Naturally fractured reservoirs constitute a substantial percentage of remaining hydrocarbon resources; they create exploration targets in otherwise impermeable rocks, including under-explored crystalline basement; and they can be used as geological stores for anthropogenic carbon dioxide. Their complex behaviour during production has traditionally proved difficult to predict, causing a large degree of uncertainty in reservoir development. The applied study of naturally fractured reservoirs seeks to constrain this uncertainty by developing new understanding, and is necessarily a broad, integrated, interdisciplinary topic. This book addresses some of the challenges and advances in knowledge, approaches, concepts, and methods used to characterize the interplay of rock matrix and fracture networks, relevant to fluid flow and hydrocarbon recovery. Topics include: describing, characterizing and identifying controls on fracture networks from outcrops, cores, geophysical data, digital and numerical models; geomechanical influences on reservoir behaviour; numerical modelling and simulation of fluid flow; and case studies of the exploration and development of carbonate, siliciclastic and metamorphic naturally fractured reservoirs.
This volume is a state of the art look at our understanding of joint development in the crust. Answers are provided for such questions as the mechanisms by which joints are initiated, the factors controlling the path they follow during the propagation process, and the processes responsible for the arrest of joints. Many of the answers to these questions can be inferred from the geometry of joint surface morphology and joint patterns. Joints are a record of the orientation of stress at the time of propagation and as such they are also useful records of ancient stress fields, regional and local. Because outcrop and subsurface views of joints are limited, statistical techniques are required to characterize joints and joint sets. Finally, joints are subject to post-propagation stresses that further localize deformation and are the focus for the development of new structures.