Complexity in tight gas sand development—an example from Perth Basin, Western Australia

One of the key issues for tight gas reservoirs is about reservoir heterogeneities and its connectivity. Knowledge of reservoir geometry, orientation, and connectedness is vital for reservoir modelling, which is the essential tool for successful field development, well completion, and well stimulation strategies. Fluvial sediments are heterogeneous both vertically and laterally due to facies change and diagenetic processes. These make their field development difficult. In terms of sand geometry and connectivity, the first step to making the reservoir model in three directions is to determine the width of sandstone bodies in various directions. Fine-grained facies associated with fluvial deposits can compartmentalise reservoirs and can significantly complicate the development of such units, as well as make well stimulation and fracturing jobs unpredictable. In this paper, the above issues are studied for some fluvial tight gas sands of the Perth Basin. The aim is to discuss the best possible way to successfully plan well and well stimulation strategies.