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Abstract

AAPG Bulletin, V. 102, No. 11 (November 2018), P. 2333-2354.

Copyright ©2018. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

DOI: 10.1306/05111817144

Application of horizontal wells in three-dimensional shale reservoir modeling: A case study of Longmaxi–Wufeng shale in Fuling gas field, Sichuan Basin

Guochang Wang,1 Shengxiang Long,2 Yiwen Ju,3 Cheng Huang,4 and Yongmin Peng5

1School of Science, Saint Francis University, 117 Evergreen Drive, Loretto, Pennsylvania 15940; [email protected]
2State Key Laboratory of Shale Oil and Gas Enrichment Mechanisms and Effective Development, No. 31 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083, China; [email protected]
3School of Earth Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049 China; Key Laboratory of Computational Geodynamics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 10049 China; [email protected]
4School of Earth Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049 China; Key Laboratory of Computational Geodynamics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 10049 China; [email protected]
5State Key Laboratory of Shale Oil and Gas Enrichment Mechanisms and Effective Development, No. 31 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083, China; [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Three-dimensional reservoir modeling is an important aspect to determine the heterogeneity of organic-rich shale reservoirs, an area of study that continues to be explored and refined. A large proportion of data acquired from horizontal wells causes issues in the structural and property modeling for shale reservoirs. Since horizontal wells are designed to drill into a specific, narrow zone, their horizontal section tends to parallel or nearly parallel formation surfaces. As a result, formation surfaces have a much more complex spatial location relationship with horizontal wellbores than with vertical wellbores. The existing algorithms are not good at addressing this issue during structural modeling. The major problem of using horizontal well data in property modeling is the biased data set because their horizontal section tends to stay within a narrow zone. The property distribution feature estimated from this biased data set, as a significant, default input of geostatistical simulation algorithms, causes the constructed property models to deviate away from the real case in the subsurface. A method to infer more formation tops in pseudovertical wells according to a series of assumptions was developed to provide more constraint points for structural modeling within the areas of the horizontal well section. To use the biased database from horizontal wells, distribution function and trend model methods were developed for continuous property modeling, and percentage and probability trend models were developed for discrete property modeling. The Longmaxi–Wufeng shale in the Fuling gas field of Sichuan Basin was used as an example to express and verify these methods.

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