Paper: Fracture Characterization Based On Orientated Horizontal Core From The Spraberry Trend Reservoir A Case Study

Natural fractures existing over a regional area have long been known to dominate all aspects of performance in the Spraberry Trend Area". However, there is little or no information on the actual fracture system other than: orientation, on a gross basis, from pulse and/or tracer tests in the 50's and 60"s, and fracture spacing inferred from simulation and a few existing vertical cores. Previous descriptions and old core reports did not distinguish between natural and coring induced fractures, thus almost all information from the early years, when almost all Spraberry data was obtained, provides no detailed information on the natural fracture system. The first vertical core, taken as part of the current program in 1993 from the Shackelford Spraberry Unit #l-38A, intersected a vertical natural fracture with significant mineralization that had clearly grown into unoccupied space. This open, mineralized fracture was contained within a thin pay sand and was observed to terminate at a shale parting. This fracture was the first documented evidence of the existence of mineralized natural fractures within the pay sand. The orientation, containment within zone, degree of mineralization, fracture aperture and spacing are important questions when considering fluid flow in naturally fractured reservoirs. However, after considerable data gathering, it became apparent that only superficial characterization of the natural fracture system was available. Recent acquisition of the horizontal core has radically altered understanding of the natural fracture system in the Spraberry Trend Area. This well, the E.T. 0" Daniel #28, was cored with the intent of intersecting natural fractures in the thin sand streaks where oil saturation is found in the Upper Spraberry. Over 100 natural fractures were intersected from the 1U and 5U pay zones exhibiting an intriguing and diverse array of fracturing behavior. This paper describes the coring operation, fracture analysis of the cores and log analysis from the horizontal wellbore.