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Summary
The SSAU lies on the northeastern margin of Central Basin Platform (Fig. 1) immediately south of the San Simon Channel.1 It
covers approximately 23 sq miles and contains more than 600 wells.
The field, discovered in 1936, is a solution-gas-drive reservoir with
a small initial gas cap, and it has an estimated original oil in place
(OOIP) of 1,100 MMSTB.2 Production comes from the Upper San
Andres Formation and the upper part of the Lower San Andres
Formation. The crude is 35API and has an initial formation volume
factor (FVF) of 1.39 and a solution/gas ratio of 684 scf/STB.
* Now with PGS Reservoir.
Copyright 1998 Society of Petroleum Engineers
Original SPE manuscript received for review 8 October 1996. Revised manuscript
received 10 November 1997. Paper peer approved 19 December 1998. Paper (SPE
36515) first presented at the 1996 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition,
Denver, 69 October.
The field was developed during the 1940s and produced 120
MMSTB (about 11% of OOIP) during the primary recovery from
1936 to 1969, in which time the reservoir pressure dropped from
2,020 to about 1,100 psig. Waterflooding was initiated in late 1969
using alternating rows of 160-acre inverted nine-spot patterns. Infill
drilling occurred in 1976, converting the pattern to a mixed 80- and
160-acre inverted nine spot. Waterflooding increased oil recovery
to 388 MMSTB. The characteristics of waterflooding are a short
fill-up time, a sharp increase in pressure, and a sharp decrease in
gas/oil ratio. A second infill drilling program that converted the
pattern to an 80-acre inverted nine spot occurred during 1984
through 1985. Fieldwide CO2 flooding began in 1985. The CO2
flooding further increased oil production, and the cumulative oil
production was about 539 MMSTB in 1994.
The SSAU has an excellent suite of cores and a large amount of
core, wireline log, and production data. A two-section area, Tract
2328, which has 33 wells with complete porosity log suites and
11 cored wells covering nearly the entire reservoir interval, was
selected for detailed geologic, petrophysical, and engineering characterization. This paper summarizes the results of this integrated
outcrop and subsurface characterization. More complete studies
were reported by Senger et al.,3 Kerans et al.,1 Wang et al.,4 and
Lucia et al.5 The objectives of this study were (1) to define critical
scales for constructing reservoir and simulation models for carbonate ramp reservoirs, (2) to study the effects of rock fabrics on
petrophysical properties, (3) to determine important geostatistical
parameters from outcrop and subsurface data, (4) to investigate the
effect of stratigraphic constraints on stochastic simulation and
recovery efficiency, and (5) to study factors affecting recovery
efficiency, such as the stacking patterns of rock-fabric units and k vh
ratio using outcrop and subsurface models.
Rock-Fabric and Petrophysical-Property
Relationships
Rock Fabric
I
II
Dolograinstone
Grain-dominated dolopackstone
and medium-crystalline
dolowackestone
Mud-dominated dolopackstone
and fine-crystalline
dolowackestone
$100 mm
20 , PS , 100 mm
III
#20 mm
vugs and interparticle pores. The core data and the photomicrograph thus suggest that the separate-vug porosity is another factor
other than wettability that is controlling the relative permeabilities.
All the relative permeability data from SSAU 2310 and 4902
were summarized in terms of recovery and residual oil saturation
(Fig. 4a). Recovery by waterflooding decreases with an increase in
the ratio of separate-vug porosity to total porosity (vug porosity
ratio, or R vp ), whereas residual oil saturation increases with R vp .
Residual oil saturations determined from steady-state experiments
are much lower than those determined from unsteady-state experiments (Fig. 4b), because the real residual oil saturations were not
reached in the unsteady-state method.
Capillary Pressures. Capillary pressure data from the SSAU 2310
well are separated into grain-dominated dolopackstone and medium-crystalline mud-dominated dolostone (Fig. 5). In both rock
fabrics the capillary pressure decreases with an increase of porosity
but not of permeability. For example, vuggy carbonates have low
permeability and high porosity, but relatively low capillary pressure.
