| The South Central Oklahoma Oil Province is the current play for the Goddard shale and is also the main field for the underlying Woodford Formation. As of September 2015, an estimated 40 wells have been drilled to evaluate and produce the Goddard shale in the southeastern portion of the Anadarko Basin. With companies reporting initial production rates ranging from 1,000 boe/d to nearly 2,000 boe/d and 30 day reports averaging around 800 boe/d, the amount of recovery from this tight shale reservoir has exceptional potential. Continental Resources Inc. estimates a gross recovery of 940,000 boe per lateral well. Understanding the reservoir quality and characteristics of the Chesterian-age Goddard shale is vital to understanding future production and exploration. There has been very little petro-physical work done on the Goddard shale due to the lack of overall production along with the declining oil prices at the time of discovery. Using hydrophilic (water and/or brine) and hydrophobic (n-decane) fluids, the purpose of this study is to examine wettability, fluid migration and pore connectivity of the Goddard shale. To achieve this, we collected core samples from two wells located at the heart of the play and performed wettability, fluid imbibition and vapor adsorption, and mercury injection capillary pressure tests. Results from these studies show that the Goddard shale has a strong affinity to oil (n-decane in this study) compared to DI water and API brine. With porosity values averaging 6% and permeability generally greater than 0.5 mD, the majority of pore-throat sizes for the Goddard shale are 0.005-0.01 mum, which is typical of organic pores rather than mineral pores which are generally larger. A petro-physical analysis of the shale based on the results of this thesis is beneficial to further understand the pore structure and fluid migration within the shale to facilitate increased production and accurate economic evaluations. |
