Date of Award

4-2013

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Geological and Environmental Sciences

First Advisor

Dr. G. Michael Grammer

Second Advisor

Dr. Robert Gillespie

Third Advisor

Dr. William B. Harrison III

Fourth Advisor

Robert K. Garrison

Keywords

Eagle Ford, Eagleford, Texas, characterization, stratigraphy

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

The Mid-to-Late Cretaceous Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas is a mixed siliciclastic/carbonate, unconventional resource play with considerable oil and natural gas. Characterization of Eagle Ford reservoir quality and potential is made difficult by complex, small-scale heterogeneities.

The limited availability of subsurface data constrains previous subsurface Eagle Ford investigations. As a result, the internal variability of depositional facies and reservoir attributes remain poorly understood for these Eagle Ford rocks.

This investigation incorporates a representative group of four Eagle Ford cores, and core data, from within the current play area in order to: 1) determine facies successions, 2) establish a hierarchal classification of vertical stacking patterns constrained within a sequence stratigraphic framework, and 3) relate intervals of reservoir-quality porosity-/permeability with specific facies-/units.

Results of this investigation demonstrate how techniques of identifying, and linking depositional facies to reservoir quality, and then tying these to wire-line log data assist in the evaluation of unconventional reservoirs and, ultimately, enhance the predictability of reservoir potential away from core observations.

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