Characterization of natural fractures in Mesaverde core from the multiwell experiment [electronic resource].
- Imprint
- Albuquerque, N.M. : Sandia National Laboratories. ; Oak Ridge, Tenn. : distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy, 1988
- Physical description
- 1 online resource (Pages: 138 ) : digital, PDF file.
Description
Creators/Contributors
- Contributor
- Sandia National Laboratories. Researcher
- United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Scientific and Technical Information. Distributor
- Lorenz, J.C. Author
- Finley, S.J. Author
Contents/Summary
- Summary
- Natural fractures dominate the permeability of tight sandstone reservoirs in the Mesaverde Formation of the Piceance Creek Basin, north-western Colorado. Roughly 1900 natural fractures, detected in 4200 ft of Mesaverde core from the US Department of Energy's Multiwell Experiment (MWX), have been differentiated into 10 different fracture types on the basis of fracture morphology, inclination, the presence of slickensides, the presence of dickite mineralization and/or host lithology. Approximately 75% of the MWX core fractures are dewatering planes in mudstone and are probably unimportant to reservoir permeability. The remaining 25% of the MWX core fractures include 275 mostly calcite-mineralized, vertical extension fractures, 61 irregular, dickite-mineralized extension fractures, 27 mostly calcite-mineralized, horizontal extension fractures, and 90 slickensided, occasionally mineralized shear fractures. These extension and shear fractures are all potentially important to reservoir permeability and consequently productivity. 13 refs., 61 figs., 2 tabs.
Subjects
Bibliographic information
- Publication date
- 1988
- Note
- Published through SciTech Connect.
- 09/01/1988.
- "sand-88-1800"
- "DE89004505"
- Lorenz, J.C.; Finley, S.J.
- Funding information
- AC04-76DP00789
