Researchers help predict easiest Rocky Mountain reservoirs to tap for natural gas

December 7, 2006

A researcher from the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering and colleagues at the university’s Jackson School of Geosciences have received $750,000 to help the petroleum industry understand which deep reservoirs below the Rockies and elsewhere are most economic to drill into.

 

Energy companies are accessing more challenging natural gas sources as national energy demands increase.  Deep sandstone reservoirs are one target, and are risky ventures because they cost more up-front to drill and often have less predictable results. These deep reservoirs inherently have low flow potential because the rocks have been under great pressure and high temperatures, conditions that can largely close up the spaces between the sand grains, limiting room for gas storage and increasing resistance to gas flow through the rock.

 

Consequently, these reservoirs need to have natural fractures that are still open to provide additional gas storage and alternative flow paths.  Gas access and production is made economical by drilling into these cracks.

 

The research grant from the U.S. Department of Energy will help petroleum companies identify which deep reservoirs have natural fractures and how likely those fractures are to be open (not plugged with natural cements precipitated from groundwater). The researchers will use new technology to better understand the burial history of deep reservoir rocks and the chemistry of the fluids in those rocks, things that are presently difficult to predict, making this problem a good candidate for the development of new technology. Both these factors can influence the likelihood that natural fractures will remain open, and thus accessible to exploitation.

 

The research grant on deep Rocky Mountain reservoirs is led by Dr. Stephen Laubach from the Jackson School’s Bureau of Economic Geology, and involves Dr. Jon Olson, associate professor of petroleum and geosystems engineering. Their research group will analyze rock samples collected at different drilling depths to document which zones of rock contain open fractures or contain a natural cement that often fills cracks in rocks under high stress. That geologic examination led by Jackson School participants will be supplemented with computer analyses Olson will lead of the rock’s general characteristics and fracturing behavior. The computer modeling information can then help petroleum engineers predict which rock zones in new areas are more likely to give up their trapped natural gas.

 

The research will be done in collaboration with Geocosm Ltd. in Austin and industry participants in the UT Fracture Research and Application Consortium, which Laubach and Olson co-direct. Although the study will focus on Piceance Basin in northwest Colorado, the approach developed is expected to help drilling ventures into deep reservoirs in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere.

 

To learn about the initial grant related to this research, go to: www.jsg.utexas.edu/news/resspotlights/2006/111306_structdiag.html

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