Aberdeen-based ITF, a technology facilitator for the global oil and gas industry, is issuing a call for proposals on the topic of geomechanical characterisation of unconventional reservoirs.
It will be one of three calls to have been issued as a result of a technology roadmap on the topic of unconventional reservoirs that was defined by ITF’s member companies in March last year.
The term “unconventional reservoirs” encompasses a range of reservoir types including tight gas, shale gas, shale oil and coal-bed methane, and it has been reported that unconventional gas accounts for approximately half of total recoverable gas reserves.
These reserves are by definition more difficult to access than conventional reserves and, to date, there has been a varying amount of activity around the world with respect to their extraction.
Colin Sanderson, senior technology analyst at ITF explained the background to the call.
“While there has already been a lot of activity with respect to unconventional reservoirs in the US, there has been less development in Europe,” said Sanderson.
“Many companies are currently evaluating the resource and how much knowledge from the US is applicable in the European context. Consequently, ITF’s member companies decided to take a roadmap approach to the topic in order to look at the totality of what has been done, make sense of the remaining gaps, and undertake some prioritisation.”
The roadmap identified a number of work streams and two calls have already been issued; one for proposals on the topic of matrix and fracture characterisation in unconventional reservoirs and the other for researchers to conduct a state-of-the-art review into the area of unconventional shale and tight gas stimulation.
Geomechanics is the study of the mechanical behaviour of rock under the action of forces, and activities such as drilling, production and injection can all result in changes to the stress regime, which can impact on drilling operations, completions and reservoir productivity.
The roadmap work concluded that there was a pressing need for work in this area to inform up and coming development of unconventional reservoirs, for example in relation to wellbore orientation and well spacing decisions.
A workshop on the topic held last month was attended by specialists in unconventional reservoir geomechanics from ITF’s member companies as well as other invited industry and academic experts, to enable a day of informed and focused discussions.
A range of topics from the roadmap served as a feedstock for discussion, and the output of the day is currently being used to define the call for proposals, which should be ready for issue around the end of the month.
The main topics to feature in the call include failure conditions understanding (the yield envelope), coupled fracture models, understanding in-situ stress (through hydraulic methods), better predictive techniques for natural fractures, understanding the really useful in-situ geomechanical properties, permeability change with production and understanding induced seismicity.
Sanderson told Energy: “The call for proposals will be open to entries from small and medium sized enterprises, academic and research institutions and large industry players alike.
“We would also be interested in receiving proposals from outside of the oil and gas sector where appropriate – for example there may be transferable expertise and technology relating to this topic within the mining industry”.
For more information about the call, e-mail c.sanderson@itfenergy.com or visit www.itfenergy.com and register to be notified of calls.