To continue increasing the energy supply to meet global demand in the coming
decades, the energy industry needs creative thinking that leads to the development of new
energy sources. Unconventional gas resources, especially those in frontier basins, will
play an important role in fulfilling future world energy needs. We must identify and
quantify potential unconventional gas resources in basins around the world to plan for
their development. Basin analog assessment is one technique that can be used to identify
and quantify unconventional gas resources that is less expensive and less time
consuming.
We have developed a basin analog methodology that is useful for rapidly and
consistently evaluating the unconventional hydrocarbon resource potential in exploratory
basins. We developed software, Basin Analog System (BAS), to perform and accelerate
the process of identifying analog basins. Also, we built a database that includes geologic
and petroleum systems information of intensely studied North America basins that
contain well characterized conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon resources. We
have selected 25 basins in North America that have a history of producing unconventional gas resources. These are âÂÂreferenceâ basins that are used to predict
resources in frontier or exploratory basins. The software assists us in ranking reference
basins that are most analogous to the target basin for the primary purpose of evaluating
the potential unconventional resources in the target basin. The methodology allows us to
numerically rank all the reference basins relative to the target basin. The accuracy of the
results depends on the descriptions of geologic and petroleum systems. We validated the
software to make sure it is functioning correctly and to test the validity of the process and
the database.
Finding a reference basin that is analogous to a frontier basin can provide insights
into potential unconventional gas resources of the frontier basin. Our method will help
industry predict the unconventional hydrocarbon resource potential of frontier basins,
guide exploration strategy, infer reservoir characteristics, and make preliminary decisions
concerning the best engineering practices as wells are drilled, completed, stimulated and
produced.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/4972 |
| Date | 25 April 2007 |
| Creators | Singh, Kalwant |
| Contributors | Holditch, Steve |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 1993653 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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