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To cite this article: A. J. Hill & A. J. Mauger (2016) HyLogging unconventional petroleum core from
the Cooper Basin, South Australia, Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 63:8, 1087-1097, DOI:
10.1080/08120099.2016.1261369
HyLogging unconventional petroleum core from the Cooper Basin, South Australia
A. J. Hill and A. J. Mauger
a
Department of State Development, South Australia 101 Grenfell St, Adelaide, 5000, Australia
Figure 1. Map of base Cooper Basin (metres subsea) showing location of key structural troughs and Holdfast-1 well.
This paper will focus on the application of HyLogger first trial to integrate and correlate XRD quantitative
3TM technology and the marriage with X-ray diffraction mineralogy collected for hydrocarbon assessment with
(XRD) and core petrology to constrain mineral assemb- HyLogger-derived mineralogy.
lages of the lower Permian Roseneath–Epsilon–Murteree
(REM) resource play (Figure 3) that has been the subject
Exploration history
of extensive exploration activity in the overpressured
Nappamerri Trough. While this technology has been his- Between 1971 and 2001, nine petroleum exploration wells
torically applied to only a few sedimentary sequences were drilled in the Nappamerri Trough targeting conventional
[e.g. Georgina Basin; Ayling, Huntington, Smith, & four-way dip closures. Although these wells were plugged
Edwards, 2016; and Cariewerloo Basin (Keeling, Mauger, and abandoned due to uneconomic gas flows, drill-stem tests
Wilson, & Raven, 2012: Wilson et al., 2010)], this is the confirmed the presence of a basin-centred gas accumulation
AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES 1089
Figure 2. Geological column. The interval under study in Holdfast-1 encompasses the lower Permian Roseneath Shale in the Cooper Basin.
1090 A. J. HILL AND A. J. MAUGER
Figure 3. Stratigraphic chart showing close up of REM sequence and Cored/HyLogger 3 interval, Gamma Ray (GR), Sonic (DT) and methane readings (ppm) from
mudlog.
AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES 1091
comprising gas-saturated Permian succession in excess of section in the Nappamerri Trough lies within the dry gas win-
1000 m thick in the deeper parts of the trough that hosts ther- dow (Ro > 1.7) (Hall et al., 2015). This higher maturity is due
mally mature, gas-prone source rocks with interbedded tight to an elevated geothermal gradient (40–50 C/km) resulting
sands. from high heat-producing granites at depths around 3500 m.
Excluding the Murteree and Roseneath shales, the succes- The REM section in the southwestern margin of the Nappa-
sion comprises up to 45% carbonaceous and silty shales and merri Trough, northern Tenappera Trough and Mettika
coals deposited in flood plain, lacustrine and coal swamp Embayment is mature for wet gas generation (Hall et al.,
environments (Hall et al., 2015). Resistivity of the Permian suc- 2015).
cession exceeds 20 Vm over large intervals (Hillis, Morton, The elevated heat flow within the Nappamerri Trough is
Warner, & Penney, 2001), tests have recovered gas with no the major contributing factor in diagenetic alteration that
water, and gas is located within overpressured compartments resulted in significant reduction in porosity and permeability
indicative of hydraulic isolation. of the sediments. The application of HyLogger 3 to identify
Following the rise in shale gas exploration success in the zones that have a suite of minerals in the appropriate and rel-
USA and recognising the potential in the Nappamerri Trough, ative concentrations that make them conducive to fracture
Beach Energy commenced a 14-well program in 2010 to fully stimulation, which in turn provides access to large resources
characterise the REM play and, in doing so, determine opti- of tight gas, is the principal aim of this study.
