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Seismic expression of fracture-swarm sweet spots, Upper Cretaceous tight-gas reservoirs, San Juan Basin

¹ McGill University, Earth and Planetary Sciences, 3450 University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3A 2A7; hart{at}eps.mcgill.ca

Bruce Hart has a Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario. He held positions with the Geological Survey of Canada, Pennsylvania State University, and the New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources prior to joining McGill University in 2000. His research interests focus on the integration of three-dimensional seismic data with other data types for reservoir-characterization programs. He was the Southwest Section AAPG's Educator of the Year in 2002–2003, a Visiting Lecturer for the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists in 2006, and was named an Outstanding Reviewer for Geophysics in 2006. He has been an associate editor of AAPG Bulletin since 2000.

Fracture swarms associated with subtle structures greatly enhance production from tight-gas sandstones of the Mesaverde Group and Dakota Formation in the San Juan Basin. The structures include grabens, horsts, and normal faults, and they can be identified using curvature analyses of horizons mapped in three-dimensional seismic data. Their orientations and styles are consistent with the orientation of fractures that have been identified by other authors using outcrop, core, borehole imagery, and production analyses. Integration of production data (rate-versus-time plots) demonstrates the existence of a drainage interference for wells located on some of the structures. This observation further testifies to a positive correlation between the presence of subtle structures, high fracture intensity, and high fracture permeability. The methods and results described herein can be directly applied to other areas. However, because natural fractures can both enhance and retard hydrocarbon production depending on their character, calibration of seismic, engineering, and other data types will be needed to determine whether subtle structures should be considered as drilling targets, or whether they are to be avoided.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				B. S. Hart, K. J. Marfurt, B. L. Varban, and A. G. Plint Blind thrusts and fault-related folds in the Upper Cretaceous Alberta Group, deep basin, west-central Alberta: implications for fractured reservoirs Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology, June 1, 2007; 55(2): 125 - 137. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]