Quantitative characterization of deep fault-karst carbonate reservoirs: A case study of the Yuejin block in the Tahe oilfield

The Ordovician reservoirs in the Tahe oilfield are dominated by fractured-vuggy carbonate reservoirs, of which fault-karst reservoirs are a hot topic in recent years. Fault-karst reservoirs feature high production, large burial depth, and strong heterogeneity under the control of faulting and karstification. Based on geological, logging, and seismic data, this study classified the Ordovician fault-karst reservoirs in the Yuejin block of the Tahe oilfield into three types, namely karst-cave, dissolved-vug, and fractured types, and established the integrated identification criteria of the three types of reservoirs. This study characterized karst caves, dissolved vugs, and multi-scale faults through seismic wave impedance inversion and frequency-domain detection of multi-scale faults. 3D geological models of different types of reservoirs were built using the combined deterministic and stochastic methods and characterized the spatial distribution of multi-scale faults, karst caves, dissolved vugs, and physical property parameters of reservoir. This study established the method for the geological modeling of fault-karst reservoirs, achieved the quantitative characterization and revealed the heterogeneity of fault-karst reservoirs. The karst-cave and dissolved-vug types are high in porosity and act as reservoirs, while the fractured type is high in permeability and act as flow pathway. This study lays the foundation for the development index prediction, well emplacement, and efficient development of the fault-karst carbonate reservoirs.

Types of Karst-fractured and Porous Reservoirs in China's Carbonates and the Nature of the Tahe Oilfield in the Tarim Basin

Almost all the oil and gas reservoirs developed in marine sedimentary strata of China have undergone processes of multi-phase reservoir formation and later modification. The irregular reservoirs are classified into three types as the Naxi, Tahe and Renqiu ones, increasing successively in the development degree of karstificated pores and fissures and the connection degree of independent reservoirs. In these reservoirs, the unity in the fluid feature, pressure and oil-gas-water interface also increases successively from the Naxi to the Renqiu type. The main body of Ordovician reservoirs of the Tahe Oilfield in the Tarim Basin is a network pool rather than a stratified, massive, stratigraphically-unconformed or weathering-crust one. The fluid nature of oil, gas and water, the interface positions and the pressures, as well as the dynamic conditions of fluids within the reservoirs during the production are all different from those in stratified or massive oil and gas reservoirs. Carbonates in the Akekule uplift and the Tahe Oilfield are assemblages of various types of reservoirs, which have an overall oil-bearing potential and obvious uneven distribution. Testing and producing tests are the major means to evaluate this type of reservoirs and acid fracturing improvement is a key link in petroleum exploration and development.

Burial Dissolution of Ordovician Granule Limestone in the Tahe Oilfield of the Tarim Basin,NW China,and Its Geological Significance

With a comprehensive study on the petrology, geology and geochemistry of some Ordovician granule limestone samples in the Tahe Oiifieid of the Tarim Basin, two stages of burial dissolution were put forward as an in-source dissolution and out-source dissolution based on macro-microcosmic petrology and geochemistry features. The main differences in the two stages are in the origin and moving pass of acid fluids. Geochemical evidence indicates that burial dissolution fluids might be ingredients of organic acids, CO2 and H2S associated with organic matter maturation and hydrocarbon decomposition, and the in-source fluid came from organic matter in the granule limestone itself, but the out-source was mainly from other argillaceous carbonate rocks far away. So, the forming of a burial dissolution reservoir resulted from both in-source and the out-source dissolutions. The granule limestone firstly formed unattached pinholes under in-source dissolution in situ, and afterwards suffered wider dissolution with out-source fluids moving along unconformities, seams, faults and associate fissures. The second stage was much more important, and the mineral composition in the stratum and heat convection of the fluid were also important in forming favorable reservoirs.

A Study of the Genesis of Karst-type Subtle Reservoir in Tahe Oilfield

The genesis of the Ordovician karst in the Tahe Oilfield is hypothesized on the basis of many analyses of the geo-chemical data and the sporopollen. Ordovician carbonate rocks experienced multistage karst reconstructions under the condition of low-temperature oxidation meteoric water on the surface or near-surface. The karst occurred mainly in the early Hercynian, which has undergone three stages of karst cycle and developed three sets of cave reservoirs under the influence of the tectonic uplift, and the upper of the cave was formed earlier. The evidence of karst was found in the Caledonian. On the above basis, the genetic prediction pattern of the Ordovician palaeokarst reservoir in this region was set up.

