Rock physics description of different shale facies on the North Slope, Alaska

What is it about?

Different from other shale plays, North Slope Alaska shale resource is under-studied in current literature. In a sparsely drilled region, with a very limited data coming mostly from seismic survey and sparse core data, understanding of shale characteristics in this region is not fully investigated. This study attempts to provide the bridge between available relevant data to key properties of source rock to determine the potential for commercial development of shale resources in North Slope Alaska. Correlation between properties obtained from available data will be related to parameters used to evaluate the potential for a certain shale play. I built a rock physics template for each rock type, which is a collection of rock properties that are relatively unique to each type, so that future information can be I verified that existing petrophysical models can be properly applied to North Slope Alaska shale via proper adjustment of the model parameters. Usually, the data available is strictly limited to the well location, which is usually expensive to drill in remote locations like North Slope Alaska. The construction of the rock physics templates helps prediction of source rock properties away from the well location, thus determining the most prospective location for future development. I also characterized the rock properties’ variation with different direction measured, called shale anisotropy. By measuring properties such as sonic velocity, I was able to quantify the directional difference inherently because rocks may contain various elements or fractures. This analysis is critical to determine the optimal location of development well in the region because drilling in tight rock requires accurate well placement in rocks that are easy to break in certain directions. Fracture can be created more easily in rocks broken easily, allowing the fluids to be produced faster through this newly created pathways

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Photo by Joris Beugels on Unsplash

Photo by Joris Beugels on Unsplash