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Characterization of underground river reservoirs in Tahe Oilfield, Tarim Basin, China

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Abstract

This study provides a method for characterizing underground river reservoirs while integrating outcrop, core, drilling, logging, and seismic data, and mainly including outcrop analogues, single-well identification, the prediction of inter-well locations, and the establishment of three-dimensional geological modeling. Outcrop analogues provide a better geological understanding of the spatial distribution and the internal filling characteristics of underground rivers. There exist unfilled and fully filled caverns, both of which indicate that a single well has encountered underground river reservoirs. The core fillings of underground river caverns are sand, mud, breccia, and calcite, which have logging response characteristics of enlarged diameter logs, high neutron values, low natural gamma values, and high-resistivity logging curves. Inter-well prediction of underground river reservoirs is mainly based on seismic impedance for depicting the spatial distribution of the river. Shallow and deep underground rivers have been identified in unit T of the Tahe Oilfield, and the major of the underground river caverns are partially filled. The initial three-dimensional reservoir model of the underground river reservoir is created based on the truncation of the seismic impedance value and has the characteristics of a discontinuous channel. On considering the statistical parameters of the real reservoir, the trend line, source point, and vertical development probability as constraints, the model is corrected via object-based simulation. For the filling of caverns in single well, the porosity are calculated according to the formula obtained by the core calibration logging curve. For the unfilled caverns in a single well, the porosity is comprehensively assigned according to cumulative production. The sequential Gauss simulation method is then used to establish a property model of underground river reservoirs.

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(Modified from Li,2016). a Sand fillings with beddings in Well W18. b Collapse breccia in Well W18. c Hostrock in Well W18

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Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the SINOPEC Northwest Company for supplying various data.

Funding

This study was funded by Sinopec Science and Technology Department Project (No. P21063-2) and (No. P21085-20).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sinopec Petroleum Exploration and Production Research Institute, Beijing, 100083, China

    Yongqiang Li & Jianfang Sun

  2. College of Geosciences, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, 102249, China

    Jiagen Hou

  3. PetroChina Huabei Oilfield Company, Renqiu, 062552, China

    Li Tang

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  1. Yongqiang Li
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  2. Jianfang Sun
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  3. Jiagen Hou
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  4. Li Tang
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Correspondence to Yongqiang Li.

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No conflict of interest exists in the submission of this manuscript, and the manuscript is approved by all authors for publication. The work described was original research that has not been published previously and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. All data included in this study are available upon request by contact with the corresponding author.

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Responsible Editor: Santanu Banerjee

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Li, Y., Sun, J., Hou, J. et al. Characterization of underground river reservoirs in Tahe Oilfield, Tarim Basin, China. Arab J Geosci 15, 1687 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-10920-x

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