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Summary
For the design of production strategies one must identify how faults
that are detected in seismic surveys influence fluid flow in hydrocarbon reservoirs. In this study we use the Entrada sandstone
formation, Arches Natl. Park, Utah, as an outcrop analog of a
faulted sandstone reservoir. Field measurements of the geometry,
thickness, and layered permeability of the normal faults that crosscut this sandstone are incorporated in two-dimensional (2D) fluidflow models, facilitating the simulation of fault signatures in
transient well tests with a high-resolution finite-element method.
In our simulations, structure and inhomogeneous permeability
lead to fault signatures in derivative plots that differ significantly
from those of idealized impermeable barriers. Highly permeable
slip planes facing the well create the illusion of a nonsealing or
nonexisting fault because remote fluids are focused along the slip
planes toward the well. Measured low, fault-normal permeability
shields fault-bounded blocks of the analog sandstone reservoir from
drawdown and large pressure differentials build up across faults
during production.
Thus, test data from a single well are insufficient to assess the
flow properties of a nearby fault with an inhomogeneous permeability like the normal faults in the Arches Natl. Park. Test responses from multiple wells need to be considered to detect fault
segmentation or fault terminations even if the general fault trend is
underpinned by seismic data. Flow paths in the reservoir during
production are complex. Importantly, formation water is likely to
flow into the reservoir along the permeable slip planes of the normal
faults.
Introduction
Hydrocarbon formations are often cross-cut and offset along normal faults, which can act as both flow barriers1,2 and/or conduits
for fluids.3-7 Whether a particular fault impedes fault-normal fluid
flow during production or whether it connects the reservoir to other
permeable domains in the sedimentary pile cannot be inferred from
the seismic or well-log data.
Fluid-flow properties of faults may be estimated from transient
well testing.8-12 Common methods of testing examine the change
of fluid pressure in a well while it is being produced at a constant
rate (drawdown test) or shut in after a prolonged production period
(buildup test). The well tests are interpreted by comparison with
analytical type curves for a range of reservoir geometries and
permeabilities, or nonlinear least squares estimation techniques
(automated type-curve or history matching) are used for the
estimation of reservoir parameters from well-test data. Type curves
are commonly plotted in derivative plots that display the dimensionless pressure in the wellbore, pD, and the dimensionless rate of
pressure change with time multiplied by time, t(p/t) (see Fig.
1).13,14 Dimensionless time, tD, is normalized for permeability and
is frequently divided by the dimensionless wellbore storage, cD,
pD 5
tD 5
2pkh
~ p 2 pw ! , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (1)
qBm i
kt
,
fmct r2w
and ct 5
V
,
dp
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (2)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (3)
62
Fig. 2Map and cross-section of the Cache Valley showing the Entrada Sandstone and normal faults and joints, Arches Natl. Park,
Utah (adapted from Antonellini and Aydin5,6). (a) Map of normal faults with segmented slip planes and salt anticlines in the Cache
Valley area. (b) Cross section along the profile A A* through the Cache Valley. The graphs below the profile show measured and
inferred permeabilities of joints and faults.
We use an algebraic multigrid finite-element method20,21 to simulate single-phase fluid flow to a well that is produced at a constant
rate, as in a drawdown test (e.g., Ref. 15). To quantify the fluid
diffusivity in the reservoir we need to quantify fluid viscosity, m,
permeability, k, and storage capacity, S (storativity) of the heterogeneous rock. The storativity, S, describes the change with fluid
pressure, p, of the fluid volume, V, stored in the porosity, F, of a
63
Fig. 3Spatially variably refined triangular finite-element mesh used in the transient fluid flow simulations: largest element with
50-m edge length; smallest element with 0.01-m edge length.
~Vf !
5 @~1 2 f!a 1 fb# 5 S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (4)
p
This constitutive equation is similar to the definition of storativity
for an aquifer in Freeze and Cherry,22 and it represents a simplification of the formulation of Brace et al.,23 which also incorporates
the compressibilities of mineral grains. Because the present-day
64
Fig. 6 Summary of permeability measurements for zones of deformation bands, Arches Natl. Park and San Raphael desert. khr,
kp, and kn are the permeability of the host rock, the deformation-band-parallel permeability, and the normal permeability,
respectively.
