Himalayan Geology, Vol. 43 (2), 2022, pp. 471-489, Printed in India
Establishment of economic viability for hydrocarbon production through a geocellular model developed in challenging geological reservoir of onshore sedimentary basin, India
SAURABH DATTA GUPTA1*, RAJEEV UPADHYAY2, VINAY KUMAR RAJAK2
1Dept. of Applied Geophysics, Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad - 826004, India
2Dept. of Petroleum Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad - 826004, India
*Email (Correspondence author): sdattagupta237@gmail.com
Abstract: Hydrocarbon exploration is a challenging task where the petrophysical properties of reservoir rock change frequently. The analysis shows complications when the dataset is limited. A thorough analysis of sub-surface geology is required to achieve a higher success ratio from a challenging field in a sedimentary basin.
We carried current study in the Southern Cambay basin of India. The study area is considered a small marginal field based on the production capability of the reservoir. However, the area has a significant potentialfor prolonged hydrocarbon exploration. Demand for fossil fuels in the country provides a special focus to this study area. The area is a relinquished part of a giant onshore oil and gas field–Ankleshwar in the Cambay basin. Although it is a part of Ankleshwar field, the significant sweet spot lies in the original field. A significant geological complexity was observed in this relinquished part which comes under current study area. It shows the presence of a challenging reservoir rock property for hydrocarbon exploration (Mondal et al. 2022). Four wells are drilled in this study area, whereas only one well produces hydrocarbon. The detailed analysis of well failure analysis reveals the absence of reservoir lithofacies in the unsuccessful wells (Lal et al. 2017).
The current integrated study with the help of QI (quantitative interpretation) represents a new development on orientation of reservoir lithofacies which were not encountered in the failure wells. However, a similarity was found in the characterization of the lithofacies with the discovery well. This study proposes a new well for drilling, which will encounter newly identified facies. The research approach uses genetic inversion and geobody mapping through frequency blending. A good correlation is observed between petro-elastic property and the seismic signature in the newly proposed well. This relation reflects the result of the geocellular model. The study of the dynamic property of the reservoir forecast the production scenario of the study area. We have identified a new reservoir play based on the current study, where production capability has also been identified. This approach could help to explore a new play in challenging clastic reservoirs for oil and gas exploration.
Keywords: Oil and Gas Exploration, Reservoir Characterization, 3D Geo-Cellular Modelling, Tight reservoir, Cambay Basin, India.
