Insights into productivity drivers for the Niobrara-equivalent horizontal play in the Piceance Basin, Colorado

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 309-354
Author(s):  
Jason Eleson ◽  
Chip Oakes ◽  
Graham McClave

Limited horizontal drilling has occurred within the Niobrara-equivalent section of the Mancos Shale in the Piceance Basin, and the results from individual wells are highly variable. Prior studies have suggested that thermal maturity and completion techniques were the primary drivers for the observed production trends, but further analysis of well results indicates there are more variables at play. This study leveraged a comprehensive data set from the Piceance Basin, including core analyses, pressure data, and drilling and completion methods to provide additional context for the production results. From this analysis, several key trends were identified. North/south variations in thermal maturity were confirmed, as well as additional trends were identified revealing later exhumation south of the Rangely fault system resulted in significant depressurization, particularly in the western Piceance Basin. The semi-regional depressurization was the result of decrease in overburden pressures that allowed vertical migration of hydrocarbons out of the Mancos Shale. In addition to the semi-regional depressurization, there were more local depressurization events that resulted from faulting in areas such as the Orchard Unit in the southern Piceance Basin where thrust faults allowed hydrocarbons to migrate vertically into overlying formations. Northwest to southeast production trends are present in the southern Piceance Basin and are interpreted to reflect structurally undeformed areas based on high formation pressures and better producing horizontal wells. Parent-child effects have been observed locally and are linked to lower initial production rates and faster decline rates. The northern Piceance Basin exhibits higher reservoir pressure in the liquids window than was observed to the south due to the relatively low degree of exhumation and/or faulting in areas where horizontal Niobrara wells were drilled. Horizontal well results in the northern Piceance Basin have been mixed, largely due to inefficient completion strategies. By comparing the northern Piceance Basin wells with similar horizontal Niobrara wells in the Powder River Basin of northeastern Wyoming, it is concluded that drilling into the over-pressured liquids rim and utilizing slickwater frac fluid with friction reducer and 100 mesh sand will yield improved economic results over those obtained so far in the Piceance Basin. Though relatively few laterals have been drilled in the Piceance Basin Niobrara play, the basin has great future potential.

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. L. Scott ◽  
J. H. Cape ◽  
K. D. Mahrer ◽  
N. Li ◽  
A. R. Childers

2021 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-50
Author(s):  
Ryad Darawcheh ◽  
Riad Al Ghazzi ◽  
Mohamad Khir Abdul-wahed

In this research, a data set of horizontal GPS coseismic displacement in the near-field has been assembled around the world in order to investigate a potential relationship between the displacement and the earthquake parameters. Regression analyses have been applied to the data of 120 interplate earthquakes having the magnitude (Mw 4.8-9.2). An empirical relationship for prediction near-field horizontal GPS coseismic displacement as a function of moment magnitude and the distance between hypocenter and near field GPS station has been established using the multi regression analysis. The obtained relationship allows assessing the coseismic displacements associated with some large historical earthquakes occurred along the Dead Sea fault system. Such a fair relationship could be useful for assessing the coseismic displacement at any point around the active faults.


1998 ◽  
Vol 185 ◽  
pp. 167-168
Author(s):  
T. Appourchaux ◽  
M.C. Rabello-Soares ◽  
L. Gizon

Two different data sets have been used to derive low-degree rotational splittings. One data set comes from the Luminosity Oscillations Imager of VIRGO on board SOHO; the observation starts on 27 March 96 and ends on 26 March 97, and are made of intensity time series of 12 pixels (Appourchaux et al, 1997, Sol. Phys., 170, 27). The other data set was kindly made available by the GONG project; the observation starts on 26 August 1995 and ends on 21 August 1996, and are made of complex Fourier spectra of velocity time series for l = 0 − 9. For the GONG data, the contamination of l = 1 from the spatial aliases of l = 6 and l = 9 required some cleaning. To achieve this, we applied the inverse of the leakage matrix of l = 1, 6 and 9 to the original Fourier spectra of the same degrees; cleaning of all 3 degrees was achieved simultaneously (Appourchaux and Gizon, 1997, these proceedings).


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Barton ◽  
Malcolm J Beynon

Purpose – The maintenance of public order and the control of crime are clearly amongst the primary objectives of global law enforcement agencies. An important antecedent to this is the consideration of public trust in their police force. The purpose of this paper is to utilise data from the fifth round European Social Survey (ESS), to investigate how public social indicators may be highlight the level of trust in a country’s police force. Design/methodology/approach – The results from the ESS are analysed using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), multiply conjunctional causal configurations of the considered social indicators are then established and analysed. Findings – A consequence of using fsQCA, asymmetric causal configurations are identified for the relative high and low limiting levels of trust towards the police in the considered countries. The results offer novel insights into the relationship between social indicators and police trust, as well as expositing a nascent technique (fsQCA) that may offer future potential in this area. Originality/value – This paper introduces a nascent technique (fsQCA) to analyse a major European data set relating to citizens perceptions of the police. The findings might prove useful for policing organisations as they develop strategies to maintain/improve the level of trust and confidence of citizens in the policing services they provide.


