Assessment of undiscovered continuous oil resources in the Bakken and Three Forks Formations of the Williston Basin Province, North Dakota and Montana, 2021

Marra, Kristen R.; Mercier, Tracey J.; Gelman, Sarah E.; Schenk, Christopher J.; Woodall, Cheryl A.; Cicero, Andrea D.; Drake, Ronald M.; Ellis, Geoffrey S.; Finn, Thomas M.; Gardner, Michael H.; Hearon, Jane S.; Johnson, Benjamin G.; Lagesse, Jenny H.; Le, Phuong A.; Leathers-Miller, Heidi M.; Timm, Kira K.; Young, Scott S.

doi:10.3133/fs20213058

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…The Bakken formation, situated in North Dakota, Montana, and sections of Canada, have emerged as significant contributors to North American oil production as a result of their extensive resources and innovative extraction techniques [1]. Nevertheless, the geological complexity of the Bakken Formation contributes to both its richness and its hydrocarbon recovery difficulties.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress-Dependent Petrophysical Properties of the Bakken Unconventional Petroleum System: Insights from Elastic Wave Velocities and Permeability Measurements

Pothana,

Ifrene,

Ling

2023

Fuels

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The net-effective stress is a fundamental physical property that undergoes dynamic changes in response to variations in pore pressure during production and injection activities. Petrophysical properties, including porosity, permeability, and wave velocities, play a critical role and exhibit strong dependence on the mechanical stress state of the formation. The Williston basin’s Bakken Formation represents a significant reservoir of hydrocarbons within the United States. To investigate this formation, we extracted core plugs from three distinct Bakken members, namely Upper Bakken, Middle Bakken, and Lower Bakken. Subsequently, we conducted a series of measurements of ultrasonic compressional and shear wave velocities, as well as pulse decay permeabilities using nitrogen, under various confining pressures employing the Autolab-1500 apparatus. Our experimental observations revealed that the ultrasonic wave velocities and permeability display a significant sensitivity to stress changes. We investigated existing empirical relationships on velocity-effective stress, compressional-shear wave velocities, and permeability-effective stress, and proposed the best models and associated fitting parameters applicable to the current datasets. In conjunction with the acquired datasets, these models have considerable potential for use in time-lapse seismic monitoring and the study of production decline behavior. The best fitting models can be used to forecast the petrophysical and geomechanical property changes as the reservoir pore pressure is depleted due to the production, which is critical to the production forecast for unconventional reservoirs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress-Dependent Petrophysical Properties of the Bakken Unconventional Petroleum System: Insights from Elastic Wave Velocities and Permeability Measurements

Pothana,

Ifrene,

Ling

2023

Fuels

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“…Also known as gas Huff-n-Puff (HnP), this technique is divided into three phases: (1) gas is injected into the reservoir through the well; (2) the system is closed for a period called soaking time; and (3) the system is opened for oil production . Because of their physical features, availability, and cost, the gases explored for HnP in the Bakken are CO 2 , natural gas, ethane, propane, methane, and produced gas. ,, Previous Bakken system studies have predominantly focused on the Middle Bakken member for EOR with less attention on the Lower and Upper Bakken members with the Three Forks Formation. ,,,− The majority of the inquiry was conducted using pilot tests, simulation tools, and a few laboratory investigations. − ,,− Increasing the laboratory data is necessary to facilitate successful field applications by understanding the mechanisms of cyclic gas injection and comparing various gases’ ability to mobilize crude oil under relevant reservoir conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is anticipated that 3.7 billion barrels of oil and 3.5 trillion cubic feet of gas are technically recoverable from the Three Forks . However, this assessment has been updated in 2021 to 4.3 billion barrels of unconventional oil and 4.9 trillion cubic feet of unconventional gas in the two formations . Even with the development of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling techniques in unconventional liquid reservoirs, the primary recovery factor (RF) is still less than 10% of OOIP, which is relatively low. − A small improvement in the recovery techniques will result in a significant increase in the number of barrels that can be recovered.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pore- and Core-Scale Mechanisms Controlling Supercritical Cyclic Gas Utilization for Enhanced Recovery under Immiscible and Miscible Conditions in the Three Forks Formation

Sennaoui

Afari

et al. 2022

Energy Fuels

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Tight formations such as the Three Forks Formation in the Williston Basin have very low primary recovery factors (typically 10% or less), which potentially leave billions of barrels stranded in the reservoir. According to the results of gas enhanced oil recovery (EOR) pilot tests that have been conducted in the Bakken Formation, cyclic gas injection appears to be a promising strategy for increasing oil recovery in unconventional reservoirs. Despite the pilot tests and the reported results in Bakken shale, Middle Bakken, and Three Forks Formations, little is known about the mechanisms of cyclic gas injection and the behavior between the injected gases and Three Forks reservoir fluids. In this paper, a series of experiments are applied under different constraints. The parameters that are examined include the effect of soaking time under immiscible and miscible conditions, the effect of fluid state (vapor, supercritical), injection pressure, selected gases (CO 2 , ethane, and propane), target formations (Upper Three Forks (UTF) and Middle Three Forks (MTF)), and the effect of pore size distribution on the recovery factor. During the Huff-n-Puff process, the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique was used to analyze the microscopic oil production and the micro residual oil distribution before and after CO 2 injection. The results showed that the soaking time enhanced the recovery factor dramatically in both formations under and near the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) of CO 2 , while the soaking time was less efficient in cases with injection pressures above the MMP. Propane proved to be the most effective gas at low injection pressure, followed by ethane, with CO 2 being the least effective. On increasing the pressure, the performance of ethane and CO 2 increased due to the sufficient change in the ethane and CO 2 densities. Additionally, according to the NMR tests in UTF, micropores, mesopores, and small pores were predominant in oil extraction during the first cycle. After a few Huff-n-Puff cycles, oil in micropores becomes the primary source of oil extraction. However, in MTF, the dominant pore distributions were mesopores, small pores, and fewer micropores than in UTF. The findings in this study provide new insight to better understand the mechanisms of gas HnP enhanced recovery in the Three Forks Formation, which is of great significance for the efficient hydrocarbon exploitation and greenhouse gas utilization in shale reservoirs.

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Assessment of undiscovered continuous oil resources in the Bakken and Three Forks Formations of the Williston Basin Province, North Dakota and Montana, 2021

Cited by 2 publications

References 2 publications

Stress-Dependent Petrophysical Properties of the Bakken Unconventional Petroleum System: Insights from Elastic Wave Velocities and Permeability Measurements

Stress-Dependent Petrophysical Properties of the Bakken Unconventional Petroleum System: Insights from Elastic Wave Velocities and Permeability Measurements

Pore- and Core-Scale Mechanisms Controlling Supercritical Cyclic Gas Utilization for Enhanced Recovery under Immiscible and Miscible Conditions in the Three Forks Formation

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