Distribution of the Ordovician Fluid in the Tahe Oilfield and Dynamic Response of Cave System S48 to Exploitation

The Tahe Oilfield is a complex petroleum reservoir of Ordovician carbonate formation and made up of spatially overlapping fracture-cavity units. The oilfield is controlled by a cave system resulting from structure-karst cyclic sedimentation. Due to significant heterogeneity of the reservoir, the distribution of oil and water is complicated. Horizontally, a fresh water zone due to meteoric water can be found in the north part of the Akekule uplift. A marginal freshening zone caused by water released from mudstone compaction is found at the bottom of the southern slope. Located in a crossformational flow discharge zone caused by centripetal and the centrifugal flows, the main part of the Tahe Oilfield, featuring high salinity and concentrations of CI^- and K^＋＋Na^＋, is favorable for accumulation of hydrocarbon. Three types of formation water in the Tahe Ordovician reservoir are identified： （1） residual water at the bottom of the cave after oil and gas displacement, （2） residual water in fractures/pores around the cave after oil and gas displacement, and （3） interlayer water below reservoirs. The cave system is the main reservoir space, which consists of the main cave, branch caves and depressions between caves. Taking Cave System S48 in the Ordovician reservoir as an example, the paper analyzes the fluid distribution and exploitation performance in the cave system. Owing to evaporation of groundwater during cross-formational flow, the central part of the main cave, where oil layers are thick and there is a high degree of displacement, is characterized by high salinity and Br^- concentration. With high potential and a long stable production period, most wells in the central part of the main cave have a long water-free oil production period. Even after water breakthrough, the water content has a slow or stepwise increase and the hydrochemistral characteristics of the produced water in the central part of the main cave are uniform. From the center to the edge of the main cave, displacement and enrichment of oil/gas become weaker, residual water increases, and the salinity and concentration of Br^- decrease. At the edge of the main cave, although the wells have a high deliverability at the beginning with a short stable production period and water-free production period. After water breakthrough, the pressure and deliverability drop quickly, and the water content rises quickly. The hydrochemistral characteristics of the produced water are relatively uniform. Wells in the branch caves have a relatively low deliverability at the beginning, with a short stable production period. Water breakthrough appears quickly and then the pressure and deliverability drop quickly. The salinity and concentrations of CI^-and K^＋＋Na^＋ are usually fluctuant or descend slowly in the produced water. Wells in low areas of ancient karst have a low deliverability and a short stable production period. The yield drops quickly and the water content is high, while the characteristics of the produced water may vary significantly well to well. The salinity and concentrations of CI^-and K^＋＋Na^＋ in the produced water are usually fluctuant with a precipitous decline.

Hydrocarbon Inclusion Characteristics in the Cambrian-Ordovician Carbonates of the TS2 Well:Implication for Deep Hydrocarbon Exploration in the Tahe Oilfield,Tarim Basin,Northwest China

Going deep has been the strategy for the sustainable development of the Tahe Oilfield.Following the TS1 well in block 1,which revealed excellent combinations of hydrocarbon generation,migration and accumulation in the deeper parts of the Tarim Basin,the TS2 well was drilled to learn more about the prospectivity in the deeper parts of the main blocks of the Tahe Oilfield.Seventeen core samples were collected to perform fluid inclusion studies,including petrography,fluorescence microspectrometry,and microthermometry.The results show that the deeper parts of the Tahe Oilfield have a good hydrocarbon potential.The Cambrian source rocks can supply sufficient oil for not only the Cambrian reservoirs,but also for the Lower Ordovician reservoirs.The CambrianOrdovician carbonates reservoirs experienced at least three oil charging events and one late gas charging event.Oil accumulations formed in the early stage of basin evolution were likely destroyed in the late stage with deep burial,tectonic movements,or invasion of hydrothermal fluids.Therefore,the deep hydrocarbon exploration of the Tahe Oilfield,even the whole Tarim Basin,should focus on gas accumulations,although oil accumulations,especially in Cambrian reservoirs,cannot be neglected.