Geophysics ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
pp. EN77-EN90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Bergamo ◽  
Laura Valentina Socco

Surface-wave (SW) techniques are mainly used to retrieve 1D velocity models and are therefore characterized by a 1D approach, which might prove unsatisfactory when relevant 2D effects are present in the investigated subsurface. In the case of sharp and sudden lateral heterogeneities in the subsurface, a strategy to tackle this limitation is to estimate the location of the discontinuities and to separately process seismic traces belonging to quasi-1D subsurface portions. We have addressed our attention to methods aimed at locating discontinuities by identifying anomalies in SW propagation and attenuation. The considered methods are the autospectrum computation and the attenuation analysis of Rayleigh waves (AARW). These methods were developed for purposes and/or scales of analysis that are different from those of this work, which aims at detecting and characterizing sharp subvertical discontinuities in the shallow subsurface. We applied both methods to two data sets, synthetic data from a finite-element method simulation and a field data set acquired over a fault system, both presenting an abrupt lateral variation perpendicularly crossing the acquisition line. We also extended the AARW method to the detection of sharp discontinuities from large and multifold data sets and we tested these novel procedures on the field case. The two methods are proven to be effective for the detection of the discontinuity, by portraying propagation phenomena linked to the presence of the heterogeneity, such as the interference between incident and reflected wavetrains, and energy concentration as well as subsequent decay at the fault location. The procedures we developed for the processing of multifold seismic data set showed to be reliable tools in locating and characterizing subvertical sharp heterogeneities.


2005 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 253
Author(s):  
D. Dawson ◽  
K. Grice ◽  
R. Alexander

A relationship has been identified between the maturity level of source rocks and the stable hydrogen isotopic compositions (δD) of extracted saturated hydrocarbons, based on the analysis of nine sediments and five crude oils from the Perth Basin (WA). The sediments cover the immature to late mature range. Distinct δD signatures are observed for the immature sediments where pristane and phytane are significantly depleted in deuterium (D) relative to the n-alkanes. With increasing maturity the difference between the δD values of n-alkanes and isoprenoids reduces as pristane and phytane become progressively enriched in D. The n-alkane–isoprenoid δD signature of the crude oils, including one from a different source facies, is similar to mature–late mature sediments representative of the peak oil–generative window. Enrichment of D in isoprenoids is attributed to isotopic exchange associated with thermal maturation. Average δD values of pristane and phytane correlate well with vitrinite reflectance, as does the biomarker maturity parameter Ts/Tm. The limited data set suggests that δD values of aliphatic hydrocarbons may be useful for establishing thermal maturity, particularly when other maturity parameters are not appropriate. Furthermore, we suggest δD values may be useful over a wider maturity range than traditional parameters, particularly at very high maturity where biomarker parameters are no longer effective.


2020 ◽  
Vol 91 (6) ◽  
pp. 3286-3303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Parisi ◽  
Ian Stanistreet ◽  
Jackson Njau ◽  
Kathy Schick ◽  
Nicholas Toth ◽  
...  

Abstract We present data and results of a passive seismic experiment that we operated between June 2016 and May 2018 in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (northern Tanzania), located on the western side of the eastern branch of the Eastern African Rift (EAR) system. The motivation for this experiment is twofold: (1) investigating the extension of the Olduvai basin, referred to also as the “Cradle of Human Mankind,” as it hosted a variety of paleoenvironments exploited by hominins during their evolution; and (2) studying the link between the fault system in the main EAR and in its western flank. We conduct detailed data-quality analysis of the seismic recordings based upon ambient noise characterization and numerical waveform simulations. Our data set is of good quality, and we observe that local magnitude can be overestimated up to at least 0.23, due to wave-amplifications effects occurring at sites with loose sedimentary material. Based on a new but simple approach using power spectral density measurements, we calculate the thickness of sedimentary basins. This allows us to map the bottom of the Olduvai paleolake confirming that its sedimentary record may be at least 200 m deeper than previously inferred from core drilling. We also map the bottom of the Olbalbal depression for the first time. In addition, we present a seismicity map of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area with unprecedented detail. The seismicity depicts the suture zone between the Tanzanian craton and the Mozambique belt and reveals that the fault system in the western flank of the rift merges at depth into a single detachment that joins the Manyara fault on the western side of the main rift valley.


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