Fig. 7Permeability of the wall rock of slip planes at Arches Natl. Park. The lower limit of permeability perpendicular to slip planes
is unconstrained because of the detection limit of the minipermeameter. khr, kp, and kn are the permeability of the host rock, the
deformation-band-parallel permeability, and the normal permeability, respectively. *
Darcys law
k
p
5
2p .
t Sm
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (5)
the representation of centimeter-scale features in the kilometerscale models. Calculated flow properties and an initially uniform
fluid pressure are assigned to this mesh. A circular well with a
radius of 9 cm [0.3 ft] is represented by eight triangular elements
forming an octagon such that a perimeter correction of 0.97 relative
to a perfectly circular well is applied. Constant-rate production is
simulated by specifying fluid sink terms on the well elements. The
pressure at the wellbore is measured at the boundary nodes of the
well region. Temporal and spatial variations in fluid pressure are
computed with exponentially increasing timestep size (exponent 5
1.2) ranging from 1 second to 3 days. For the largest timestep we still
obtain a signal to numerical noise ratio of 10.9 This treatment of reservoir fluid flow relies on the following assumptions:
1. Porosities and permeabilities measured in an outcrop are
similar to in-situ values.
2. Three-dimensional reservoir flow can be approximated with a
two-dimensional model.
65
Joints and deformation bands form the basic structural elements that
account for small-scale inhomogeneities in the permeability of the
Moab/Slickrock sandstones. Herein, the term joint refers to discrete
fractures with small shear displacements. A more general discussion of joints is given in Pollard and Aydin.30 Deformation bands
(see Fig. 4) are 1-mm-wide planar zones of crushed grains and
reduced permeability and porosity relative to undeformed sandstone in the reservoir.31,32
66
Fig. 8 2D, transient fluid-flow Model M1 of faulted Moab sandstone in a horizontal cross-section through the analog reservoir.
The fault is 15 m wide, straight, with a uniform low permeability
of 1023 md (10218 m2). The well is located at a horizontal distance
of 50 m from the fault. The permeability of the sandstone, 1000
md (10212 m2), is six orders of magnitude higher than that of the
fault representing a zone of altered deformation bands without
a slip plane
d2
k5 ,
12
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (6)
Fig. 10 Spatial variation in fluid pressure 5 minutes (a), 3 hours (b), and 1.4 days (c) after the onset of production from Model M1.
Fluid pressure is displayed in a banded gray scale and juxtaposed pressure contours. (a) Fault-induced perturbation of the radial
drawdown when a noticeable increase in the rate of pressure change occurs (see derivative plot, Fig. 9). (b) Spatial variation of fluid
pressure at time t 5 3 hours when a fault-induced increase in the second derivative of pressure approaches its maximum. (c) A
significant pressure differential has built up across the fault when interaction with the no-flow boundaries leads to an accelerated
pressure decrease in the well.
compensate for this overrepresentation by a reduction of the slipplane normal permeability by one order of magnitude using the
treatment recommended by Deutsch.28
Permeability of Wall Rock Adjacent to Slip Planes. In the
Slickrock and Moab sandstones the permeability of slip-plane
wallrock is approximately 1 md and less than 1023 md, respectively
(see Fig. 7). The latter value is an upper bound, because it just
reflects the detection limit of the minipermeameter. The porosity in
the wallrock adjacent to well-developed slip planes along fault
zones in sandstone is very low (%1%) because of pronounced grain
crushing, recrystallization, and calcite precipitation in the pores of
SPE Journal, March 1998
Ss
Vs
1 Vsbdp ,
p
Vs 5
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (7)
and
Vs 2 pa3 ~v 2 1!
5
,
p
mm
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (9)
where Vs, n, mm, and syy are the slip-plane volume, Poissons ratio,
shear modulus, and the slip-plane normal stress, respectively; a is
the half-length of the fracture. We use a shear modulus of 15 GPa
and a Poissons ratio of 0.25, as measured on the Troll sandstone
from the North Sea.25
Because the effect of contacting asperities on fracture compressibility is ignored, this treatment overemphasizes slip-plane storativity. We find, however, that the slip-plane storativities calculated
from Eq. 4 to Eq. 6 exceed the storativity of the sandstone only if
SPE Journal, March 1998
the slip planes extend for more than 100 m along a strike. In our
models we calculate slip-plane storativity according to the strike
length of the slip planes.