Application of Spectral Decomposition to Detection of Fracture-Cavity Carbonate Reservoir Beds in the Tahe OUfield,Tarim Basin,NW China

Ordovician fracture-cavity carbonate reservoir beds are the major type of producing formations in the Tahe oilfield, Tarim Basin. The seismic responses of these beds clearly changes depending on the different distance of the fracture-cavity reservoir bed from the top of the section. The seismic reflection becomes weak or is absent when the fracture-cavity reservoir beds are less than 20 ms below the top Ordovician. The effect on top Ordovician reflection became weaker with deeper burial of fracture-cavity reservoir beds but the developed deep fracture-cavity reservoir beds caused stronger reflection in the interior of the Ordovician. This interior reflection can be divided into strong long-axis, irregular and bead string reflections, and was present 80 ms below the top Ordovician. Aimed at understanding reflection characteristics, the spectral decomposition technique, which uses frequency to ＂tune-in＂ bed thickness, was used to predict Ordovician fracture-cavity carbonate formations in the Tahe oilfield. Through finely adjusting the processing parameters of spectral decomposition, it was found that the slice at 30 Hz of the tuned data cube can best represent reservoir bed development. Two large N-S-trending strong reflection belts in the mid-western part of the study area along wells TK440- TK427-TK417B and in the eastern part along wells TK404-TK409 were observed distinctly on the 30 Hz slice and 4-D time-frequency data cube carving. A small N-S trending reflection belt in the southern part along wells T403-TK446B was also clearly identified. The predicted reservoir bed development area coincides with the fracture-cavities connection area confirmed by drilling pressure testing results. Deep karst cavities occur basically in three reservoir bed-development belts identified by the Ordovician interior strong reflection. Spectral decomposition proved to be a useful technique in identifying fracture-cavity reservoir beds.

Differential structure of Ordovician karst zone and hydrocarbon enrichment in paleogeomorphic units in Tahe area,Tarim Basin,NW China

Based on a large number of drilling,logging,seismic and production data,the differential structures of karst zone and hydrocarbon distribution in different paleogeomorphic units of the Tahe area,Tarim Basin,are discussed by analyzing the karst drainages and flowing channels.The karst paleogeomorphy of Ordovician in Tahe area is composed of watershed,karst valley and karst basin.The watershed has epikarst zone of 57.8 m thick on average and vadose karst zone of 115.2 m thick on average with dense faults,fractures and medium-small fracture-caves,and 76.5%of wells in this area have cumulative production of more than 5×10^(4) t per well.The karst valleys have epikarst zone,vadose karst zone and runoff karst zone,with an average thickness of 14.6,26.4 and 132.6 m respectively.In the runoff karst zone,the caves of subsurface river are mostly filled by fine sediment,with a filling rate up to 86.8%,and 84.9%of wells in this area have cumulative production of less than 2×10^(4) t per well.The karst basin has no karst zone,but only fault-karst reservoirs in local fault zones,which are up to 600 m thick and closely developed within 1 km around faults.Different karst landforms have different water flowing pattern,forming different karst zone structures and resulting in differential distribution of oil and gas.The watershed has been on the direction of oil and gas migration,so medium-small sized connected fracture-caves in this area have high filling degree of oil and gas,and most wells in this area have high production.Most caves in subsurface river are filled due to strong sedimentation and transportation of the river,so the subsurface river sediment has low hydrocarbon abundance and more low production oil wells.The faults linking source rock are not only the water channels but also the oil-gas migration pathways,where the karst fractures and caves provide huge reservoir space for oil and gas accumulation.

Architecture characterization of Ordovician fault-controlled paleokarst carbonate reservoirs in Tuoputai,Tahe oilfield,Tarim Basin,NW China

Based on outcrop,core,logging,seismic and production data,and the formation of fault-controlled karst reservoirs,the types and characterization of Ordovician fault-controlled karst reservoir architectures in the Tuoputai area of the Tahe oilfield are studied.According to the concept of genetic geologic body,the fault-controlled karst reservoir is divided into architecture elements of four levels,the strike-slip fault impact zone is the level-1 architecture element,the fault-controlled karst reservoir the level-2 architecture element,the fracture-cave zone(which can be further subdivided into dissolution cave,dissolution pore and vug,and fracture zones)inside the fault-controlled karst reservoir the level-3 architecture element,and fillings inside caves is the level-4 architecture element(which can be further divided based on the filling degree and lithologic types of the fillings).Specific characterization techniques have been optimized according to the characteristics of various architecture elements.The zone impacted by strike-slip fault is characterized by seismic coherence and artificial interpretation.Under the constraint of zone impacted by strike-slip fault,fault likelihood(FL)property is used to characterize the outline of fault-controlled karst reservoir.Under the constraint of fault-controlled karst reservoir outline,the internal structures are divided based on seismic texture attribute.Finally,the cavern filling pattern is interpreted based on drilling and logging data.The fault-controlled karst reservoirs can be interpreted in 3-dimensional space by architecture element levels,and the characterization technology combining log and seismic data for fault-controlled karst reservoir has been worked out,which has complemented the development theory and technologies for this kind of reservoirs in the Tahe oilfield.

