Tight Gas Sands

Distinguished Author Series articles are general, descriptive representations that summarize the state of the art in an area of technology by describing recent developments for readers who are not specialists in the topics discussed. Written by individuals recognized as experts in the area, these articles provide key references to more definitive work and present specific details only to illustrate the technology. Purpose: to inform the general readership of recent advances in various areas of petroleum engineering. Introduction Tight gas is the term commonly used to refer to low-permeability reservoirs that produce mainly dry natural gas. Many of the low-permeability reservoirs developed in the past are sandstone, but significant quantities of gas also are produced from low-permeability carbonates, shales, and coal seams. In this paper, production of gas from tight sandstones is the predominant theme. However, much of the same technology applies to tight-carbonate and gas-shale reservoirs. In general, a vertical well drilled and completed in a tight gas reservoir must be successfully stimulated to produce at commercial gas-flow rates and produce commercial gas volumes. Normally, a large hydraulic-fracture treatment is required to produce gas economically. In some naturally fractured tight gas reservoirs, horizontal wells can be drilled, but these wells also need to be stimulated. To optimize development of a tight gas reservoir, a team of geoscientists and engineers must optimize the number and locations of wells to be drilled, as well as the drilling and completion procedures for each well. Often, more data and more engineering manpower are required to understand and develop tight gas reservoirs than are required for higher-permeability conventional reservoirs. On an individual-well basis, a well in a tight gas reservoir will produce less gas over a longer period of time than one expects from a well completed in a higher-permeability conventional reservoir. As such, many more wells (closer well spacing) must be drilled in a tight gas reservoir to recover a large percentage of the original gas in place compared with a conventional reservoir. Definition of Tight Gas Reservoir In the 1970s, the U.S. government decided that the definition of a tight gas reservoir is one in which the expected value of permeability to gas flow would be less than 0.1 md. This definition was a political definition that has been used to determine which wells would receive federal and/or state tax credits for producing gas from tight reservoirs. Actually, the definition of a tight gas reservoir is a function of many physical and economic factors. The physical factors are related by Darcy's law, as shown in the stabilized, radial-flow equation, Eq. 1, (Lee 1982).