mum well spacing, pad drilling, multi-stage fracture stimula-
tion and microseismic monitoring to improve the
Holdfast-1 well
commerciality of the resource and increase recovery factors
(Trembath, Elliott, & Pitkin, 2012). Holdfast-1, located about 70 km northeast of Moomba
Well data suggest lower porosity than US shales and high- (Figure 1), was drilled by Beach Energy to a depth of 3492 m
light requirement for thicker and overpressured shale sections to test the shale gas and tight sand potential of the gas-satu-
to commercialise the resource. HyLogger 3 will assist in deter- rated Permian sequence. A near-continuous sequence com-
mining zones that are more receptive to fracture stimulation prising 382 m of full hole core through the target REM and
by identifying zones based on mineralogy. These zones are Patchawarra Formation was recovered and extensive core
characterised as having high concentrations of quartz (30–40 analyses subsequently carried out including desorption analy-
vol%) and illite/muscovite (40–50 vol%) and moderate con- sis of the shales that indicated better-than-expected gas con-
centrations of siderite (5–10 vol%) and kaolinite (10–15 vol%) tent. TOC, maturity and mineralogy were all consistent with
(Trembath et al., 2012). pre-drill expectations. Log analysis indicated that the Permian
sand section was gas saturated, including the drilled portion
of the Patchawarra Formation (Trembath et al., 2012).
Characterisation of REM resource play
In June 2011, Holdfast-1 was fracture stimulated. A total of
The principal shale gas play is the REM play comprising lower seven zones were stimulated, one in the Patchawarra Forma-
Permian Murteree and Roseneath shales divided by tight tion, one in the Murteree Shale, three in the Epsilon Formation
sands of the fluvio-deltaic Epsilon Formation (Figure 3). These and two in the Roseneath Shale. During the fracture stimula-
two shale units are thick, generally flat lying and laterally tions, various proppant sizes, pump rates and gel systems
extensive, comprising siltstones and siliceous (and sideritic in were trialled to gather information for future well stimula-
part) mudstones deposited in large and relatively deep fresh- tions. Tilt-metre survey tools were also used to confirm verti-
water lakes. These shales have low porosity and permeability cal fracture orientation. A very encouraging initial flow rate of
and are brittle and frackable (Trembath et al., 2012). The Mur- up to 2 MMcfd was achieved, and a production logging run
teree Shale is widespread, reaching a maximum thickness of after two weeks of production indicated that all formations
92 m in the Nappamerri Trough and thins to the north, reach- stimulated were contributing to the gas flow rate (Trembath
ing a maximum thickness of 35 m in the Patchawarra Trough et al., 2012)
(Figure 1); it is absent over crestal ridges. The Roseneath Shale The successful fracture stimulation and gas flow rate from
is less widespread than the Murteree Shale and is restricted to Holdfast-1 not only confirmed the pre-stimulation assessment
the Tenaperra and Nappamerrii troughs (Boucher, 2001) but of the REM and Patchawarra Formations as being gas satu-
has been totally eroded in the Patchawarra Trough (Figure 1). rated but also demonstrated that the gas within both the
It reaches a maximum thickness of 194 m in Encounter 1 in low-permeability sandstones and the shales could be pro-
the Nappamerri Trough. duced to surface.
The lacustrine Murteree and Roseneath shales have some
source potential [total organic carbon (TOC) values average
Aims
3.9 wt% in the Roseneath Shale and 2.4 wt% in the Murteree
Shale], and organic maturity is variable (Boreham & Hill, 1998). Based on an extensive suite of routine and special core analy-
In the Patchawarra Trough, where only the Murteree Shale is ses conducted on Holdfast-1 including XRD, core petrology,
present, maturity, as measured by vitrinite reflectance (Ro), is rock mechanics, porosity and permeability determination, gas
sufficient for wet gas generation (0.95 < Ro < 1.7) in the desorption, chemostratigraphy and petrophysical analysis
deepest part of the trough. A significant portion of the REM (Beach Energy, 2011), Minerals and Energy Resources Group
1092 A. J. HILL AND A. J. MAUGER
Methodology
The robotic HyLogger 3 (described by Shodlock et al., 2016)
measures reflectance spectra from core stored in core trays
with minimum sample preparation. The Holdfast-1 PQ (85
mm) core was presented as a flat cut face (one-third fillet on
top of two-thirds portion; Figure 4). Incorporating four instru-
ments mounted 100 mm apart over a robotic table, the
HyLogger 3 has a high-resolution camera hereafter called a
‘line-scan’, a VNIR-SWIR spectrometer, a laser profiler and a
thermal infrared (TIR) spectrometer, which recorded measure-
ments as core was passed beneath them. During the importa-
tion of the raw data from HyLogger 3 in October 2014, all four
instrument data streams were synchronised so the data could
be analysed, interrogated and displayed in ‘The Spectral
Geologist’ program [TSG Hot Core v 7.1.0.068; Mason et al.
