Natural Fractures Help Unlock Tight Carbonates in Oman
Authors: Carpenter Chris 
Published: January 2024

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This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 211336, “Natural Fractures Help Unlock Tight Carbonates: Redeveloping the Natih B Reservoir in a Giant Field in the Sultanate of Oman,” by Loic Bazalgette, Nawal Aamri, SPE, and Chris Field, Petroleum Development Oman, et al. The paper has not been peer reviewed.

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Within the stratigraphy of one of the largest fields in north Oman is the Natih B reservoir. The development of the reservoir has undergone several challenges over the past decades because of the complexity of the reservoir setting and difficulties in locating the natural fractures. Success in developing such tight carbonates depends on the integration of high-quality seismic, borehole imagery, petrophysics, and dynamic data. The objective of the complete paper is to develop an integrated technical approach that can be used to unlock one of the largest undeveloped resources in the operator’s current portfolio.

Introduction

With approximately 1 billion bbl of oil originally in place in the development area of interest, Natih B is a significant undeveloped resource in the operator’s portfolio. Attempts were made during the 1980s and 1990s to produce from Natih B, but production was uneconomical because of low productivity or early gas breakthrough. The low matrix permeability of Natih B organic-rich carbonates negatively affected the flow of the early Natih B producers, but the presence of large-scale, vertically persistent fracture corridors and fault-damage zones allowed gas from the Natih A reservoir above to shortcut into these wells.

The opportunity to redevelop Natih B was initiated in late 2018. The initiative involved a tight collaboration between the operator’s fractured-reservoir specialist and subject-matter experts of the structural geology of fractured reservoirs and of carbonate reservoir geology.

Overview of Natih B Properties

The Natih carbonate reservoir is composed of multiple units named Natih A, B, C, D, E, F, and G from top to bottom. In the field of interest, these are structured as a fault-bounded, northeast-dipping monocline (Fig. 1). In this structure, the reservoir is shallow. The initial reservoir pressure is 61 bar at 400 m true vertical depth subsea (TVDSS). All reservoir units are in pressure communication through cross-cutting fracture corridors and have a common free water level at approximately 550 m TVDSS. Current production is from all reservoir units with the exception of Natih B.

In the outcrops of the Salakh Arch area (north Oman), the Natih B unit is divided into five subunits. Under Natih B reservoir conditions, this subdivision scheme can be simplified to four well-correlatable subunits with relatively small thickness variations (Natih B1 to B4). In the area of interest, the subunit thickness is approximately 15 m for B1, 30 m for B2, 10–15 m for B3, and 15–20 m for B4. Facies show a cyclicity of clean limestone and organic-rich layers, which is more pronounced in the B1 and B2 subunits. Natih B4 isolates the Natih B reservoir unit from the underlying Natih C reservoir. Above the free water level, the porosity of Natih B subunits B1, B2, and B3 ranges generally between 0.15 and 0.30. The permeability of Natih B is low and ranges from 0.2 to 5 md, with an average of approximately 1 md.