MAGLIO-JOHNSON, TINA, Colorado School of Mines, Petroleum Engineering Department, Golden, CO

ABSTRACT: Petrophysical Definition of Flow Units in a Deep-Water Sandstone, Lewis Shale, Wyoming

Rock and well log data are available from a research well located in Carbon County, Wyoming. The interval of interest contains deep-water sandstones of the Cretaceous Lewis Shale. Part of this study involves the actual drilling of this shallow research well which was 1700 ft deep.

The objective of this study is to define petrophysically based flow units in the deep-water sands. The entire interval was logged and 580 ft of core was taken from the well. The flow unit designation method that will be used for this research revolves around creation of a Stratigraphic Modified Lorenz Plot and an R35 vs. depth plot. The Stratigraphic Modified Lorenz Plot is a plot of cumulative flow capacity (kh) vs. cumulative storage capacity fh). Porosity and permeability have been measured on 150 core plugs and these results will be used to create a neural network of continuous permeability. Capillary pressure tests will be done on a selected number of core plugs. The R35 value is a measure of the pore throat radius at 35% saturation of the wetting phase obtained from these mercury capillary pressure measurements. R35 will be predicted for the entire logged interval using the Modified Winland Equation which relates porosity, permeability and R35. R35 can also be plotted against depth as an alternative method for the delineation of the flow units.

The final output of this research will be a flow-unit zonation based upon the Stratigraphic Modified Lorenz Plot and R35 values. This will provide input into reservoir simulation studies.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90909©2000 AAPG Foundation Grants-in-Aid