Rock typing and uncertainty assessment in geological and petrophysical properties by integrating electrofacies, hydraulic flow units, and geostatistical techniques in the Kangan gas field, Zagros basin

Abstract The structural complexities of hydrocarbon reservoirs make it difficult to correlate geological and petrophysical properties. A successful field development depends on accurately mapping the spatial distributions of reservoir key parameters. In this study, we present results on rock type analysis, estimation, and uncertainty evaluation of geological and petrophysical data of 33 wells in one of the south Iranian gas fields. This paper is divided into two parts. In the first part, we used a reservoir rock classification theme based on identifying electrofacies (EFs) and hydraulic flow units by analyzing both log and core data. In the second part of the paper, we performed estimation, uncertainty evaluation, and assessment of the porosity–thickness relationship of the high-quality EFs using geostatistical techniques. We used sequential simulation schemes to map the spatial distributions of porosity and thickness of the high-quality EFs across the field. Using probabilistic approaches, the generated multiple realizations were used to quantify the local and spatial uncertainties. Variogram analysis showed that property distributions had a higher continuity and minimum variance in the NW–SE direction. Based on spatial uncertainty analysis, we found that the indicator-based sequential simulated maps exhibited less spatial uncertainty. Furthermore, the obtained probability maps indicated that the SE part of the study area is more suitable for drilling and production scenarios.