(1998–2014)].
Depths were assigned during the scanning by the operator
entering the start and end tray depths, however, post-
processing allowed for the further interactive refinement of
depth locations using in-tray depth markers that were visible Figure 4. (a) Configuration of core for Holdfast-1 HyLogger 3 measurements
showing how the plug removed for XRD analysis directly corresponds in posi-
in the co-registered line-scan imagery. Of the spectral range tion to the sample scanned by HyLogger 3. (b) Photograph of core exposing the
recorded by HyLogger 3, this paper will focus on the TIR (6– plug underneath the top fillet.
14 mm) because the TIR measures quartz, a key component of
this study, and in the absence of a key component mineral
abundances would not correlate with quantified XRD analysis.
Within TSG a sub-program called ‘Constrained Least Squares’ Table 1. Restricted mineral set provided to the CLS algorithm
(CLS) (Green, 2014) uses a spectral deconvolution algorithm for analysing the thermal infrared (TIR) spectra.
and a spectral library to estimate the dominant and sub- Restricted mineral set provided to CLS in TIR
dominant minerals interpreted as contributing to each spec- Group Species
trum. CLS enables the analyst to refine the library and apply Silica Quartz
Kaolin Kaolinite
only those minerals applicable to the geological environment Kaolinite-PX
under study (Table 1). The minerals selected were based on White mica Muscovite
the groups of minerals identified in XRD results (silica, kaolin, Illite
Paragonite
white mica and carbonate). This paper examines the quality Carbonate Ankerite
of the numerical abundances of TIR minerals calculated by Siderite
CLS compared with quantitative XRD analyses of the same Calcite
Dolomite
core. Magnesite
Precision and accuracy are two critical aspects of undertak- The minerals in this list exist in the TSG library and were
ing a study comparing mineral matches to the spectral selected based on the mineralogy identified in XRD.
AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES 1093
Table 2. Analytical data used to establish the correlation between quantitative XRD results and reported proportions provided by spectral analysis of TIR data.
Total
Total Siderite Illite white
Depth Depth From To Sample Quartz Quartz Kaolin kaolin (Mg) Siderite Siderite Ankerite Muscovite 1M mica
(loggers) (drillers) index index method XRD TIR XRD TIR XRD XRD TIR TIR 2M1 XRD XRD TIR
3037.50 3034.00 129 137 Core break 38 0.521 7 0.108 1 2 0.000 0.000 38 12 0.370
3042.50 3039.00 79 802 Core break 60 0.676 5 0.110 9 2 0.075 0.000 15 8 0.139
3047.29 3043.79 1432 1438 Plug 43 0.537 6 0.185 3 2 0.000 0.000 39 5 0.278
3047.50 3044.00 1459 1467 Core break 43 0.587 7 0.130 3 2 0.000 0.000 33 10 0.284
3052.50 3049.00 2124 2132 Core break 57 0.719 7 0.100 0.057 0.003 22 11 0.121
3056.50 3053.00 2656 2664 Core break 49 0.579 6 0.104 11 7 0.131 0.000 19 7 0.187
3057.96 3054.46 2854 2859 Plug 44 0.550 7 0.187 1 1 0.001 0.000 39 5 0.262
3061.50 3058.00 3321 3457 Core break 35 0.548 9 0.166 1 0.004 0.000 42 10 0.282
3066.50 3063.00 3986 3987 Core break 38 0.510 8 0.129 1 4 0.000 0.000 35 12 0.361
3071.50 3068.00 4648 4651 Core break 34 0.878 6 0.066 4 12 0.040 0.000 30 13 0.015
Depths (loggers) were used in Figure 3, which displays geophysical logs and stratigraphy. Depths (drillers) were used to mark depths in the TSG file (Figures 6, 7).
