Archive of Texas PTTC Workshops

New Methods for Locating and Recovering Remaining Hydrocarbons in the Permian Basin

Thursday, May 29, 2003
8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Center for Energy and Economic Diversification, Midland, Texas
sponsored by PTTC, UT Bureau of Economic Geology, and University Lands West Texas Operations

Summary
The Permian Basin remains the largest hydrocarbon-bearing basin in the U.S. However, recovery of the vast remaining oil and gas fraction is increasingly difficult. Successful exploitation depends on understanding and utilizing the most up-to-date technologies and methods for defining, characterizing, and locating the remaining resource.

This one-day symposium emphasized recent advances in the reservoir geology, geophysics, engineering, and resource analysis of Permian Basin oil and gas resources. The symposium will focus on reservoir characterization issues in Ellenburger and Clear Fork reservoirs but will also include the results of recent studies of unconventional gas resources in the Yates Formation. Speakers and poster presenters include geologists, geophysicists, and engineers from the Bureau of Economic Geology who have up to 35 years of individual oil and gas experience in the Permian Basin. Featured guest John Lomax will describe details of Goldrus Producing Company's innovative use of high pressure air injection in revitalizing the nearly abandoned Barnhart Ellenburger field.

Who Should Attend
Geologists, geophysicists, and engineers interested in modern, integrated reservoir characterization and modeling and the delineation of remaining oil and gas resources.

Exploitation and exploration managers seeking to update their knowledge of innovative and cutting-edge technologies in reservoir identification, characterization, modeling, and exploitation.

Managers, scientists, and engineers interested in technological support for their reservoir characterization and exploitation operations.

Agenda
Oral Presentations
  • Rejuvenating an abandoned oil field: High pressure air-injection in the Barnhart Ellenburger field
  • Reconditioning seismic data for improved resolution of architecture in Clear Fork carbonate reservoirs
  • Assessment of unconventional gas resources in the Yates Formation: Permian Basin
  • Predicting and characterizing fractures in the Ellenburger: using the link between diagenesis and fracturing
  • Identification of bypassed, high-rate gas and oil targets in the Permian Basin
  • Better than a porosity cut-off: The rock fabric approach to understanding porosity and permeability in the Lower Clear Fork and Wichita
  • Flow unit definition in the Lower Clear Fork and Wichita: example from Fullerton field
  • Ellenburger Collapsed Paleocave Pore Networks: examples from the Barnhart Field
  • Key Styles of Porosity and Permeability Development in Clear Fork Reservoirs in the Permian Basin
Core and Poster Presentations
  • New Techniques in Fracture Imaging and Quantification: Applications in the Ellenburger Group, West Texas
  • Ellenburger Group Collapsed Paleocave Facies, Barnhart Field, Texas
  • Geology and gas resources of the Yates Formation
  • 3-D Modeling of Clear Fork reservoirs: Fullerton field
  • Defining Flow Units in Lower Clear Fork, Wichita, and Abo reservoirs
  • Vertical distribution of permeability and rock fabrics within the Lower Clear Fork and Wichita: Inputs for reservoir modeling
  • Clear Fork reservoir architecture and controls on reservoir development: a model from outcrop and subsurface data
For more information about this and other PTTC workshops, please contact Sigrid Clift at
512-471-0320 or e-mail sigrid.clift@beg.utexas.edu.