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The
goals of this project, funded by the Advanced Research Program
of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, included characterization
of fracture arrays in carbonate strata and relating the fracture
characteristics to fluid-flow observations and bedding architecture
of the sedimentary rocks. One study area for this project was
in the Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains of northeastern Mexico.
Two field campaigns were carried out and results of outcrop
analyses were compared with analogous work on core extracted
from petroleum wells. We obtained core samples, associated oil-production
data for several wells from Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX),
and completed fracture characterization. In addition, a study
of fracture scaling in carbonate outcrops of Central Texas was
completed. These studies show that fracture apertures in carbonate
rocks follow power-law scaling across at least four orders of
magnitude. These results have implications for targeting and
simulating fractures in carbonate reservoirs. |
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References:
Laubach, S. E., Marrett, Randall, and Olson, J., 2000, New directions
in fracture characterization: The Leading Edge, v. 19, no. 7, p.
704–711.
Marrett, R.,
Ortega, O., and Kelsey, C., 1999, Extent of power-law scaling for
natural fractures in rock: Geology, v. 27, no. 9, p. 799–802.
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