An integrated, multi-disciplinary approach utilizing stratigraphy, petrophysics, and geophysics to predict reservoir properties of tight unconventional sandstones in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming, USA

Numerous unconventional resources have become economically viable with the development of horizontal drilling and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing. Unconventional reservoirs have variable degrees of heterogeneity and identification of good and poor reservoir properties is essential for efficient development to define the economic limits of a resource play. An integrated, multi-disciplinary approach of correlating core facies to petrophysical wireline facies to seismic facies for tight unconventional sandstones is presented in this paper along with the results of a simultaneous, geostatistical seismic inversion. Seismic facies and reservoir rock properties, which are calibrated to wireline logs and core data, are mapped from 3D seismic inversion volumes. The maps provide a detailed understanding of the characteristics of the reservoirs, namely their spatial distribution, geometry, and internal architecture. This methodology demonstrates the tremendous value of incorporating stratigraphic, petrophysical, and geophysical data into a quantitative, integrated reservoir model.