Joanna Hansford

Postgraduate Student

Biography

Project details

Project title: Development of predictive fracture permeability tools to aid effective hydrocarbon resource management: example from the Clair Field, Shetland

Supervisors: Rob Knipe (RDR & Leeds Uni), Tim Needham(RDR), Simon Harris (RDR), Ewan Laws (BP)

Start date: December 2006

Project Description:

The Clair oilfield is the largest naturally fractured reservoir in the UK, with estimated oil reserves of over 5 billion barrels (Barr et. al., 2007). The field itself is located around 75km (40 miles) west of Shetland, in the Northern North Sea, and is currently joint owned by: BP (operators), Conoco Phillips, Chevron, Shell and Amerada Hess (Barr et. al., 2007).

The field was first discovered in 1977 by BP, but was soon understood to have a very complex structure. Although first production began recently in February 2005 (after a 27-year-long appraisal period), there are still large levels of uncertainty in the geological structure of the field.

It is widely agreed that the productivity of the field is strongly influenced by the natural fracture network. Therefore there is an emphasis on the study of the fractures themselves and how they interact with the matrix.

This project investigates the variation of fracture styles within the field (from core and image logs), with comparison to analogue field areas in Caithness, Scotland. Data from the field, and BP internal sources will be used to create fracture models to investigate the pressure sensitivity of the fractures in the reservoir. The model(s) can be upscaled to the well-scale and then run in a reservoir simulator to investigate impacts on productivity.