| Lower
Permian Leonardian reservoirs (Figure 1) rank last in oil recovery
efficiency among Permian Basin carbonate oil reservoirs. Accordingly,
they contain large volumes of remaining mobile oil. The goal of this
project is to develop and apply new approaches to reservoir characterization
to define additional opportunities for the recovery of this oil resource
in Fullerton Clear Fork field. Discovered in 1942, Fullerton field
(Figure 2) is located in Andrews County on the Central Basin Platform
(Figure 3) in West Texas. The reservoir is productive from Leonardian
lower Clear Fork shallow-water platform limestones and dolostones.
The field covers an area of more than 30,000 acres and includes more
than 1,300 wells. With original oil in place of about 1.5 billion
barrels and cumulative production of more than 300 million barrels,
Fullerton Clear Fork field is the largest Leonardian reservoir in
West Texas. The
Fullerton study, a collaborative effort between the Bureau, ExxonMobil,
and Oxy Permian, is jointly funded by The University of Texas System,
ExxonMobil, and the U.S. Department of Energy. Key elements of the
study are (1) sequence stratigraphic analysis of architecture and
facies, (2) characterization of reservoir rock fabrics, (3) analysis
of wireline petrophysics, (4) 3-D reservoir modeling and simulation,
(5) analysis of the control of deep structure on reservoir quality,
and (6) 3-D seismic attribute analysis and inversion.
When completed,
Bureau characterization and modeling studies at Fullerton field
will serve as a basis for designing advanced recovery programs in
Leonardian reservoirs throughout the Permian Basin—a target
resource of more than 2.5 billion barrels of oil.
|
