Carbonate Reservoirs

Overcome challenging heterogeneity

Estimates show that more than 60% of the world's oil and 40% of the its gas reserves are held in carbonate reservoirs. The Middle East, for example, is dominated by carbonate fields, with around 70% of oil and 90% of gas reserves held within them.

Carbonates can exhibit highly varying properties within small sections of the reservoir, making them difficult to characterize. Fracture corridors often exist that range from tens to hundreds of meters in width and height and have areal extents in the order of kilometers, representing primary pathways for hydrocarbon migration. These corridors can have a permeability of a thousand times greater than the surrounding rock matrix, asserting considerable impact on oil, gas, and water production.

You need a focused approach to better understand the heterogeneous nature of the rock containing the fluids and the flow properties within the porous and often fractured formations—a detailed understanding of fluids saturation, pore-size distribution, permeability, rock texture, reservoir rock type, and natural fracture systems at different scales.

Carbonate reservoir modeling

How can you ensure optimal drilling and production in carbonate reservoirs? It requires new tools, techniques, and interpretation methodologies that harness and utilize borehole measurements with high-resolution 3D surface seismic surveys.

Near-wellbore scale

As carbonate rock has been compressed over geological time, its character has changed from its original state due to diagenesis. This process caused the pores to change in size and geometry and may have also created stylolite flow barriers over large areas. Evaluating the complex heterogeneous rock can therefore be problematic, particularly as rock properties may vary greatly across the field. Porosity, permeability, and saturation are therefore some of the most important factors for reservoir modeling and production planning.

Our proprietary interpretation methodology and workflow provide a rapid, robust, and comprehensive petrophysical description, including evaluations of lithology, porosity, pore geometry, fluid saturations, relative permeability, and primary drainage capillary pressure curves. This information can aid in detecting fractures, optimizing completion program design, and estimating recoverable reserves.

Reservoir scale

Our customized geophysical methods for imaging and assessing large-scale porosity heterogeneity across the reservoir can help you estimate and extract your reservoir’s true potential.

Collaborate with our experts to determine and map the exact position of conductive fracture clusters, which is key to attaining

high reservoir-sweep efficiency
realistic dynamic reservoir assessments via high-resolution simulations
strategic well placement for both injector or producer wells.

Carbonate reservoir production

With an understanding of the carbonate rock formation at the micro and macro scale, specific intervals can also be reopened using hydraulic fracturing techniques.

Multistage fracturing. Schlumberger multistage fracturing systems are designed to stimulate multiple stages efficiently and effectively across a well's reservoir section. These systems—cemented and uncemented—can be used in vertical, deviated, and horizontal wells.

Stimulation. OpenPath stimulation services deliver a comprehensive solution for enhancing hydrocarbon production from carbonate, sandstone, and shale reservoirs. The services integrate stimulation modeling, an innovative near-wellbore diversion system, and optimized acid designs to maximize wellbore coverage and reservoir contact for increased production and recovery.

Fluids. Our carbonate stimulation services maximize well productivity with a comprehensive portfolio of engineered fluids that provide us the flexibility to deliver effective matrix and fracturing treatments regardless of water quality, formation characteristics, or location constraints.

Scale control. Scale control challenges are among the leading causes of declining production worldwide, costing the petroleum industry millions of dollars each year in operating expenses and deferred production. Chemical inhibition is preferred for maintaining well productivity, but when scale forms on the wellbore, you may need a more advanced scale control technique.

Carbonate Characterization

Formation evaluation tools necessary to illuminate complex lithology.

Q-Borehole

Integrated borehole seismic system

Image around the borehole in high resolution with integrated borehole seismic services. View
MDT Forte and MDT Forte-HT

Rugged and high-temperature modular formation dynamics testers

Minimize operating risk, maximize efficiency, and sample confidently with qualified ruggedized and high-temperature platforms. View
Sonic Scanner

Acoustic scanning platform

Gain acoustic insight to anisotropy and formation geomechanics in wells at any angle. View
Platform Express

Integrated wireline logging tool

Log faster and cost effectively with high-resolution conventional and imaging measurements. View

Carbonate Drilling

LWD technologies that deliver real-time well placement and drilling optimization data.

EcoScope

Multifunction logging-while-drilling service

Obtain resistivity, neutron porosity, azimuthal gamma ray, density, elemental capture spectroscopy, and sigma measurements and borehole imaging—all in one collar. View
StethoScope

Formation pressure-while-drilling service

Monitor formation pressure while drilling to calibrate pore pressure models. View

Carbonate Completion & Production

Treatment and stimulation systems that optimize production and recovery.

Software

Simulation and modeling to evaluate and optimize all stages of operations.

Petrel

subsurface software

Enable discipline experts to work together and make the best possible decisions—from exploration to production. View
Eclipse

Industry-reference reservoir simulator for black oil, compositional, thermal, and streamline reservoir simulation. View
Visage

finite-element geomechanics simulator

Better understand geomechanical risks and optimize production. View
Kinetix Matrix

Matrix stimulation design software

Integrate reservoir and fluid data to optimize matrix treatments using acid or nonreactive fluids. View
Kinetix

Reservoir-centric stimulation-to-production software

Integrate complex reservoir and engineering data to simulate and optimize completion and fracture stimulation designs. View