Use of Drill Cuttings for Optimizing Recovery From Liquid-Rich Shale Reservoirs

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Shale and low-permeability ("unconventional") reservoirs that host oil and gas (with significant associated hydrocarbon liquids) are amongst the hottest exploration and development targets in North America. Low gas prices have provided oil and gas producers with the motivation to selectively pursue unconventional reservoirs with significant liquid hydrocarbon production ("liquid-rich" shale plays), while multi-fractured horizontal wells (MFHWs)* have provided the technology to produce hydrocarbons from ultra-low permeability (nanodarcy) rock. In Western Canada, there are multiple liquid-rich shale reservoirs which are at early stages of development.***Optimizing hydraulic-fracturing operations to maximize revenue, and generating robust hydrocarbon production forecasts for MFHWs, are two critical needs for the industry. Traditionally, for vertical wells producing from conventional reservoirs, relatively large rock core samples obtained from the wells have been available for testing to obtain critical reservoir properties which can in turn be used to populate models for hydrocarbon production forecasting.  However, typically the only source of rock samples from MFHWs that can be used to obtain reservoir data are small quantities of rock (drill) cuttings obtained from intervals along the length of the horizontal well.  Quantitative analysis procedures for drill cuttings are in their infancy. ***The current proposal, which is a component of a greater research program focused on unconventional reservoir characterization and evaluation, is therefore focused on improving drill cuttings analysis to aid in optimizing hydraulic-fracture operations and forecasting hydrocarbon production for MFHWs producing from unconventional liquid-rich shale reservoirs. The concept of quantitative drill cuttings analysis will need to be proved to industry before significant research dollars are invested - the intent of the current proposal is to provide this proof of concept and open up new avenues of research.  ***The innovation of this research is the application of never-before-utilized technologies for quantifying fluid flow and rock mechanical properties from drill cuttings obtained at multiple intervals along a horizontal well, enabling unprecedented opportunities for well evaluation and optimization.  The first phase of this research will focus on experimental methods for extracting critical reservoir and rock mechanical properties from cuttings, while the second phase will apply these data to optimizing and forecasting MFHWs. ***The benefit of the proposed research is that it will assist with the efficient exploitation of Canadian liquid-rich shale resources which require improved methods for evaluation.  These unconventional resources are of strategic importance to Canadians.*** * Horizontal wells that have been hydraulically-fractured in multiple stages along the well*** **