Core investigations in the exploration of unconventional hydrocarbon systems: The key to success?

Anita Horváth, Péter Szafián, Gábor Bada, R. Wallis (TXM), Orsolya Sztanó (TXM & ELTE)

Multidisciplinary core investigation plays a vital role in the evaluation of the unconventional hydrocarbon accumulation in the Makó Trough. Gas occurrence is normally associated with tight sand reservoirs. Their petrophysicial assessment may well prove to be the key to future success for all stages of exploration and production from reserve estimations to selecting the optimal stimulation methods (hydraulic fracturing).

Combining a poster with a display of core samples, this presentation is aimed at introducing a wider professional audience to the rocks identified in the Makó Trough. The presented cores were drilled from formations constituting the main targets of exploration, including the pre-Neogene basement, the overlying syn-rift sequence, and the Endrőd and Szolnok Formations. The poster provides an overview of lab test results on these cores for porosity, permeability, pore size distribution, specific pore surface area, water saturation, rock mechanic parameters, fractures, etc. These results are supplemented by well logs and FMI images, as well as macroscopic core descriptions.

The presentation is intended to demonstrate the importance of a detailed and multidisciplinary study of cores in the following fields:

- reconstruction of sedimentary environments;

- effect of diagenetic processes;

- reconstruction of tight sand texture on the scale of pore space;

- natural fracturing;

- role of rock mechanics in drilling and hydro-fracturing.