24 times during the first week of flowback and once after more than one year of production. The samples were analyzed for concentrations of major ions and for the stable isotope composition of water. The TDS (total dissolved solids) of the samples increased rapidly from 395 mg/L for the injected water to 50,000 mg/L after two days and 96,000 mg/L at the end of the first week of flowback. At the same time, δ2H values increased from −142‰ to −113‰ and δ18O values increased from −18.3‰ to −9.8‰. After more than one year, TDS reached 204,000 mg/L while δ2H and δ18O values further increased to −68‰ and + 2.7‰. The salinity of the returned water is shown to be the result of the mixing between the highly saline formation water initially present in the reservoir before hydraulic fracturing, with the fresh water used for hydraulic fracturing. The presented mathematical model allows the calculation of the amount of fracturing fluid recovered as well as the quantity of saline formation water produced and reveals that most of the injected water is imbibed in the host rock of the producing formation. After a week of flowback, only 18% of the injected water had been recovered, while the recovery of fracturing fluids after 14.5 months is estimated at 36% of the total volume injected.

СОВРЕМЕННЫЕ ПАРАДИГМЫ ПРОСТРАНСТВЕННОГО РАЗВИТИЯ

<p>The paper is focused on the paradigmatic basis incorporated in the Concept of the Spatial Development of Russia. In order to investigate the process of changing the spatial paradigms, the author performs a comparative analysis of the retrospective and perspective stages of spatial development from the standpoint of strategic vision, characteristics of paradigms of the territorial use and types of spatial development. Characteristics of the horizontal-branch stage of development and those of the opportunistic-exhaustive approach to the use of territories are presented as exemplified by hydrocarbon resource development. The author defines the conditions that make it possible to form the strategic vision of the temporal development of a territory, i.e. influence of natural-geologic factors, manifestation of the law of diminishing returns, a strict orientation on economic values and the dominance of sectoral interests. Transition towards the paradigm of holistic and integrated development of territories is considered in the context of the evolution of value orientations, which constitute the axiological basis for social development concepts. Recommendations based on the current research include assessment of the territorial development using the inclusive growth criteria, apart from social, ecological and economic development criteria. As a goal, inclusiveness can be achieved by spatial organization based on the modern approaches, including social and communication ones. As a mean to solve regional problems, inclusiveness implies development of principles and mechanisms for residents and authorities of the resource territories to participate in decision-making regarding the territorial use.</p>

Performance assessment of the induced seismicity traffic light protocol for northeastern British Columbia and western Alberta

In response to the increasing concern of possible seismic risk due to injection operations during development of unconventional hydrocarbon resources, regulators in both British Columbia (BC) and Alberta (AB), Canada, have adopted varying aspects of a traffic light protocol as part of their individual oversight and risk mitigation strategies. In this study, we compare the regional seismicity pattern with the database of injection parameters to assess the performance of the individual induced seismicity traffic light protocols (IS-TLP). The red-light threshold in both BC and AB is set at local magnitude (ML) = 4, which appears to be adequate in characterizing the potential seismic risk from induced earthquakes. Since 2014, there were three red-light events each in BC and AB, all related to hydraulic fracturing. In the three AB cases and one BC case, at least one 2 ≤ ML < 4 seismic event, characterized in AB as a yellow-light event, preceded the red-light event, suggesting that an IS-TLP based on escalating magnitude probably is more applicable to AB than BC. The average rate of background seismicity seems to be positively correlated with the rate of seismicity during injection in a qualitative sense. This observation illustrates that detailed knowledge on background seismicity may be a useful reference in forecasting the overall seismic response to injections. In some cases, once the earthquake sequence was induced, events would continue even after the hydraulic fracturing was completed. Therefore, this phenomenon of delayed triggering — i.e., earthquakes occurred after the completion of injection — can be a problem for the effectiveness of the IS-TLP and should be considered carefully. The existing magnitude-based IS-TLP can sometimes cause confusion due to the uncertainty of magnitude calculation. Specific changes can be made to improve the effectiveness of IS-TLP, including incorporation of ground-motion information, standardization of magnitude calculation, and making the IS-TLP more adaptive to local hazard conditions.

Permeability evaluation on oil-window shale based on hydraulic flow unit: A new approach

Permeability is one of the most important petrophysical properties of shale reservoirs, controlling the fluid flow from the shale matrix to artificial fracture networks, the production and ultimate recovery of shale oil/gas. Various methods have been used to measure this parameter in shales, but no method effectively estimates the permeability of all well intervals due to the complex and heterogeneous pore throat structure of shale. A hydraulic flow unit (HFU) is a correlatable and mappable zone within a reservoir, which is used to subdivide a reservoir into distinct layers based on hydraulic flow properties. From these units, correlations between permeability and porosity can be established. In this study, HFUs were identified and combined with a back propagation neural network to predict the permeability of shale reservoirs in the Dongying Depression, Bohai Bay Basin, China. Well data from three locations were used and subdivided into modeling and validation datasets. The modeling dataset was applied to identify HFUs in the study reservoirs and to train the back propagation neural network models to predict values of porosity and flow zone indicator. Next, a permeability prediction method was established, and its generalization capability was evaluated using the validation dataset. The results identified five HFUs in the shale reservoirs within the Dongying Depression. The correlation between porosity and permeability in each HFU is generally greater than the correlation between the two same variables in the overall core data. The permeability estimation method established in this study effectively and accurately predicts the permeability of shale reservoirs in both cored and un-cored wells. Predicted permeability curves effectively reveal favorable shale oil/gas seepage layers and thus are useful for the exploration and the development of hydrocarbon resources in the Dongying Depression. Cited as : Zhang, P., Lu, S., Li, J., Zhang, J., Xue, H., Chen, C. Permeability evaluation on oil-window shale based on hydraulic flow unit: A new approach. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2018, 2(1): 1-13, doi: 10.26804/ager.2018.01.01

Russia in the global hydrocarbon economy

“Russia is a world gas column or a world kerosene”. These slogans are widely used in anti-Russian rhetoric, especially by those opponents who, giving them a pejorative character, try to show the innovative backwardness of our “resource” economy in comparison with the technologically advanced economies of the developed countries of the West. According to this group of experts, the use of a powerful Russian raw material base in the development of the country’s export potential puts Russia almost on a par with the backward developing countries of Africa. Is that really the case and whether we should “sprinkle our head with ashes” being in the top three of the world leaders in the development, production and export of hydrocarbon resources? The article offered to readers is devoted to detailed consideration of these issues.