This project is integrated in the LOCRETA consortium, which is a part of “Tight Reservoir Development” (TRD) program sponsored by the Danish Hydrocarbon Research and Technology Center (DHRTC)
To date most of the Danish oil and gas has been produced from Upper Cretaceous and Paleogene chalk reservoirs. Chalk is in international context considered tight, although it typically has high porosity and production from induced fractures has been successful. However, to accommodate the increasing demand for hydrocarbons, extraction of petroleum from still more unfavorable reservoirs like the tight, low porosity low permeability mixed sediment formations in the Lower Cretaceous is needed.
In contrast to the Upper Cretaceous, during deposition the Lower Cretaceous sediment experienced a much greater influx of clay and silica, varying over time creating alternating layers of chalk, marly chalk and organic rich marlstone. The presence of these additional minerals attributes to a lower reservoir quality, lower permeability, lower porosity and an overall more challenging reservoir to model and produce.
The project includes the development of both a petrophysical permeability model and a rock physical elasticity model of the Lower Cretaceous reservoirs using existing petrophysical log and conventional core data combined with advanced experimental core analysis data taking into account the varying mineralogy distributions.