Formation of hoodoo-upland on Ordovician karst slope and its significance in petroleum geology in Tahe area,Tarim Basin,NW China

Based on a large number of geological and geophysical data,the formation,fracture-caves types and hydrocarbon distribution of hoodoo-upland on the Ordovician karst slope in the Tahe area,Tarim Basin,are discussed by analyzing faults and strata thickness.The hoodoo-upland was made of high peaks and narrow valleys in the Ordovician karst slope during the Early Hercynian karst period,which were distributed along the NNE positive flower structure and had inherited evolution.The fault-fractures and fracture-vugs complex were extremely developed,with a thickness of 100 m.The cumulative oil production of 60% oil wells was more than 20×10^(4) t per well in the hoodoo-upland,where the residual thickness of the Ordovician Yingshan Formation was greater than karst depressions.Caves formed by the shelter of collapsed breccias were developed in the valleys.They were 1.6 to 13.5 m high,with a filling rate of 51.6%.The positive flower structure under the settings of strike-slip compression controlled the early formation of the hoodoo-upland on the karst slope,resulting in the differences of drainage distribution and karstification.Compared with the water-rich karst valley,the hoodoo-upland with lean water suffered weaker karstification,had thicker residual stratum,and was higher in terrain.In rainy season,the meteoric water flew and corrode along the cracks,forming a complex network of fractures and caves.Combined with inherited uplift and the effective match of the NNE deep faults,oil and gas continuously charged into the reservoir space in the upland,forming the hoodoo fracture-cave reservoir with vertically quasi continuous distribution,high hydrocarbon abundance and high production.

Construction of carbonate reservoir knowledge base and its application in fracture-cavity reservoir geological modeling

To improve the efficiency and accuracy of carbonate reservoir research,a unified reservoir knowledge base linking geological knowledge management with reservoir research is proposed.The reservoir knowledge base serves high-quality analysis,evaluation,description and geological modeling of reservoirs.The knowledge framework is divided into three categories:technical service standard,technical research method and professional knowledge and cases related to geological objects.In order to build a knowledge base,first of all,it is necessary to form a knowledge classification system and knowledge description standards;secondly,to sort out theoretical understandings and various technical methods for different geologic objects and work out a technical service standard package according to the technical standard;thirdly,to collect typical outcrop and reservoir cases,constantly expand the content of the knowledge base through systematic extraction,sorting and saving,and construct professional knowledge about geological objects.Through the use of encyclopedia based collaborative editing architecture,knowledge construction and sharing can be realized.Geological objects and related attribute parameters can be automatically extracted by using natural language processing(NLP)technology,and outcrop data can be collected by using modern fine measurement technology,to enhance the efficiency of knowledge acquisition,extraction and sorting.In this paper,the geological modeling of fracture-cavity reservoir in the Tarim Basin is taken as an example to illustrate the construction of knowledge base of carbonate reservoir and its application in geological modeling of fracture-cavity carbonate reservoir.

Distribution and Geochemical Characteristics of Fluids in Ordovician Marine Carbonate Reservoirs of the Tahe Oilfield