The composite normal faults are implemented with a fixed width
of 1.1 m. Within this zone we resolve a discrete slip plane (0.1 m)
and an altered-wallrock/zones-of-deformation-band assembly (1
m). These two fault components are assigned effective permeabilities, as calculated from the parallel-plate approximation for fracture
flow and the permeability measurements of Antonellini and Aydin5,6 on deformation bands and the undeformed sandstone, respectively. The effective permeabilities are calculated with the
power-averaging method of Deutsch.28
Results
Fig. 13Spatial variation in fluid pressure in Model M2. (a) 6.5 minutes, (b) 25 minutes, and (c) 1.4 days after the onset of production.
Fluid pressure is displayed in a banded gray scale, and the vectors indicate the direction of fluid flow. The snapshots of the spatial
variation in fluid pressure correspond to when (a) a pressure perturbation induced by drawdown reaches the fault; (b) a fault-induced
decrease in the second derivative of pressure reaches a maximum; and (c) the drawdown begins to interact with model boundaries.
by fluid withdrawal from the well, is displayed in reservoir snapshots at 4.5 minutes (directly after the onset of fault interaction, e.g.,
Fig. 10a), after 3 hours of production (when the rate of pressure
change accelerates or reaches a maximum, e.g., Fig. 10b), and after
1.4 days (before the interaction with the model boundaries becomes
appreciable, e.g., Fig. 10c).
Except for Model M4, for which a simple gray scale is used, the
pressure plots use a banded gray scale scheme to emphasize small
spatial variations in fluid pressure. The bands are comparable to
isobars in fluid pressure, and some of the plots contain additional
contour and vector overlays illustrating absolute changes in fluid
pressure and the directions of fluid flow in the reservoir, respectively.
Model M2: Continuous Normal Fault With Slip Plane Facing
the Well. Model M2 is identical to M1 except that it contains the
10-cm-wide permeability equivalent of a 1-cm-open, segmented
70
slip plane in the hanging wall of the fault (see Fig. 11). The two
slip-plane segments have a strike length of 290 m and are separated
by a 20-m gap located at the shortest distance between the well and
the fault (Table 1).
In contrast to Model M1, the derivative plot for Model M2 in Fig.
12 indicates a short-lived, but pronounced, decrease in the rate of
pressure decline ($0.1 at 25 minutes) as the well interacts with
the fault.
The decrease in the pressure derivative accompanies rapid
spreading of the pressure perturbation along the slip plane in the
hanging wall of the fault (Figs. 13a and 13b). The fluid pressure
in the slip plane next to the well stays nearly constant.
The fault behaves similarly to a constant pressure boundary.
Twenty-five minutes after the onset of production (Fig. 13b), the
pressure pattern near the well has developed, reflecting the segmentation of the slip plane. Although the earlier flow was focused
SPE Journal, March 1998
radially into the well, the slip plane is now underpressured relative
to the country rock along its strike such that fluid in the sandstone
reservoir at a greater distance to the well first flows into the slip
plane and then is focused toward the well. After 25 minutes,
semiradial drawdown patterns develop at the far tips of the slip
planes around the fault terminations (Fig. 13b). As drainage continues, interaction with the lateral no-flow boundaries of the model
begins earlier than in Model M1, leading to a final increase in the
rate of pressure decline. As in Model M1, within the first day of
drainage there is little change in the fluid pressure on the far side
of the well (Fig. 13c). The fault compartmentalizes fluid pressure
in the reservoir.
Importantly, we can infer with certainty that the changes in the
pressure derivative are related to rapid flow along the slip plane of
the fault, only because structure and fluid-flow properties of Model
M2 are known. A comparison of this result with the derivative plot
for Model M1 in Fig. 9 illustrates that single-well transient testing
only provides nondirectional (scalar type) information on the flow
properties of the reservoir. Therefore, given the derivative plot of
a single well, we cannot discriminate between a fault that permits
crossflow and a sealed fault that has a moderately, but not highly,
permeable slip plane facing the well. Such discrimination is,
however, vital for the design of well placement and reservoir
exploitation strategies. Also, because highly permeable slip planes
are likely to provide flow connections to the stratigraphy above and
below the reservoir unit, they represent a high risk for water coning
during reservoir recovery. Such potential fluid supply from the
strata above and below is not considered in Model M2.
