--> ABSTRACT: Integrated Fracture Detection Methodologies for Hydrocarbon Exploration in Contrasting Tectonic Settings: Examples from, by A. L. Klawitter and T. E. Hoak; #91021 (2010)

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Integrated Fracture Detection Methodologies for Hydrocarbon Exploration in Contrasting Tectonic Settings: Examples from 

KLAWITTER, ALAN L., and THOMAS E. HOAK

The ability to delineate and accurately predict fractured reservoir conditions provides critical information for field development strategies, and development of play concepts in less-developed areas. To demonstrate relationships and differences between fracture-controlled production, stratigraphy, and structural geology, the Piceance and Michigan basins were used as sites for integrated fracture detection programs utilizing potential field, imagery, seismic, and conventional subsurface structural and stratigraphic mapping. All of the tools that have been used in this analysis are readily applicable to other basins.

In the contraction-dominated Piceance Basin, the Parachute, Rulison, Divide Creek and Wolf Creek fields produce gas from fractured tight gas sand and coal reservoirs within the Mesaverde Group. Tectonic fracturing involving basement structures is responsible for significant permeability within the reservoirs and provides pathways for gas migration into reservoir sands. The importance of detecting natural fractures using the integrated fracture detection technique is critical to developing tight gas resources.

Imagery and potential field geophysical analysis of the Michigan Basin reveal that extension-dominated basement trends, in addition to glacial features, are interpretable through surficial methods. Oil production from Paleozoic horizons, excluding reef trends, are aligned with basement fracture trends. Shallower, naturally fractured Devonian-age Antrim Shale gas production is apparently controlled and localized by basement structure. Analysis of radiometric data confirm the orientations and locations of basement structural trends.

Integration of data from widely available, relatively inexpensive sources provide excellent data sets to incorporate into an overall methodology for targeting fractured reservoirs. As demonstrated through comparison of these two basins, a key to successful exploration efforts is the integration of independent data sets because no individual tool will necessarily prove diagnostic in every situation.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91021©1997 AAPG Annual Convention, Dallas, Texas.