Chert reservoirs of the Lower Devonian Thirty-one Formation contain a significant portion of the hydrocarbon resource in the Permian basin. More than 700 million bbl of oil have been produced from these rocks, and an equivalent amount of mobile oil remains. Effective exploitation of this sizable remaining resource, however, demands a comprehensive appreciation of the complex factors that have contributed to reservoir development.

Analysis of Thirtyone Formation chert deposits in Three Bar field and elsewhere in the Permian basin indicates that reservoirs display substantial heterogeneity resulting from depositional, diagenetic, and structural processes. Large-scale reservoir geometries and finer scale, intra-reservoir heterogeneity are primarily attributable to original depositional processes. These cherts, which were deposited by relatively deep-water sediment gravity processes along a north-trending depocenter, exhibit relatively continuous stratal geometries in northern, more proximal parts of the depocenter and more discontinuous geometries in the center of the depocenter. Despite facies variations, porosity development in these cherts is principally a result of variations in rates and products of early si ica diagenesis. Because this diagenesis was in part a function of depositional facies architecture, porosity development follows original depositional patterns.

In reservoirs such as Three Bar field, where the Thirtyone Formation has been unroofed by Pennsylvanian deformation, meteoric diagenesis has created additional heterogeneity by causing dissolution of chert and carbonate, especially in areas of higher density fracturing and faulting and along truncated reservoir margins. Structural deformation also has exerted direct controls on heterogeneity that are particularly noteworthy in reservoirs under waterflood. High-density fracture zones create preferred flow paths that result in nonuniform sweep through the reservoir. Faulting locally creates compartments by offsetting reservoir flow units.

Three Bar field exhibits many of the major styles of heterogeneity that contribute to inefficient recovery in the Thirtyone Formation. As such, the processes and models defined here improve understanding of the causes of heterogeneity in all Thirtyone chert reservoirs in the Permian basin and aid recovery of the sizable hydrocarbon resource remaining in these rocks.