Reservoir Modeling
Fig. 7Wireline log/separate-vug porosity and rock-fabric relationships. Relationship between acoustic transit time and separate-vug porosity form thin-section point counts.
one simulation. This method is easy and fast, but the realizations
are too random to accurately depict realistic stratigraphic distributions. One of the recent trends in stochastic simulation is to generate
geologically realistic models using statistical techniques and engineering data. In several examples we found that deterministic
stratigraphic constraints are the most applicable.
Two stratigraphic constraints used are the rock-fabric flow units
and HFCs. Stochastic simulations were performed separately for
each rock-fabric unit using rock-fabric-specific geostatistical parameters. The realization for the entire reservoir is accomplished by
combining all realizations of individual rock-fabric units. Fig. 11
compares permeability distributions in Cycles 9 to 11 along a cross
section on the SSAU 2309 well, Tract 23-28. This comparison
includes examples generated by a conventional linear interpolation
and by stochastic simulations with and without stratigraphic constraints. The linearly interpolated permeability patterns are smooth
and continuous (Fig. 11a); the stochastically generated permeability
data without stratigraphic constraints (Fig. 11b) are too random, and
Fig. 6 Twelve high-frequency cycles and rock-fabric facies in
Amerada Hess SSAU 2505 well.
One method commonly used in stochastic simulation is the generation of stochastically distributed data over the entire reservoir in
108
Reservoir simulations were performed using outcrop and subsurface models to study critical factors affecting recovery efficiency.
Factors studied are geometry and distribution of rock-fabric units,
direction of water injection, the k vh ratio, dense mudstone distribution, initial gas cap, and stochastic realizations.
Lawyer Canyon Outcrop. The flow model for the Lawyer Canyon window (Fig. 13a) was constructed by overlaying the rockfabric units on the stratigraphic framework and by assigning each
unit an average porosity and permeability (Table 2).3 The result is
a geologically constrained description of the spatial distribution of
petrophysical properties. Grainstone flow units in Cycles 1 and 2
are continuous, and permeability is high throughout the entire
model, whereas in Cycle 9 the grainstone flow unit appears only in
the south-central part. A number of two-dimensional waterflood
experiments were conducted using this model to show the large
impact of the geometry and distribution of rock-fabric facies3,8 and,
particularly, the impact of low-permeability mudstone layers on
performance predictions.
Geometry and Distribution of Rock-Fabric Units. Senger et al.3
demonstrated the importance of the correct spatial permeability
distribution by comparing simulation results using the outcrop
model (Fig. 13a) with results using a simulated subsurface model
109
Fig. 13Lawyer canyon flow models. (a) The rock-fabric permeability model based on continuous outcrop data. (b) A linear
interpolation of permeability data taken from two pseudo-wells
on either end of the Lawyer Canyon window. (c) Comparison of
waterflooding performance between two models. The rockfabric permeability model gives lower recovery than the linearly
interpolated model because the permeable grainstone unit is
missing in the linearly interpolated model.
TABLE 2PROPERTIES OF ROCK-FABRIC FLOW UNITS FOR LAWYER CANYON OUTCROP MODEL
(FROM SENGER ET AL.3)
Flow
Unit
Rock Fabric
Porosity
Permeability
(md)
Initial Water
Saturation
Residual Oil
Saturation
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Mudstone
Wackestone
Grain-dominated packstone I
Grain-dominated packstone II
Grain-dominated packstone III
Moldic grainstone I
Moldic grainstone II
Highly moldic grainstone
Grainstone I
Grainstone II
Grainstone III
0.040
0.105
0.085
0.129
0.118
0.145
0.159
0.230
0.095
0.110
0.135
0.01
0.30
4.50
1.80
5.30
0.70
2.20
2.50
9.50
21.3
44.0
0.900
0.405
0.214
0.400
0.243
0.091
0.077
0.041
0.189
0.147
0.103
0.01
0.40
0.35
0.35
0.35
0.40
0.40
0.40
0.35
0.25
0.25
110
flooding from left to right (a) and right to left (b), are compared.
