Tight Gas and Oil

What are tight gas and oil?

The gas that is found in low-permeability reservoirs is termed as tight gas. Oil found in similar fashion is called tight oil. While conventional natural gas streams from the earth relatively easily, unconventional gas finds are more difficult to develop and more costly to produce. As technologies and skills improve, unconventional gas is a variable concept because some finds may become more easily or economically produced over time, no longer making them unconventional. In order to effectively utilize these reservoirs, their development needs to be done in a very organized manner, and R & D Departments of Oil and Gas companies must assist in the challenges that lie ahead on this unconventional path.

Developing Tight Reservoirs

Extensive seismic data is gathered and analyzed to determine where to drill and just what might be located below the earth's surface. These seismic surveys can help to pinpoint the best areas to tap tight gas reserves. A survey might be able to locate an area that portrays an improved porosity or permeability in the rock in which the gas is located. Should wells directly hit the best area to develop the reserve; costs of development can be minimized. Most tight gas formations are found onshore, and land seismic techniques are undergoing transformations to better map out where drilling and development of these unconventional plays. After seismic data has illuminated the best well locations, and the wells have been drilled, production stimulation is employed on tight gas reservoirs to promote a greater rate of flow. Production stimulation can be achieved on tight gas reservoirs through both fracturing and acidizing the wells.

Proppant Distribution:
One of the key issues that we need to focus on is to distribute the proppant in the fracturing fluid in a uniform way. This will increase the fracturing efficiency. Proppant settling can reduce the deliverability of the fracture, causing a significant negative impact on productivity. Some technologies like AccessFracSM (Halliburton), FiberFRAC (Schlumberger) are used to reduce this settling. An additional benefit of both these technologies is that a lesser amount of polymer is used which helps in retaining permeability.

High Temperature CO2 Fracturing Fluid:

CO2 foam fracturing is typically performed in depleted formations to enhance flow back of the fracturing fluid and to increase initial post-treatment production. It is also used to stimulate water-sensitive formations. A Schlumberger technology, ThermaFOAM is one of the technologies for such fracturing, another added factor is that this technology is specially designed for applications in temperatures between 200 F and 300 F. It uses the CO2 - Polymer interaction to create stable and robust foam systems that allow polymer-loading reductions of up to 50%.

Staged Fracturing and Completion Services:

Fracturing with Coiled Tubing Services

Abrasive Perforating and Fracturing Fracturing through Coiled Tubing Stimulation with Coiled Tubing

Multistage Stimulation Systems

Minimizes installation time, risks, and costs and bring wells onto production faster and more efficiently than with conventional plug-and-perf techniques.

Uncemented Multistage Stimulation System Cemented Multistage Stimulation System Drillable Bridge and Flow-Through Frac Plugs

Wireline-enabled Perforating and Fracturing

Fiber-based Fracturing Services

Shale Gas Dynamic Fluid Diversion

Proppant Distribution

Microseismic Hydraulic Fracture Monitoring:

There are technologies which enable us to monitor the fracture progress in real-time one of them being StimMAP LIVE (Schlumberger). It also uses Petrels seismic-to-simulation service, which provides accurate characterization of the locations, geometry, and dimensions of a hydraulic fracture system. Advanced processing techniques provide fracture characterization that enhances fracture models and reservoir characterization for production simulation.

Flow Channel Hydraulic Fracturing:

HiWAY flow-channel hydraulic fracturing significantly increases fracture conductivity while reducing water and proppant consumption.

(Courtesy: Schlumberger Limited)

HiWAY fracturing creates open pathways inside the fracture, enabling hydrocarbons to flow through the stable channels rather than the proppant. This optimizes connectivity between the reservoir and the wellboreresulting in infinite fracture conductivity.

 Global Scenario
The US is the major nation using unconventional gas, and its effects are being notably considered, such as the falling of the spot price for natural gas in US from $ 13 / M Btu in mid2008 towards $ 2 / M Btu in 2012. In Europe, the spot gas prices were some 25% lower than oil-indexed gas during 2009-10.

As developed countries have the adequate technology to harness this unconventional energy, they lead in production of the tight gas and oil. Still, more and more advancements will be needed in the technologies in order to maintain the economic balance. And the developing nations need to make an effort in this direction, keeping in mind the financial situation, along with the importance of tight hydrocarbon reservoirs.

Indian Scenario
In India, the Rajasthan field Raageshwari Deep, it was found that the most economical solution to provide sufficient gas in the remote desert location was to produce it from a deeper formation discovered in the same area. The majority of the gas is contained in a volcanic section of basalts and felsics. A fracturing campaign was carried out to evaluate the post-fracturing production increase with base formation permeabilities varying from 0.005 to 0.15 mD. The results obtained did match the expectations from reservoir simulation. This signifies the potential in unconventional gas production in India through proper development of the reservoirs. The challenges that India faces are: Weak Hydraulic Fracturing Infra-structure, Logistics

 References
http://www.rigzone.com/training/insight.asp?insight_id=346&c_id=4 (RIGZONE - What Is Tight Gas, and How Is It Produced)

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/downloads/jrc_report_2012_09_unconventional_gas.pdf (Unconventional Gas: Potential Energy Market Impacts)

Shaoul J; Ross M; Spitzer W; Wheaton S; Mayland P; Singh A P, Massive Hydraulic Fracturing Unlocks Deep Tight Gas Reserves in India, SPE 107337, 2007.

http://www.halliburton.com/public/pe/contents/Presentations/H09034.pdf (AccessFracSM)

http://www.slb.com/services/technical_challenges/unconventional_resources.aspx (Schlumberger: Unconventional Resources)