The From- and To- Index values were used to identify precise spectra in the TSG file whose values were averaged to correspond to the XRD sample results. The
Total Kaolin TIR is the sum of kaolinite and kaolinite-PX reported by CLS, and Total White Mica TIR is the sum of muscovite, illite and paragonite as reported
by CLS.
response from the HyLogger 3 using a refined mineral selec- poor sample orientation. Both samples were from the tray-
tion with the CLS algorithm spectroscopy to mineral interpre- break samples and might be attributed to poor sample collec-
tations by quantitative XRD. In order to achieve the greatest tion technique.
accuracy of position, the unique spectral index number The linear regression equations established using this
assigned by TSG was used to identify relevant pixels in the technique were subsequently used to estimate the XRD
associated imagery where sampling points were observed. equivalent mineralogy for the intervals that were perfo-
Using the XRD sample depths provided in the Holdfast-1 rated to enhance gas flow. Using the down-sampling
well-completion report (Beach Energy, 2011) it was possible option in TSG, the average proportion of minerals inter-
to focus on particular spectral index numbers by processing preted from the TIR using CLS over those intervals were
the TSG file in Microsoft Excel thereby retaining the high regressed and values compared with optimal mineralogy
precision of depth-marking recorded during post-process- for fracture stimulation.
ing. Understanding the sampling strategy enabled a refine-
ment of identification of those spectral index numbers.
Discussion of results
There were two sets of samples retrieved from this hole
(Table 2). The first samples were taken where the core was The necessity for regression and calibration is caused by the
broken in order to place it in its core trays, and the second current state of the technology used for spectral interpreta-
were from 2.54 cm diameter core plugs drilled perpendicu- tion. One aspect that could well impact the results is that the
lar to the core at selected locations. Both samples were library spectra employed do not always cover all natural varia-
submitted to CSIRO for quantitative XRD analysis prior to tions of a particular species and at this stage do not address
HyLogging. Where the sample was retrieved from breaking volume scattering issues (A. Green, pers. comm. 2016). Com-
the core no sample location is evident in the core itself. It bined with the mathematical difficulty of unmixing kaolin,
was therefore deemed that two spectral pixels either side quartz and muscovite in the TIR, the results commonly under-
of the break would represent the absent sample. For the represent the abundance of kaolin, for example. In spite of
cored plugs, photographs were recorded for each and then these shortcomings, it was found that by removing the two
compared with the line-scan imagery to ascertain an accu- outliers the R2 for quartz XRD vs TIR using CLS improved from
rate and precise index location for the sample. The nature 0.6859 to 0.8483. The R2 for muscovite XRD vs TIR using CLS
of slabbing the core in a ratio of 1:2 and coring the bottom was 0.7911 and for kaolin R2 D 0.6782 (Figure 5). In addition,
two-thirds means that first, the plug hole is concealed from an R2 value for siderite XRD vs TIR yielded 0.8069. This demon-
the HyLogger by the overlain top third, second, the sample strates the capacity for TIR-CLS to deliver quantitative results
scanned is almost identical to the volume assayed by XRD, in estimating the abundance of quartz, muscovite, kaolin and
and third, the location can be accurately determined siderite.
