ITF’s new JIP to help cut costs of reservoir characterization

The Industry Technology Facilitator (ITF), together with Energie Beheer Nederland (EBN) and Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), has launched a joint industry project (JIP) aimed at helping producers reduce time and costs in determining whether gas fields are economically viable. 

The oil industry trade organization stated that the PETGAS III (Petrophysics of Tight Gas Sandstones) project, as it is named, sees the continuation of the work being conducted by the University of Leeds in examining the petrophysical properties of tight gas sandstones.

A database of key petrophysical properties has been formed to make rapid estimates of the properties of unknown samples based on their microstructure. Specialist software, PETMiner, has been developed to visualize this and other petrophysical properties data.

The database of the petrophysical properties of tight gas sandstones will be used to improve the interpretation of wireline log data for the characterisation of tight reservoirs during exploration, appraisal, and production.

ITF said that the project partners, EBN and PDO, are contributing £321,000 (around $424,000) in total and that the project which is now in its third phase, will run for a period of three years. The organization added that the project remains open to late participants.

Quentin Fisher of the University of Leeds, the principal researcher of the project, said: “When oil producers are developing low permeability objectives, the petrophysical properties largely determine whether gas fields are economically viable.

“The PETGAS research, which is now in its third stage, has been transformative in creating a workflow, database and data mining software that allows operators to reduce the cost and time to estimate to petrophysical properties of tight gas sandstone prospects.”

ITF CEO, Patrick O’Brien said: “The launch of a new phase of the PETGAS project demonstrates the leading edge work of UK Universities, and how the joint industry project model enables operators to effectively leverage the information they share into an advanced software model to radically transform industry outcomes.

“The work of the PETGAS JIP could in time play a key role in unlocking the significant potential of stranded gas resources in the Southern North Sea and beyond.”

The PETGAS consortium has been running for eight years and has received sponsorship from San Leon, BG, BP, EBN, Engie, Shell, and Wintershall. Results of PETGAS I and PETGAS II have been used by the industry to justify drilling new prospects and to improve understanding of the controls on gas and water production in existing fields, which has shaped appraisal and production strategies.

The PETGAS III project will extend the database by a further 15 samples per sponsor and continue the extensive special-core-analysis (SCAL) test work on a further seven samples per sponsor.