Internal Anatomy of a Tight, Fractured Hunton Lime Reservoir Revealed by Performance-West Edmond Field
Authors: Elkins Lincoln F. 
Published: December 2007

A post mortem analysis indicates that many conventional reservoir engineering assumptions and prediction techniques are inadequate to explain fully the performance of this reservoir. Differences in characteristics of reservoir rock in two sections of the Hunton resulted in radically different performance during fluid injection.

Introduction

In 1946 Littlefield, Gray and Godbold published a thorough geologic description of the West Edmond Hunton Lime reservoir, located in Central Oklahoma, and discussion of its early performance. They stressed implications of the nature of the reservoir rock on performance to be expected with production both by natural means and by pressure maintenance with gas injection. The essence of their analysis was that presence of an extensive interconnected system of fractures and solution channels constituting about 10 percent of the total reservoir void space in otherwise percent of the total reservoir void space in otherwise very low permeability reservoir rock would result in severe channeling of naturally encroaching water or injected gas through the fractures with little or no benefit to ultimate recovery of oil. Considerations were in progress to unitize the reservoir for pressure maintenance by gas injection. Some other engineers involved in the project had considerably different opinions at the time regarding continuity of fractures and regarding effects of such fractures on performance.

The field was unitized Oct. 1, 1947. Subsequently, pilot gas injection tests were conducted in four areas pilot gas injection tests were conducted in four areas of the field; large scale waterflooding was conducted in two parts of the field in the Bois d'Arc or Upper Hunton; and pilot waterflooding was conducted in the Chimney Hill or Lower Hunton. Full scale water-flooding is now in progress in the Chimney Hill section where it is oil productive.

The primary purpose of this paper is to divine some of the secrets of this reservoir through analysis of an aspects of its performance, with the hope that it will be of help to engineers and operators in developing and operating other low permeability fractured reservoirs. In part, this considers variance of actual performance from some widely used conventional reservoir performance from some widely used conventional reservoir engineering assumptions. For brevity, other aspects of unit operation and its benefits to the owners are not discussed.

Oil and Gas in Place

For unit participation, net pay in the Bois d'Arc defined by the gross SP anomaly on electric logs totalled 2,100,000 acre-ft in the 30,000-acre reservoir. Development of West Edmond predated modem logging techniques that now would be used to determine "net" or "productive" pay. In Fig. 1 this log pick is compared with detailed core analysis and core description by Littlefield et al. for one well identified as A on the index map in Fig. 2. Not all of the gross Bois d'Arc section had oil staining, but all cores with measureable intergranular permeability were stained. (The committee selection permeability were stained. (The committee selection of the Bois d'Arc SP interval also includes the Frisco section as identified from cores by Littlefield.) The Bois d'Arc is oil productive throughout the entire 600-ft monoclinal accumulation from the eastern upstructure erosional pinchout to the west-side oil-water contact. (See Littlefield et al. and McGee and Jenkins for geologic detail.)

JPT

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