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

页岩和低渗透（“非常规”）储层富含油气（含大量伴生烃液体），是北美最热门的勘探开发目标之一。低天然气价格为油气生产商提供了有选择地开发具有大量液态烃产量（“富液”页岩）的非常规储层的动力，而多裂缝水平井(MFHWs)*提供了从超低渗透（纳达西）岩石中开采碳氢化合物的技术。在加拿大西部，有多个富液页岩储层处于早期开发阶段。***优化水力压裂作业以实现收益最大化，并为mfhw提供可靠的油气产量预测，是该行业的两个关键需求。传统上，对于从常规油藏中开采的直井，从井中获得的相对较大的岩心样本可用于测试，以获得关键的油藏性质，进而用于填充油气产量预测模型。然而，通常情况下，MFHWs可以用来获取储层数据的岩石样本的唯一来源是沿着水平井长度的层段获得的少量岩石（钻）屑。钻屑的定量分析方法还处于起步阶段。***目前的提案是一个更大的研究项目的一部分，该项目专注于非常规储层的表征和评估，因此，该提案的重点是改进钻屑分析，以帮助优化水力压裂作业，并预测非常规富液页岩储层的mfhwa的油气产量。在投入大量研究资金之前，需要向行业证明定量钻屑分析的概念，当前提案的目的是提供这一概念的证明，并开辟新的研究途径。***本研究的创新之处在于应用了前所未有的技术，可以从水平井的多个井段获得的钻屑中量化流体流动和岩石力学特性，为井评价和优化提供了前所未有的机会。该研究的第一阶段将侧重于从岩屑中提取关键储层和岩石力学特性的实验方法，而第二阶段将应用这些数据来优化和预测MFHWs。***拟议研究的好处是，它将有助于有效开发加拿大富含液体的页岩资源，这些资源需要改进的评价方法。这些非常规资源对加拿大具有重要的战略意义。*** *沿井进行多级水力压裂的水平井*** *

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*** **