The Ordovician carbonate reservoirs in the Tahe Oilfield are highly heterogeneous, which have undergone multiple superimposed transformations by tectonic activities and karst processes, leading to an extremely complex fluid distribution. The geochemical characteristics of geofluids also display great disparities. Results show that the vertical distribution of oil and gas are continuous, however the oil-water interfaces in different blocks of the Tahe Ordovician Oilfield are numerous. Meteoric water infiltration is regarded as the main reason for the high oil-water interface and high water content to the north of Tahe Oilfield, especially in well blocks S78–S73. The isotopic values of deuterium-oxygen in the groundwater and carbon-oxygen from calcite veins confirm that formation water in Ordovician reservoirs of the Tahe Oilfield was a mix of meteoric water and connate water, and the proportion of meteoric water gradually increases from south to north, while connate water decreases. The Tahe Ordovician reservoirs are characterised by multiple hydrocarbon charges, and the general migrating direction is from southeast to northwest and from east to west. High production could be obtained in the northern area of the Tahe Oilfield since the oil layers are thick and oil is highly saturated. The residual water within the reservoirs is low, and heavy oil is dominant in this area. Only a small amount of pore water has been replaced by oil in the southern Tahe Oilfield, leading to low oil saturation and a high content of residual water. Crude oil is herein mainly of medium-light type. During the process of exploration in this region, acid fracturing reformation is usually required for wells to increase their output; however the yield is still low.

Bioturbation enhanced petrophysical properties in the Ordovician carbonate reservoir of the Tahe oilfield,Tarim Basin,NW China

Bioturbation plays an important role in enhancing the reservoir capacity of tight reservoirs.This study aims to understand the alteration mechanism and effects of bioturbation on oil and gas reservoirs,to clarify the key control factors and constraints influencing the production of bioturbation.The petrophysical characteristics of bioturbation and host sediments in carbonate rocks,such as mineral composition,pore spaces,porosity and permeability,were studied based on the detailed observation and description of the Ordovician cores from the Tahe oilfield.The effect of bioturbation on petrophysical properties of carbonate rocks were carefully analyzed.The results show:(1)Two types of bioturbation,Thalassinoides-like burrows and Planolites-like burrows,mainly occur in the Ordovician cores of the Tahe oilfield,ranging from the Lower-Middle Ordovician Yingshan Formation to the Middle Ordovician Yijianfang Formation.The burrow-fills are mainly composed of dolomite with subhedral and euhedral crystals.The host sediments mainly consist of micrite.(2)The pores in the host sediments are poorly developed and are incapable of forming effective reservoir spaces.However,well-developed intercrystalline pores among dolomites and microfractures in bioturbated sediments with better connectivity can form effective pore spaces.The results of porosity and permeability show that the host sediments without bioturbation are characterized by poor porosity and permeability.However,with the increase of bioturbation intensity,the porosity of the bioturbated sediments firstly increases and then decreases,whereas the permeability increases all the time.(3)Multiple burrows overprinted in the Ordovician carbonate rocks,forming a large-scale bioturbated carbonate rocks with lateral continuity and vertical connectivity,due to the suitable sedimentary setting,ecological conditions,favorable spatiotemporal sediment matching,and abundant organism-substrate interaction.Subsequently,diagenesis(particularly dolomitization and dissolution)has played a positive role in altering the rock fabric and improving the petrophysical properties of bioturbated carbonates.

Modified aquila optimizer for forecasting oil production

Oil production estimation plays a critical role in economic plans for local governments and organizations.Therefore,many studies applied different Artificial Intelligence(AI)based meth-ods to estimate oil production in different countries.The Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System(ANFIS)is a well-known model that has been successfully employed in various applica-tions,including time-series forecasting.However,the ANFIS model faces critical shortcomings in its parameters during the configuration process.From this point,this paper works to solve the drawbacks of the ANFIS by optimizing ANFIS parameters using a modified Aquila Optimizer(AO)with the Opposition-Based Learning(OBL)technique.The main idea of the developed model,AOOBL-ANFIS,is to enhance the search process of the AO and use the AOOBL to boost the performance of the ANFIS.The proposed model is evaluated using real-world oil produc-tion datasets collected from different oilfields using several performance metrics,including Root Mean Square Error(RMSE),Mean Absolute Error(MAE),coefficient of determination(R2),Standard Deviation(Std),and computational time.Moreover,the AOOBL-ANFIS model is compared to several modified ANFIS models include Particle Swarm Optimization(PSO)-ANFIS,Grey Wolf Optimizer(GWO)-ANFIS,Sine Cosine Algorithm(SCA)-ANFIS,Slime Mold Algorithm(SMA)-ANFIS,and Genetic Algorithm(GA)-ANFIS,respectively.Additionally,it is compared to well-known time series forecasting methods,namely,Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average(ARIMA),Long Short-Term Memory(LSTM),Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average(SARIMA),and Neural Network(NN).The outcomes verified the high performance of the AOOBL-ANFIS,which outperformed the classic ANFIS model and the compared models.