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Petrophysical Characterization of the Turonian and Cenomanian Intervals in the Abu Gharadig Field, Western Desert, Egypt: Inferences on Reservoir Quality and Resource Development

Natural Resources Research volume 31, pages 1793–1824 (2022)Cite this article

Abstract

Characterization of reservoir petrophysical properties provides critical insights into reservoir deliverability and field development strategy. The main objective of this work is to present a comprehensive core-based petrophysical assessment of the Cenomanian Bahariya Formation and the Turonian Abu Roash (AR-D and AR-E, respectively) Members of the Abu Gharadig field situated in the Western Desert, Egypt. The AR-D is water-wet and consists of micro- to mesoporous shallow marine limestone lithofacies with moderate porosity (Φ), poor horizontal permeability (Kh) with poor permeability anisotropy due to the presence of vertical fractures, while the nano- to mesoporous argillaceous limestone lithofacies is very tight. Both the lithofacies exhibit primary and secondary depositional fabrics. Overall, the AR-D member exhibits impervious to poor reservoir quality, and so a suitable stimulation strategy will be essential to produce from this interval. The AR-E interval implies a tidal depositional environment. The calcareous sandstone lithofacies of the AR-E is macro- to megaporous and exhibits moderate to high porosity (> 15%) and excellent permeability (up to 305 mD). The meso- to microporous glauconitic siltstones of the AR-E have poor porosity and permeability. Both lithofacies are characterized by high water saturation, preserve primary depositional fabrics and consist of isotropic pore system along with some connected horizontal pores yielding higher permeability anisotropy. The Bahariya Formation consists of fine to medium grained massive sandstone lithofacies with minor siltstone intercalations, indicating a channel deposit in a coastal or fluvio–deltaic environment. It exhibits high porosity (~ 20%) and permeability (up to 649 mD) but shows very high water saturation. It preserves the primary depositional fabrics with isotropic pore system. The thin siltstone intercalations may act as vertical barriers. Based on the petrophysical assessment, we made recommendations on the reservoir development aspects.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due restricted permissions but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Notes

  1. 1 mD (millidarcy) = 9.86923* 10–16 meter2.

  2. 1 ft = 0.3048 m.

  3. 1 psi/ft = 22.6206 Megapascal/kilometer.

  4. 1 PPG (pounds per gallon) = 0.12 gm/cm3.

  5. 1 psi = 0.0069 Megapascal.

  6. 1 mD (millidarcy) = 9.86923* 10–16 meter2.

  7. 1 psi = 0.0069 Megapascal.

  8. 1 bopd = 0.1589 cubic meter per day.

  9. 1 MMSCFD (million standard cubic ft/day) = 0.02832 MMSCMD (million standard cubic meter/day.

  10. 1 bopd = 0.1589 cubic meter per day.

  11. 1 MMSCFD (million standard cubic ft/day) = 0.02832 MMSCMD (million standard cubic meter/day.

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Acknowledgments

Authors express their sincere gratitude to Professor John Carranza (Editor-in-Chief) and the four reviewers for their constructive reviews which benefited our work. The authors are grateful to Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) for the dataset and the permission to publish this study. Interpretation presented in this paper is solely of the authors and does not necessarily reflect their respective organizations.

Funding

No funding was received for conducting this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Exploration Department, Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute (EPRI), 1 Ahmed El-Zomor Street, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt

    Sherif Farouk

  2. Geologix Limited, Dynasty Building, Wing A, Level 4, Andheri Kurla Road, Andheri (E), Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400059, India

    Souvik Sen

  3. Production Department, Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute (EPRI), 1 Ahmed El-Zomor Street, Nasr City, Cairo, 11727, Egypt

    Hesham Abuseda

  4. Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafrelsheikh, 33516, Egypt

    Yasmen El-Shamly, Alaa Salam & Mohamed Mahmoud Elhossainy

Authors
  1. Sherif Farouk
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  2. Souvik Sen
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  3. Hesham Abuseda
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  4. Yasmen El-Shamly
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  5. Alaa Salam
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  6. Mohamed Mahmoud Elhossainy
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Contributions

SF and SS were involved in conceptualization; SF, SS and HA contributed to methodology, formal analysis and investigation; SS contributed to the writing-original draft preparation; SF supervised the project. All authors were involved in writing-review and editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Souvik Sen.

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The authors have no competing interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

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Farouk, S., Sen, S., Abuseda, H. et al. Petrophysical Characterization of the Turonian and Cenomanian Intervals in the Abu Gharadig Field, Western Desert, Egypt: Inferences on Reservoir Quality and Resource Development. Nat Resour Res 31, 1793–1824 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11053-022-10069-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11053-022-10069-0

Keywords

  • Petrophysical characterization
  • Reservoir quality
  • Permeability anisotropy
  • Bahariya
  • Abu Roash