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AAPG-SPE-SEG Hedberg research conference on “The Geologic Occurrence and Hydraulic Significance of Fractures in Reservoirs”

2009; American Association of Petroleum Geologists; Volume: 93; Issue: 11 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1306/intro931109

1558-9153

Peter Hennings,

Reservoir Engineering and Simulation Methods

Peter Hennings received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in geology from Texas A&M University and his Ph.D. in geology from the University of Texas. He has held various technical and supervisory positions in Mobil Research Company, Phillips Petroleum Company, and ConocoPhillips. His research and application focus in these positions includes structure and tectonics, seismic interpretation, reservoir description, geomechanics, and fracture characterization. He is the manager of the Structure and Geomechanics Group in ConocoPhillips Subsurface Technology. He is an AAPG Distinguished lecturer, a Geological Society of America Honorary Fellow, and an adjunct professor at the University of Wyoming. In July 2008, a Hedberg research conference entitled “The Geologic Occurrence and Hydraulic Significance of Fractures in Reservoirs” was hosted jointly by the AAPG, Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), and Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), and organized by AAPG in Casper, Wyoming. The original endorsement for the conference was by recommendation from the author and the AAPG Reservoir Deformation Research Group, a standing subcommittee of the AAPG Research Committee. The scientific justification for conducting the conference was the rapidly growing recognition by the industry and academia that natural fractures and their geomechanical framework commonly control the hydraulic behavior of reservoirs. The sciences of fracture detection, characterization, and hydraulic modeling must advance if we are to maximize recovery from fractured reservoirs and optimize our exploitation of emerging resources, especially in the nonconventional realm. Success in these areas requires interdisciplinary integration from geophysical acquisition, processing, and analysis, to petrophysics, geological interpretation, geomechanics, and reservoir engineering at scales from pores to fields. The last research conference in North America dedicated to the topic was conducted in 1997. Therefore, the agenda was designed to address fractured reservoirs at a fundamental level to assess progress in the last decade. The participants addressed the following questions.