In both cases, water channels through the highly permeable grainstones in Cycles 1, 2, and 9. Channeling is more severe in Cycles
1 and 2 than in Cycle 9. Water channels through the grainstone in
Cycle 9 until it is laterally terminated, where it then flows down
across the basal mudstone of Cycle 9 into underlying Cycles 8 and
7 and leaves oil in the middle of Cycle 7 unswept. Twelve percent
more oil is trapped when water is injected right to left than when
water is injected from left to right (Fig. 14c) because the upstream
barrier of Cycle 9 is shorter and water is channeling faster in case
(b) than in case (a).
Effects of kvh Ratio and Dense Mudstones. Many simulation
studies have shown that the k vh ratio is one of the most dominant
parameters affecting recovery efficiency. Determining the k vh ratio
of flow models is one of the major issues in reservoir analysis.14
The effect of k vh ratio on recovery was tested in Lawyer Canyon
outcrop models with and without dense mudstone layers. The
model without dense mudstone layers can be considered as an
analog of the coarse-scale simulation model where dense mudstone
layers are averaged in during scale-up. In each case, simulations
were run with a k vh ratio of 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, and 1.
SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering, April 1998
Rock fabrics are defined on the basis of grain and crystal size and
sorting, interparticle porosity, separatevug porosity, and the presence or absence of touching vugs. Petrophysical properties of
porosity, permeability, relative permeability, and capillary pressure
can be grouped according to rock fabrics. Permeability profiles can
be calculated using rock-fabric-specific transforms between interparticle porosity and permeability. Special core analysis data indicate that waterflood recovery decreases and residual oil saturation
increases with increasing separate-vug porosity. Residual oil sat-
SPE Permian Basin Oil and Gas Recovery Conference, Midland, Texas,
1618 March.
5. Lucia, F.J. et al.: Fluid-flow Characterization of Dolomitized Carbonate-Ramp Reservoirs: San Andres Formation (Permian) of Seminole
Field and Algerita Escarpment, Permian Basin, Texas and New Mexico, Hydrocarbon Reservoir Characterization: Geologic Framework
and Flow Unit Modeling, E.L. Stoudt and P.M. Harris (eds.), SEPM
Short Course No. 34 (1995) 129153.
6. Lucia, F.J.: Petrophysical Parameters Estimated from Visual Descriptions of Carbonate Rocks: A Field Classification of Carbonate Pore
Space, JPT (March 1983) 629; Trans., AIME, 275.
7. Lucia, F.J.: Rock-Fabric/Petrophysical Classification of Carbonate
Pore Space for Reservoir Characterization, American Assn. of Petroleum Geologists Bull. (1995) 79, No. 9, 1275.
8. Kerans, et al.: Integrated Characterization of Carbonate Ramp Reservoirs Using Permian San Andres Formation Outcrop Analogs, American Assn. of Petroleum Geologists Bull. (1994) 78, No. 2, 181.
9. Lucia, F.J. and Conti, R.D.: Rock Fabric, Permeability, and Log
Relationships in an Upward-Shoaling, Vuggy Carbonate Sequence, The
U. of Texas at Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology, Geological
Circular 87-5 (1987) 22.
10. Journel, A.G. and Huijbregts, Ch.J.: Mining Geostatistics, second edition, Academic Press, San Diego (1978) 599.
11. Perez, G., and Kelkar, M.: Assessing Distributions of Reservoir Properties Using Horizontal Well Data, Reservoir Characterization III, B.
Linville et al. (eds.), Proc., Third International Reservoir Characterization Technical Conference, Tulsa (November 1991).
12. Lishman, J.R.: Core Permeability Anisotropy, J. Cdn. Pet. Tech.
(AprilJune 1970) 79.
13. Haldorsen, H.H. and Lake, L.W.: A New Approach to Shale Management in Field-Scale Models, SPEJ (1984) 447; Trans., AIME, 277.
14. Harpole, K.J.: Improved Reservoir CharacterizationA Key to Future
Reservoir Management for the West Seminole San Andres Unit, JPT
(November 1980) 2009; Trans., AIME, 269.
E103
E201
E100
E100
5 m2
5m
5 kPa
5 km2
SPEREE
Wang
Lucia
Kerans
113