Reservatório de gás não convencional: história de caso na Bacia do Recôncavo - Brasil

Abstract

Unconventional gas reservoir is a term commonly used to refer to a lowpermeability reservoir that produces mainly gas. Many of the lowpermeability reservoirs that have been developed in the past are sandstone, but significant quantities of gas are also produced from low-permeability carbonates, shales, and coalbed methane. In general, a vertical well that has been drilled and completed in an unconventional gas reservoir must be successfully stimulated to produce at commercial gas flow rates and recover commercial gas volumes. Normally, a hydraulic fracture treatment is used to achieve successful stimulation. In some naturally fractured unconventional gas reservoirs, horizontal wells can be drilled, but many of these wells also need to be stimulated with hydraulic fracturing methods. To optimize the development of an unconventional gas reservoir, a team of geoscientists and engineers must determine the optimum number and locations of wells to be drilled, as well as the drilling and completion procedures for each well. On an individual well basis, an unconventional gas reservoir will produce less gas over a longer period of time than will a well completed in a higherpermeability, conventional reservoir. Many of the major accumulations of mineral resources are found within or near the deeply penetrating fractures of the global fractures called cracks of the world (Keith et al, 2003). In the exploration industry the main targets to be drilled can be predicted by the analysis of the structural adjustment and fluid flow pathway in lateral or in vertical pipes, detectable through different geochemistry and geophysics patterns. The recognition and distribution of an unconventional gas reservoir in the Reconcavo Basin is the main focus of this study. In this basin, it is observed that fractures, usually occurring in the Gomo Member shales of the Candeias Formation, are generated by the sliding down of the hanging block of listric faults. The sliding block undergoes a compression in its terminal portion, caused by the interruption of movement along an obstacle, usually a structural high produced by the accumulation of shale (possibly diamictites and olistoliths from a previous sliding). These fractures are arranged at various scales of magnitude and can be stated that the most important fracture is the strike-slip fault, from which other low order fractures are developed.