Aeolian Sand Dune Sedimentary Architecture Is Key in Determining the “Slow-Gas Effect” during Gas Field Production Performance
Authors: Mullins James , Pierce Colm , Rieke Holger , Howell John 
Published: December 2021

Aeolian deposits are typically considered to act as homogeneous “tanks” of sand, which do not contain significant heterogeneities that impact the production of hydrocarbons. However, a succession of deeply buried aeolian gas reservoirs from the Permian Rotliegend exhibit a characteristic production decline profile that is typified by high initial flow rates, followed by a rapid decline in bottomhole pressure and decline in flow rate, subsequently followed by stabilization at low flow rates for an extended period (over several decades). This effect has been termed here as the “slow-gas effect,” and this production phenomenon has previously been attributed to structural compartmentalization.

This paper presents an alternative, sedimentological hypothesis for the cause of the slow-gas effect based upon facies-controlled permeability differences within aeolian dune trough architectures. To test this, three interwell (km) scale models from well-studied aeolian analogs from Utah and Arizona were modeled with standard geostatistical reservoir techniques and populated with petrophysical properties from producing Rotliegend reservoirs in Germany. These models were subsequently dynamically simulated to analyze production behavior and test whether a similar “slow-gas” production profile could be reproduced.

This study finds that the slow-gas effect primarily results from heterogeneities created by the complex interaction of deposition, accumulation, and erosion within aeolian strata, as opposed to the structural compartmentalization of homogeneous tanks of sand as previously thought. Structural compartmentalization and baffling through faulting where present will have an impact on fluid flow; however, it is not considered here to be the primary cause of the slow-gas effect. Results of this work demonstrate the necessity of accurately characterizing and reproducing low permeability heterogeneity in aeolian systems. These heterogeneities can either be modeled explicitly through the use of geostatistical reservoir modeling techniques as done here, or implicitly through the use of characteristic length and transmissibility multipliers. These results have significant implications on our understanding of how tight aeolian systems produce; namely, after depletion of the near-wellbore volume, production from the surrounding reservoir is baffled by a hierarchy of low permeability bounding surfaces and associated transmissibility barriers. Application for enhancing reservoir depletion strategies include optimizing well trajectories to maximize the number of dune penetrations and percentage of net reservoir facies in communication to the well; maximizing the size of the primary reservoir compartment. Neighboring wells should be placed in separate compartments to maximize the amount of fast-flowing gas production during the early production stage. Pressure management can be used to cyclically produce, deplete, and recharge the primary reservoir compartment to manage and optimize recovery during the decline phase and production tail.