(Figure 4). The results from applying the HyLogger 3 to the near con-
Using a file of from-and-to spectral index numbers tinuous Holdfast-1 cored interval confirmed a highly hetero-
recorded interactively from the TSG file while viewing the geneous quartz/muscovite/illite-dominated sequence with
line-scan image and checking spectral integrity, the TSG/CLS associated kaolinite and siderite (Figures 6, 7). Visual estimates
results were down-sampled by averaging in the TSG export of siderite in the core made by the authors, and confirmed by
facility using those recorded spans. Between four and six descriptions in the well-completion report (Trembath et al.,
spectral pixels had their weights for each mineral averaged in 2012), show that the minerals occur as thin bands (up to
order to correlate with the XRD results. There were only two 2 cm) and concur with the cyclic nature observed in the
outliers in 101 samples, one of which could be explained by HyLogger 3 data (Figure 7).
1094 A. J. HILL AND A. J. MAUGER
Quartz
y = 0.0085x + 0.1757
Average abundance from TIR (0-1)
1.0 R² = 0.8483
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
XRD quantitative analysis (%)
Muscovite
0.6
y = 0.0094x + 0.025
Average abundance from TIR (0-1)
0.5
R² = 0.7911
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
XRD quantitative analysis (%)
Kaolinite
0.25
y = 0.0145x + 0.0403
Average abundance from TIR (0-1)
R² = 0.6782
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
XRD quantitative analysis (%)
Siderite
0.5
y = 0.0103x - 0.0065
Average abundance from TIR (0-1)
0.45
R² = 0.8069
0.4
0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
XRD quantitative analysis (%)
204742-003
Figure 5. Cross-plots of measured XRD derived mineralogy vs HyLogger meas- Figure 6. HyLogger 3 summary screen. Downhole histogram for Holdfast-1 (drill
urements for quartz, muscovite and kaolinite. Each point represents one XRD hole number 261958) showing the relative proportions of each of the minerals
analysis but may be two to four TIR spectra. The y-axes show the average rela- in the Restricted Mineral Set (siderite, kaolinite, muscovite and quartz) used by
tive proportion values (in the range 0–1) derived from the multiple spectra rep- the CLS algorithm on the TIR spectra (TIR-CLS) plotted against depth down the
resenting each XRD sample as calculated by the CLS algorithm. These values are hole in metres. Each histogram bin of 0.8 m (approx. 100 samples) aggregated
plotted against the reported quantitative XRD result measured in percent. The the relative weights (proportions) of the minerals for all samples in that depth
quality of the correlation is reported using linear regression, and the R2 value interval and normalised to 100%.
(0–1) indicates the degree of correlation. By applying the regression equation
to the XRD results, one can predict the TIR estimated abundance.
AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES 1095
Figure 7. HyLogger 3 outputs for quartz and muscovite over the 1 m cored interval 3143–3144 m, Holdfast-1 illustrating heterogeneity within the Roseneath Shale.
The core imagery on the left is aligned with the graphs on the right demonstrating that visually monotonous core is mineralogically heterogeneous—a heterogene-
ity that demands careful registration of the removed sample with HyLogger 3 measurements. For the right-hand graphs, each dot represents one 8 mm £ 8 mm
sample. The y-axis records the calculated proportions reported for quartz and muscovite in each sample using the CLS algorithm, where CLS has used a Restricted
Mineral Set consisting of ankerite, siderite, kaolinite, muscovite, illite and quartz.
1096 A. J. HILL AND A. J. MAUGER
sum of kaolinite and kaolinite-PX reported by CLS, and Total White Mica Hall, L. S., Hill, A., Troup, A., Korsch, R., Radke, B., Nicoll, R. S., Palu, T., Wang,
TIR is the sum of muscovite, illite and paragonite as reported by CLS. L., & Stacey, A. (2015) Cooper Basin architecture and lithofacies:
regional hydrocarbon prospectivity of the Cooper Basin, Part 1. Geosci-
ence Australia Record 2015/31. Canberra ACT: Geoscience Australia.
Hillis, R. R., Morton, J. G. G., Warner, D. S., & Penney, R. K. (2001). Deep
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