Reservoir Characterization of McMurry Formation by 2-D Geostatistical Modeling

Weishan Ren, Jason A. McLennan, Oy Leuangthong, and Clayton V. Deutsch
University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB

The McMurry Formation, in northeastern Alberta, is one of major bitumen-bearing formations associated with the Athabasca Oil Sands deposit, which contains about 1.3 trillion barrels of bitumen in place. The bitumen is very heavy with API gravities between 7^o and 10^o. Unconventional techniques or in-situ recovery methods are required to recover the bitumen besides surface mining. The Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) is a promise heavy oil recovery technology and going to be used to recover the bitumen in McMurry Formation.

This paper presents a 2-D geostatistical modeling method to characterize the reservoir quality for applying SAGD in McMurray formation. During the modeling, different maps are generated to reveal different aspects of reservoir properties. Trend map and prior map are used to understand the variable independently. Correlation matrix and the likelihood map are used to understand the correlation between the variables and to show the information from the secondary data. The Bayesian updating method is used to generate a model containing the information from the well data as well as from the secondary data. Sequence stratigraphy, petrophysical well log, and seismic data can be integrated in the modeling.

The local uncertainty is accessed by the 2-D models, and the P10, P50, and P90 maps will provide heterogeneity and uncertainty information on the bitumen reservoir properties. Moreover, the method to access the global uncertainty is also presented.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90039©2005 AAPG Calgary, Alberta, June 16-19, 2005