Quantitative evaluation of key geological controls on regional eagle ford shale production using spatial statistics Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • 2017, Society of Petroleum Engineers. Recent progress has increased our understanding of key controls on the productivity of shale reservoirs. The quantitative relations between regional Eagle Ford Shale production trends and geologic parameters were investigated to clarify which geologic parameters exercise dominant control on well production rates. Previously, qualitative correlations for the Eagle Ford Shale were demonstrated among depth, thickness, total organic carbon (TOC), distribution of limestone beds, and average bed thickness with regional production. Eagle Ford production wells are horizontal, but it was necessary to use vertical wells that penetrated the Eagle Ford to map reservoir properties. No wells in the data base had both production and geological parameters, thus geological parameters could not be directly related to individual well production. Therefore, spatial interpolation methods based on kriging and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling algorithms were utilized to integrate data sets and predict geological properties at production well locations. The spatial Gaussian Process regression modeling was conducted to investigate the primary controls on production. Results suggest that the 6-month cumulative production from the Eagle Ford Shale, in barrels-of-oil equivalent (BOE), increases consistently with (a) depth, (b) Eagle Ford thickness (up to 180-ft thickness), and (c) with TOC (up to 7%). Also, when the number of limestone beds exceeds 12, production increases with the number of limestone beds. The corresponding significance code indicates that the parameters most significant to production are TOC and depth (which relates to pressure). Concepts and models developed in this study may assist operators in making critical Eagle Ford Shale development decisions and should be transferable to other shale plays

published proceedings

  • Society of Petroleum Engineers - SPE Unconventional Resources Conference 2017

author list (cited authors)

  • Tian, Y., Ayers, W. B., Sang, H., McCain, W. D., & Ehlig-Economides, C.

publication date

  • January 2017