Model M3: Continuous Normal Fault With Shielded Slip
Plane. Model M3 is similar to Model M2, but the slip plane is
continuous and a 1-m-wide zone of deformation bands in the
SPE Journal, March 1998
hanging wall of the fault intermittently shields the slip plane against
the undeformed reservoir sandstone (Fig. 13). There are four
20-m-wide gaps in the shield over the length of the fault. In these
gaps the highly permeable slip plane is in contact with the undeformed sandstone. This arrangement of structures is frequently
observed near fault terminations or overlapping segments of normal
faults in the Arches Natl. Park5 (Fig. 2), and it is comparable to what
is known as the skin effect in petroleum engineering. The
effective permeability of the hanging-wall zone of deformation
bands is simulated as a reduction by three orders of magnitude
relative to the undeformed sandstone (see Fig. 6).
The derivative plot in Fig. 15 shows that the shielding of the slip
plane leads to a fault signature that shows a rise somewhat similar
in shape to Model M1 (Fig. 9). However, the increase in the rate
of pressure change is much less pronounced (#0.15 log units at 6.1
hours). In the idealized model this increase is distinct, but it is
questionable whether it would be identified as a fault signature in
a field situation where other reservoir inhomogeneities are present.
Compared with Model M2, significantly less fluid is supplied to
the well, because the amount of fluid in the slip plane itself is small
compared to the reservoir storage. Thus, a pronounced slip-plane
effect is seen only when the slip plane can draw fluid over a large
area from highly permeable reservoir rock along the fault strike.
Because of the shielding, the slip plane in Model M3 can draw fluid
from the reservoir sandstone only at the gaps in the shield along the
fault strike and at the fault terminations. At these terminations a
radial drawdown pattern develops (Fig. 16).
Model M4: Segmented, Stepping Normal Fault. Model M4
represents a right-stepping normal fault with slip planes in the
hanging wall (Fig. 17). The slip planes are continuous over the
three, 200-m-long fault segments, which are separated by 10-mwide rock bridges providing connections to the sandstone on the
far-side of the fault. The distance of the well to the central fault
segment is 50 m, as in the other flow models.
If the highly permeable slip planes are omitted from Model M4,
the segmented fault has a signature shown in the derivative plot in
Fig. 18 (circle symbols) that is similar to a continuous uniform fault
with a low permeability (normalized derivative maximum 0.82 at
1.1 hours; see Figs. 2 and 10).
The presence of the highly permeable slip planes in Model M4,
however, masks the low permeability of the fault segments. In this
case there is a slight negative pressure-derivative response (#0.3
log units) within the time window of observation (Fig. 18, square
symbols). The spatial variation in fluid pressure with time indicates
the development of enhanced fluid pressure gradients across the
fault-facing rock bridges between the slip-plane segments (Figs.
19a and 19b). In these zones the flow is defocused, leaving the
slip-plane segments distant to the well and entering the slip-plane
segment close to the well. This is illustrated in a pressure-gradient
vector overlay on an image of the spatial pressure variation in the
left segment stepover of the fault (Fig. 19c). The pressure gradient
vectors in the overlay point in the direction of fluid flow. These
vectors also indicate the focusing toward the well of fluid from the
far side of the fault segments.
Fig. 16 Spatial variation in fluid pressure in Model M3. (a) 4.5 minutes and (b) 1.4 days after the onset of drawdown. The snapshots
of the spatial variation in fluid pressure correspond to when (a) pressure perturbation reaches the fault and (b) the fault-induced
pressure increase reaches a maximum.
Discussion
of the normal faults indicate that these were open fractures when
the faults were active and that the Moab sandstone was submersed.
Our simulation results should, therefore, apply to producing faulted
sandstone reservoirs.
