"Geological and Geomechanical Modeling of the Haynesville Shale: A Full Loop for Unconventional Fractured Reservoirs"

W. Sebastian Bayer, Marcus Wunderle, Ewerton Araujo (BHP Billiton)

Abstract:

The Haynesville Shale remains an extremely prolific shale gas-producing reservoir. The question is no longer how we produce gas from the Haynesville, but how we produce gas more efficiently. We have designed and implemented a multidisciplinary project to optimize completions and potentially increase productivity. Our detailed reservoir characterization takes into account hundreds of wells, thousands of quality data points, core studies, seismic interpretation, geologic, petrophysical, and geomechanical models. Understanding the matrix and fracture components of unconventional fractured reservoir systems is critical. In this case study, we attempt to demonstrate our methodology in the simplest form by looking at each component independently, with a geocellular reservoir model for the matrix (storage) and a discrete fracture network (DFN) for the natural fractures.

Biography:

Sebastian Bayer is a Senior Reservoir Geologist with more than 10 years of industry experience focused on integrated-fit-for-purpose reservoir modeling. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a MS degree in Structural Geology and Stratigraphy and with a BS in Geology from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. His current interests focus on integrated reservoir characterization and implementation of discrete fracture networks (DFN) based on geologic scenarios for the matrix and fracture components of the system. Scenarios integrate subsurface data, differentiate Geomechanical units, and incorporate stress. His work is based on robust static parameters to evaluate reservoir quality and production performance.

Marcus Wunderle is a Geologist. He has 10 years of experience in the oil and gas industry spanning conventional development, unconventional exploration and development. Most recently he has been working on the Haynesville shale as a Geologist and Geomodeler. He is a graduate of Ohio University with an MS in geology, focusing on Geoscience Education, and a BS in Earth Science Education focusing on geology. His current work is primarily focused on interpreting and integrating all subsurface data into regional to well-scale geomodels for reservoir characterization.

Ewerton Araujo is the leader of a team of geomechanics experts at BHP Billiton. With 15 years of experience in the petroleum industry he has applied geomechanics across the entire life cycle of oil and gas fields. He holds a PhD and Master’s degrees in Geomechanics from the Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro, and a BS in Civil Engineering from Universidade Federal da Paraiba in Brazil. Currently, he is leading the implementation of cutting edge geomechanics technology within BHP Billiton with the application of sophisticated Finite Element Method simulations by making the bridge between Geological and Reservoir Simulation models for both conventional and unconventional assets of the company.