The Petroleum Play Concept

Play Component

Comments

Source Rock

Must contain sufficient organic material, source rock

must be in the oil window (80-150C)

Primary Migration

This is the migration out of the source rock into the

carrier bed.

Secondary
Migration

This is the migration into the reservoir. Conduits can

be faults, fractures, or a porous & permeable rock.

Reservoir

This rock must have sufficient porosity and

permeability to accumulate and produce economical
amounts of oil/gas.

Trap

Traps can be structural, stratigraphic diagenetic or

any combination.

Seal

The seal must be a tight rock (e.g. shale, salt,

gypsum/anhydrite)

The Petroleum Play Concept

The term petroleum play has nothing to do with playing.
It refers to several processes that must play together in a
chronological sequence.
As an example: when the migration of oil/gas happens then
a trap, a porous reservoir and a tight seal must exist such
that hydrocarbons can accumulate.
If oil/gas migrates upward and there is a reservoir but no trap,
then the hydrocarbons will not accumulate but continue to
migrate upward until they reach the surface of the Earth or
the sea bottom.
A petroleum geologist must establish the timing of the
principal components of the petroleum play.
The largest trap combined with the best reservoir is useless
if the trap formed a long time after peak oil/gas migration.

The Petroleum Play Concept

Source Rock
volume, quantity (mature) & quality

Migration Path
connecting source rock with reservoir (faults, fractures)

Reservoir Rock
must have porosity, permeability & thickness

Trap
structural, stratigraphic, combination & hydrodynamic

Impermeable Seal: vertical & lateral

fault
facies change
diagenetic change (dolomites)
impermeable top seal (shales, salt, gypsum, anhydrite, tight rock)

What is a Reservoir Rock?

A reservoir rock has to have certain properties:
Thickness/Volume
A reservoir rock must have a certain volume such that hydrocarbons
stored within it have a quantity that is economical

Porosity
This is the amount of pore space in the rock that ca be filled with
hydrocarbons. A reservoir rock should have at least some percentages
of porosity. In case of a small amount of porosity a large volume can
make a low porosity rock economical.

Permeability
This is the ability of a rock to allow the flow of hydrocarbons. The
permeability must be high enough to enable economical flow rates.

What is a reservoir?
What makes the rock a reservoir
It is porous and not completely solid
It is permeable; there is communication between the porous
space within the rock

What is Reservoir Engineering?

All activities which lead to a prognosis for production of hydro-carbons and
associated fluids (oil, water and gas) versus time
which implies estimation of

Representative reservoir properties (porosity and permeability, water saturation)

Recoverable resources
Suggestion of drive mechanism (water injection, gas injection or no injection)
Well requirements (type, number and location)
Development solution (capacities and phasing of reserves)
Production profiles on well- and field basis (oil, water and gas)
Reservoir management program

how to obtain the estimated volumes

continuous optimization of available resources

What/who is a Reservoir Engineer?

Link between sub-surface understanding (geology,
petrophysics, geophysics) and what is being produced
(field operations)
Person understanding the dynamic fluid behavior based on
static and dynamic boundary conditions
Pressure and flow
Reservoir geometry and parameters
Well control and process limitations

Person who combines dynamic flow simulations with best

guess
Estimation of recovery factor and production profiles

Interaction With Other Disciplines

Geology
Geoph.
Petroph
Exploration

License

Trading
oil&gas

Reservoir
Engineer

Drilling

Develop
ment

Econo.
Cost
Plan

MANAGEMENT

The Basic Questions

Which data are available?
What is the purpose of the evaluation?
What is the Client expectations?
How will the results be used?
What decisions will be taken based on the evaluation?
=> Always plan the work properly

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In Summary Reservoir Engineers do

Prepare production profiles
Are involved in every part of
field life
Prospect evaluation
Development plans
Production optimisation under
facility constraint
Tail production with reservoir
deliverability constraints
Work with flow and pressure
Interact with all other disciplines
Have fun

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Phases of Field Life

The work of a reservoir engineer differs depending on which phase
a project is in. The main product is a production prognosis and
recommendations on how to achieve this
Prospect evaluation
No wells drilled yet; calculations based on general experience and possible
analogy with nearby fields (license rounds)

Evaluation phase:
One or more wells drilled; i.e. real data available. Leads up to Concept Selection,
Development Plan (PDO)

Production phase
Field in production and the reservoir management plans are to be executed. Lots
of data available. Focus on how to utilize and optimize available facilities

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A Field Life Cycle

1978

80

85

90

92

Prospect evaluation
Exploration
Delineation drilling

PDO

Evaluation

Phase 1

Phase 2

Development
Production
Reservoir
engineer
contribution

Reservoir parameters
Estimates of recovery
factor, prod. profiles
Test programs / testinterpretation
Data acquisition
program PVT, core

Detailed analysis of collected data

More accurate estimated
Detailed production profiles
Design specifications
Reservoir management programs
Data acquisition program of
production wells

Production prognoses
Production optimisation
Completion strategy
Well interventions
Reservoir surveillance
IOR-methods
History matching

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Reservoir Engineering
P la n

Concept

Process

CAPEX

Wells, pipelines

OPEX

Time

Time

NPV=

OIL
RATEi

OIL
PRICEi

N
i=1

CAPEXi-

OPEXi

TAXi

USD/bbl

(1+r) i
?

GOR

OIL

Well requirements
Well locations
Plateau rate
Uncertainty in estimates
+++

SCAL
PVT
Test-data
Well design
Lift curves

Seismic data
Geological model
STOOIP / GIIP

Wcut
Time

Time
Pre-drilling
delays ?

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