Our analysis further indicates that transient pressure data from a
single well are insufficient to assess the flow properties of faults
that have an inhomogeneous permeability. This is due to the
nondirectional (scalar) nature of any information on flow properties
that can be extracted from test data derived from a single well. Thus,
SPE Journal, March 1998
Fig. 19 Spatial variation in fluid pressure in Model M4. (a) 1.1 hours, (b) 1.4 days, and (c) 1.4 days after the onset of drawdown at
the left stepover region along the segmented fault. The snapshots of the spatial variation in fluid pressure correspond to when (a)
a fault-induced decrease in second derivative of pressure occurs in the presence of the slip plane and (b, c) the pressure derivative
reaches a minimum.
we would estimate that the normal faults at Arches Natl. Park are
highly permeable for crossflow if the test well was placed on the
hanging-wall side of a segmented fault, and we would use the
analytical method of Yaxley11 to determine fault permeability from
the magnitude of the derivative deviation from radial flow. Only by
means of interference tests of wells on either side of the fault should
well testing be able to identify whether a flow connection exists
between adjacent fault blocks. This applies, however, only if the
SPE Journal, March 1998
Fig. 22Spatial variation in fluid pressure in Model M5. (a) 5 minutes, (b) 25 minutes, and (c) 1.4 days after the onset of production.
Note that the pressure gradients are largest across the fault that forms a quasi-impermeable barrier. In (c), after 1.4 days of drainage,
significant amounts of fluid are focused through the gap in the fault. Most of this fluid is derived from along the slip plane.
74
a
b
m
mm
n
syy
F
a
B
c
ct
h
k
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
matrix compressibility
fluid compressibility
fluid viscosity
shear modulus
Poissons ratio
slip plane-normal stress
porosity
half length of fracture (slip plane)
formation factor
wellbore storage
total system compressibility
formation thickness
permeability
p
pi
pw
q
rw
S
t
V
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
fluid pressure
initial reservoir pressure
pressure at the wellbore
constant rate of production
wellbore radius
storage capacity
time
volume
Subscripts
D 5 dimensionless
f 5 fluid
s 5 slip plane
Acknowledgments
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a thrust fault, Open File Report 94228, USGS, Menlo Park, California
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21. Matthai, S.K. et al.: Numerical Simulation of Departures from Radial
Drawdown in a Faulted Sandstone Reservoir with Joints and Deformation Bands, Faulting, Fault Sealing and Fluid Flow in Hydrocarbon
Reservoirs, Royal Soc. London Special Publication (1996).
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Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey (1979).
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76
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cp 3 1.0*
ft 3 3.048*
ft3 3 2.831 685
F (F232)/1.8
in. 3 2.54*
lbm 3 4.535 924
md 3 9.869 223
psi 3 6.894 757
*Conversion factor is exact
E203 5 Pa z s
E201 5 m
E202 5m3
5 C
E100 5 cm
E201 5 kg
E204 5 mm2
E100 5 kPa
SPEJ
Stephan K. Mattha
i is a research associate at the Dept. of Earth
Sciences, Swiss Federal Inst. of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. He previously conducted postdoctoral research at Cornell U., Ithaca, New York, and as a member of the Rock Fracture
Project at Stanford U., Stanford, California. Mattha
i holds a Dip.
degree in structural geology from the Eberhardt Karls U., Tubingen, Germany, and a PhD degree from the Australian Natl. U.,
Canberra. Atilla Aydin is Professor of geomechanics and structural engineering, Codirector of the Rock Fracture Project, and
Director of the Shale Smear Project at Stanford U. His research
interests include fluid flow through fractures and faults with
applications to hydrocarbon migration and recovery; wastecontainment problems; physical processes of faulting and
fault-seal potential; and the characterization of naturally fractured reservoirs and aquifers. Aydin holds a BS degree in geological engineering from Istanbul Technical U. and MS and PhD
degrees in geology from Stanford U. David D. Pollard is Professor
in the Geological and Environmental Sciences Dept., School of
Earth Sciences, Stanford U., and Codirector of the Stanford
Rock Fracture Project. He supervises research focusing on understanding rock fracturing and faulting with applications to
fluid flow in structurally heterogeneous reservoirs and aquifers.
Pollard holds a BA degree in geology from Pomona College,
and MS degree in structural geology and rock mechanics from
Imperial College and a PhD degree in geology from Stanford
U. Stephen G. Roberts is a lecturer in the Mathematics Dept. at
Australian Natl. U., with research interests in efficient numerical
solution of partial-differential equations associated with fluidflow problems and geometric-evolution equations. Roberts
holds a PhD degree in mathematics from the U. of California,
Berkeley. Author photographs are unavailable.