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The purpose of the ''Next Generation'' project was to develop technology that will provide a quantitative description of natural fracture properties and locations in low-permeability reservoirs. The development of this technology has consistently been ranked as one of the highest priority needs by industry. Numerous researchers and resource assessment groups have stated that the ability to identify area where intense clusters of natural fractures co-exist with gas-charged sands, the so called ''sweet spots'', will be the key to unlocking the vast quantities of gas in-place contained in these low-permeability gas basins. To meet this technology need, the ''Next Generation'' project was undertaken with three performance criteria in mind: (1) provide an integrated assessment of the burial and tectonic stresses in a basin responsible for natural fracture genesis (using seismic data, a significantly modified application of geomechanics, and a discrete natural fracture generation model); (2) link the assessment of natural fracture properties and locations to the reservoir's fluid, storage and flow properties; and, (3) provide a reservoir simulation-based calculation of the gas (and water) production capacity of a naturally fractured reservoir system. Phase III of the ''Next Generation'' project entailed the performance of a field demonstration of the software in anmore » ''exploration'' setting. The search for an Industry Partner willing to host an exploratory field demonstration was unsuccessful and Phase III was canceled effective May, 31, 2005. The failure to find an Industry Partner can be attributed to severe changes in the petroleum industry competitive environment between 1999 when the project was initiated and 2005 when further demonstration efforts were halted. The software was employed in portions of other, non-exploratory, projects underway during the development time period, and insights gained will be summarized here in lieu of a full field demonstration.« less |
