Appraising Unconventional Play Potential in Egypt's Western Desert

Abstract With the increase of Egypt's domestic demand for energy, economical production from unconventional reservoirs is a great challenge to maintain production's annual decline. This has spurred interest in the development of unconventional resources, such as tight reservoirs and shale gas, particularly because of the enormous success in North America that brought unconventional resources to the forefront of the discussion on the future of energy. The country has launched studies to evaluate, explore and appraise several prospects for unconventional gas in Shoushan-Matrouh and Abu Gharadig basins. Exploratory pilot data wells were drilled and completed in the appraisal program for collecting the required data to evaluate the reservoirs qualities, demonstrate the availability of reserves, and identify optimal technology to maximize productivity and set the foundation for future development of these unconventional plays. Logs, core testing, and analysis service data were performed on or collected from these wells. Laboratory testing was conducted to understand the complex mineralogy and variable rock fabric. Geomechanical rock properties derived from advanced petrophysical analysis of newly acquired high-definition triple-combo full-wave sonic logs and core samples were combined to develop sophisticated models. These understandings helped reduce uncertainty and the lessons learned from this work and presented in this paper helped define completion and stimulation technologies for horizontal wells. This objective of this paper is to review of the results and share lessons learned related to the recent appraising activities of unconventional plays in Egypt's western desert, evaluate these unconventional resources to unlock their potential. In addition, this paper present the challenges of development, highlight the best strategies required for field development to capitalize on the promising potential of these reservoirs through an integrated advanced workflow. The results from this study will shed light on the results of recent unconventional gas exploration and appraisal activities, which indicate that the western desert of Egypt holds substantial resources of unconventional gas. This unconventional gas can help to change the slope of production rates in the country positively and set the foundation for future development of these plays.