Prediction of Hydrocarbon/Water Contacts for Wildcat Prospects Using Pressures and Fluid-Gradient Data--Applications in West Texas

FONT, ROBERT G., Font Geosciences Consulting Services, Dallas, TX

Engineering techniques commonly are used in production studies and development geology. Similarly, they can also be applied in wildcat exploration. Pressure data, fluid properties, and recoveries obtained from drill-stem tests may be used successfully in predicting hydrocarbon/water contacts and heights of petroleum columns. Detailed study of template fields with analogous production characteristics to wildcat prospects yields valuable information about the magnitude of reservoir pressures and pressure gradients. This information, in turn, can be used to derive empirical equations to help model the low, median, and high case scenarios critical to prospect ranking and economic evaluation. The technique is applicable to both structural and stratigraphic traps. Examples are discussed, in luding the lower Paleozoic reservoirs of the Delaware basin.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91011©1991 AAPG Southwest Section Meeting, Abilene, Texas, February 9-12, 1991 (2009)