In exploration, and sometimes development wells, we often encounter porous zones which probably contain gas, but logs do not tell us the formation permeability, or whether or not the zone could produce gas at commercial rates.  We could perforate, but most tight zones will produce nothing upon perforation, especially if any drilling damage has occurred.  How do we decide if this zone is worth completing without spending a lot of money on a large hydraulic fracture treatment?  ‘Exploration’ fractures have been attempted, but are seldom successful and are always expensive.

The L&L will review a number of methods available to us which may help determine if the zone is commercial without spending a lot of money on a hydraulic fracture treatment.  The talk focuses on fracture injection tests (sometimes called injection falloff tests or IFOT’s) and methods to determine permeability and reservoir pressure quickly and at low cost.  With this data we can: 1) decide if the zone is worth investing the money in a hydraulic fracture treatment; and 2) have some very good data to help us pump a properly designed and sized hydraulic fracture treatment.