Title: A new practical approach in modelling and simulation of shale gas reservoirs: application to New Albany Shale

Authors: Amirmasoud Kalantari-Dahaghi, Shahab D. Mohaghegh

Addresses: Department of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, 26506, USA. ' Department of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, 26506, USA

Abstract: The intent of this study is to reassess the potential of New Albany Shale formation using a novel and integrated workflow, which incorporates natural fracture system modeling with top-down intelligent reservoir modelling technique. Top-down, intelligent reservoir modeling technology integrates reservoir engineering analytical techniques with artificial intelligence and data mining in order to arrive at an empirical, cohesive and spatiotemporally calibrated full field model. The model is used to predict reservoir performance. Analytical reservoir engineering techniques used in the top-down modelling presented in this study include production decline analysis, type curve matching, single well history matching, volumetric reserve and recovery factor estimations are integrated with Voronoi graph theory, geostatistics, two-dimensional fuzzy pattern recognition, and discrete, data driven predictive modelling. The resulting full field top-down modelling is used to identify the distribution of the remaining reserves, sweet spots for infill locations, under-performer wells and also prediction of new well|s performance. [Received: April 25, 2010; Accepted: July 04, 2010]

Keywords: shale gas reservoirs; natural fracture systems; fuzzy pattern recognition; FPR; intelligent modelling; reservoir models; simulation; artificial intelligence; data mining; reservoir performance; gas reserves location; infill locations; underperforming wells; Voronoi graph theory; geostatistics; predictive modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2011.038925

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2011 Vol.4 No.2, pp.104 - 133

Published online: 29 Jan 2015 *

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