Impact of Natural Fractures in Reservoir Modelling and Characterization. Case Study in UAE

The offshore Field-A Gas Development Project is an integral part of the Abu Dhabi Deep Gas Project targeting untapped hydrocarbon reserves with priority given to gas reservoirs to satisfy an increasing gas demand and sustain economic growth of Abu Dhabi Emirate. Well test data from Field-A Khuff Formation cannot be modeled solely using a matrix based porosity system and requires the presence of fracture network to give a "mixed" porosity system to explain the observed flow test results. To assess this a subsurface study was initiated to incorporate fractures within the matrix porosity based 3D reservoir model and to examine different methods of populating fracture distributions across the geologic model. The ultimate aim of this work was to more accurately predict gas rates to better understand and mitigate rate uncertainties across a range of development scenarios.